If you liked "Pillow Talk" you'll like "Lover Come Back." The two movies have the same principal cast and similar stories involving Doris Day mistaking a hated rival, Hudson, for an innocent naif. Tony Randall has the same role as Hudson's less magnetic sidekick. Thelma Ritter and her volcanic hangover are, alas, absent.
There are, of course, some differences, this being the cinematic equivalent of musical variations on a theme. I think Rock Hudson may be subject to more humiliation here than in the original. The original had him getting plastered by Thelma Ritter and later having his apartment hideously overdecorated. This one has him running around New York's streets naked except for a woman's fur coat. The story isn't as tidily plotted as the original, in which everything is properly seated. And the ending of this film shows a certain weakening of innovation. When in doubt, resort to a frantic but senseless chase or get everybody drunk.
That aside -- and it's a minor carp -- it's a pretty funny movie, at times a very good comedy. The running gag of the colored explosions in Randall's face are perfectly timed and edited. Of course it reflects the social values of the early 1950s -- Day must remain chaste until marriage -- but so what? It's an apt subject for a comedy when you think about it.
Rock Hudson is tall, handsome, and, yes, masculine. Tony Randall, the latent heterosexual, is funny as hell with his goggle-eyed fear and wonderment. Miss Doris Kappelhoff -- aus Zinzinatti -- was no longer a spring chicken in 1961, but wow, is she perky and sexy. Buns of iron, and the way she walks! What's delightful about her performance is that she seems completely unaware of the nonverbal signals she's sending out or incapable of controlling them, mindlessly radiating them, like one of those clanging, blinking warning signals at a railroad crossing.
The plot's too silly to bother with -- mixed identities, but it works alright. It's charm has an enduring quality, so see it if you can.
There are, of course, some differences, this being the cinematic equivalent of musical variations on a theme. I think Rock Hudson may be subject to more humiliation here than in the original. The original had him getting plastered by Thelma Ritter and later having his apartment hideously overdecorated. This one has him running around New York's streets naked except for a woman's fur coat. The story isn't as tidily plotted as the original, in which everything is properly seated. And the ending of this film shows a certain weakening of innovation. When in doubt, resort to a frantic but senseless chase or get everybody drunk.
That aside -- and it's a minor carp -- it's a pretty funny movie, at times a very good comedy. The running gag of the colored explosions in Randall's face are perfectly timed and edited. Of course it reflects the social values of the early 1950s -- Day must remain chaste until marriage -- but so what? It's an apt subject for a comedy when you think about it.
Rock Hudson is tall, handsome, and, yes, masculine. Tony Randall, the latent heterosexual, is funny as hell with his goggle-eyed fear and wonderment. Miss Doris Kappelhoff -- aus Zinzinatti -- was no longer a spring chicken in 1961, but wow, is she perky and sexy. Buns of iron, and the way she walks! What's delightful about her performance is that she seems completely unaware of the nonverbal signals she's sending out or incapable of controlling them, mindlessly radiating them, like one of those clanging, blinking warning signals at a railroad crossing.
The plot's too silly to bother with -- mixed identities, but it works alright. It's charm has an enduring quality, so see it if you can.