Lover Come Back

Lover Come Back is Pillow Talk revisited. Once again Doris Day is the frustrated (professionally and sexually) career-woman, who clashes head-to-head and body-to-body with our charismatic, urbane man-about town Rock Hudson.

This was made only three years after their first cinematic outing. The fact that this film is such a blatant recycle of Pillow Talk takes nothing away from its sparkle and sheer joyous nature. In fact, it adds to the fun. "Look, we're doing this again, but just differently enough to make it seem new", our stars seem to be saying.

And they are relishing the role. Doris is playing the role of Carol Templeton, a Madison Avenue advertising executive who believes that to win accounts, you must research the client's products and present a winning campaign.

Rock plays Jerry Webster, an advertising executive for an opposition firm, who believes that to win accounts, you must research the client, and present him with girls. Take him to night-clubs. Give him girls, bourbon and more girls. Guess who wins the accounts...

Tony Randall is Jerry Webster's 'boss', Peter Ramsay. He inherited the business, and sometimes visits it. In Pillow Talk he plays Doris' best friend. In this one, he's Rock's best friend. In both, he's a hopeless, but intensely loveable klutz. And in the threesome's final film, Send Me No Flowers, he's able to be best friends to both Doris and Rock - which is just as well, since he would have been getting pretty confused by then.

Anyway, the two advertising executives are feuding. But guess what the feuding has metamorphosed into by the film's end? One of their body-to-body clashes has had an unexpected outcome nine months later, and that definitely calls for a swift happy ending. The whole thing is totally unlikely and very silly, but nevertheless richly pleasing.

The plots are unimportant. The chemistry is what matters. And few comedy teams have created the magic that these three did. It's a magic which will endure.

This is a fine anamorphic transfer. It is not a perfect print; there are some minor flaws and scratches evident and some film grain. But there is nothing severe enough to mar the enjoyment of a fine old movie.

Colours are well rendered and the tonal details are fine, with good deep blacks and excellent shadow details. In its hues it is a quintessential movie of the 1960s. The film is a document of its time, and this is a fine representation on DVD of it.

As with the others in this collection, the audio is not out to knock your socks off (if they're still on). It is to reproduce a pleasing soundtrack and crisp dialogue, and it succeeds excellently. Go elsewhere for adventures in high-fidelity.

The only extra feature is the original movie trailer. This is presented in an odd ratio, somewhere between full-screen and 1.66. Colours are somewhat muted compared to the main feature, but it's a decent-enough vintage presentation.

Definitely a keeper. Watch it a week or so after Pillow Talk and see how the chemistry still kicks in, three years after Doris and Rock's all-time classic outing.