A Good Old Fashioned Romantic Comedy (Lover Come Back (DVD))

Member Name: anonymili

Product:	Lover Come Back (DVD)
Date:	30/10/09 (47 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: An entertaining enough way to spend a Sunday afternoon

Disadvantages: Story was not reall credible

Lover Come back is a satirical romantic comedy which was released in 1961 and starred Doris Day and Rock Hudson.


A BIT ABOUT THE PLOT

Carol Templeton is an ad agency executive who believes in winning contracts through hard work and decent ethics. Rival ad exec Jerry Webster, on the other hand, has no such values and believes in winning over potential customers by wining and dining them and even organising wild parties with seductive women laid on.

Carol decides to report Jerry to the advertising standards council and calls Rebel Davis, an aspiring actress, as a witness to his antics except she turns the tables on Carol and wins over the council saying that Jerry is a decent and honourable man. Jerry basically promised Rebel she could be the Vip girl, except Vip doesn't exist as a product and the race is on for Jerry to produce this imaginary product so the public don't find out this product he's been marketing isn't real. In the meantime Carol tries to win over Dr Tyler who is creating the so far non-existent Vip, except by some twist of fate she sees Jerry at the Doctor's lab and thinks he is Dr Tyler. Lots of confusion ensues and you'd have to watch the film to find out:

* If Vip is ever actually created and what it is.
* Does Carol ever realise that Tyler is actually Jerry?
* Will Carol (or Jerry for that matter) keep their jobs when the truth comes out?


WHAT I THOUGHT

The story overall is quite a fun one if you don't analyse it closely. Actually it's more fun if you don't analyse it at all. And if you've seen Pillow Talk starring the same leads, this is really very much of the same.

Doris Day is very feminine in the film and so homely that it's hard to imagine she's supposed to be a successful Madison Avenue ad executive; who are generally the sort of people you expect to be more street-wise and tough. She's the sort of character you expect to be sat at home baking cakes and having babies and she's portrayed as quite a prude as well. But that seemed to be Doris Day's trademark and this was the 60s, this is the sort of film that pulled in audiences and Day pulls off her character perfectly well. Her facial expressions are hilarious especially when the "innocent" Dr Tyler says Jerry was supposed to take him to a "nightclub" meaning strip club and she takes him instead and has to sit through the show with her eyes averted for the majority of the evening. Her character is charming and trying in a way to be a women's libber but she doesn't quite pull it off. She's far too ladylike and genteel to be working in the cut throat advertising industry and it's amusing how easily she falls for "Dr Tyler" who claims to be an innocent in the ways of seducing women. Amazing how many times she mutters "Ooooooh" throughout the film at something her nemesis Jerry does or says. I don't know if it was my imagination but it seemed that every scene that had a close up of Doris Day was slightly hazy around her face, as if she was supposed to be so gorgeous that you can't see her face clearly, as if appearing through a slight cloud. It bugged me throughout the film that all other characters' faces appeared perfectly clear on screen except for hers.

Rock Hudson as Jerry Webster is quite funny, for pretty much the whole film he comes across as a scheming playboy who'll stop at nothing to get what he wants. His boss, Peter Ramsay, is played by Tony Randall who is the son of the company founder and has seemingly just come back to work after a long absence caused by some form of mental illness, he refers to his psychiatrist often during the film. Randall is fairly amusing but his character seems similar to others I've seen him play. Hudson seems to breeze through his role as the cad-like ad exec and even when he's pretending to be Dr Tyler, he doesn't seem to be trying too hard to be convincing. It just seems to come quite naturally.

There really wasn't much in the way of character development for either of the leads, it just came across as "what you see is what you get" with both of them. You don't get to know much about either of their backgrounds, why Carol is the way she is (aside from possibly the small town she grew up in) and why Jerry is so intent on being so successful (aside from brief mention of having grown up with nothing). The end of the film was funny but it did not satisfy me. I found it was wound up way too quickly after a few parts of the film dragging which could possibly have been cut.

None of the other characters were really worth mentioning separately in my opinion.

The idea that people buy into advertising as much as they did in this film is laughable to me. I can't think of the last time I watched or heard any advert on TV that made me think "ooh I must have that product" and I know for sure I would never buy a product which wasn't even described in the ad but which claimed to make you more attractive to the opposite sex, helps you to get married, helps you to have kids, etc! Wild claims indeed and even more ironic when you see the end of the film. But it's a satirical comedy and lightly poking fun at the general public. If you watch it with a view to killing just over 90 minutes and don't think too hard about how much nonsense it really is I think you'll find it rather amusing.

Doris Day sang the title song for the film and there's just one other song in the film that she sings which is played as background music for a couple of minutes. Nothing too memorable.


DVD EXTRAS

The DVD doesn't have a lot in the way of extras so don't think you'll be getting much more for your money aside from the film itself. There is a short trailer for the film which pretty much gives away the whole story and all of the best lines. If I'd watched the trailer first I think I'd have been disappointed that the film didn't have more meat. There are various audio options aside from English such as French, Italian and Spanish as well as options for subtitles and scene selection. Nothing else! No cast interviews, outtakes, audio commentary or anything like that. I have to admit I had a bit of a giggle trying out the French and Spanish audio options - I'm weird like that - I'm easily amused!


RATING

I'm giving Lover Come Back a strong 4 out of 5 stars. A good film to while away a Sunday afternoon and a must for Day and Hudson fans, I'd say this is a good old fashioned satirical romance which doesn't require a whole lot of concentration or analysis to enjoy.


TECHNICAL

Starring: Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall, Jack Kruschen, Edie Adams
Director: Delbert Mann
Producer: Robert Arthur
Duration: 103 minutes
Certification: PG (Parental Guidance - mild references to sex, no nudity or bad language)
DVD release date: October 2006
Released by: Universal Pictures


p.s. I was at somewhat of a loss as to figuring out why the film had the title that it did...

Summary: A fun film not to be taken seriously