Doris and Rock
What is it about the combination of Doris Day and Rock Hudson that is so intriguing that I cannot look away?
Doris Day was the star of the day yesterday on TCM and I taped a couple of her films for later reviews (Julie, mostly because it features Louis Jourdan as a stalker husband and The Man Who Knew Too Much for "Que Sera, Sera"). But last night during prime time I decided to skip the Olympic opening ceremonies and watch Lover Come Back on TV! I even own this movie on DVD...but it just seems like the combination of Doris and Rock is too potent for me to turn off.
Perhaps it's going back to when I first saw these films -- on Sunday afternoons when I should have been doing my homework. They were on almost every week, and I loved Pillow Talk. I was surprised that it was the first of their pairing -- the quality definitely went downhill from there. In fact, Send Me No Flowers is the last movie that I saw out of the three.
When I think about it, the movies are pretty interchangeable -- a comedy of mistaken identity on Doris's part with unintentional (well, kind of) deception on Rock's part. Add Tony Randall as Rock's best friend who just can't get it together romantically, and you've got a great bedroom comedy. I think Pillow Talk is probably the best because of the double entendre -- especially the parts where they end up touching each other in the bath while on the phone. It's also the only one where Doris's character gets wise to the deception and really takes it out on him. There is no whimpy advertising board confrontation like in Lover Come Back. No, Doris tortures him with a hideously decorated apartment, complete with player piano!
I love these movies so much because of their cheesiness. They seem like such a slice of the early 1960s. And Doris Day is just so adorable. Had I been around then, I would have wanted to be like Doris -- always lusted after but remaining pure and virginal.
Since I enjoyed these movies so much, I thought I would enjoy a film from last summer, Down With Love. Despite not enjoying the squinty charms of Renee Zellweger, I do really enjoy Ewan McGregor as a lovely piece of Scottish eye candy that can act. Plus it had the added bonus of David Hyde Pierce in the Tony Randall role -- the only actor I could conceivably see as filling his shoes. But this movie disappointed me -- the scenery was fantastic and very much period, but the film itself was very knowingly winking at the sixties ideal. There was too much double entendre, and the split screen scenes went from the cuteness of Pillow Talk into the overdone antics in the vein of Austin Powers. The story was also incredibly stupid -- a riff on the deception-heavy Rock-Doris films, but then it threw in an additional twist at the end to make the Doris character come out on top.
The moral of the story: Hollywood doesn't make them the way they used to. It's a cliche, but true in some respects. The "innocent" romantic comedy has gone the way of the dodo, and can only be enjoyed on video.
FILE UNDER: News and Notes
Doris Day was the star of the day yesterday on TCM and I taped a couple of her films for later reviews (Julie, mostly because it features Louis Jourdan as a stalker husband and The Man Who Knew Too Much for "Que Sera, Sera"). But last night during prime time I decided to skip the Olympic opening ceremonies and watch Lover Come Back on TV! I even own this movie on DVD...but it just seems like the combination of Doris and Rock is too potent for me to turn off.
Perhaps it's going back to when I first saw these films -- on Sunday afternoons when I should have been doing my homework. They were on almost every week, and I loved Pillow Talk. I was surprised that it was the first of their pairing -- the quality definitely went downhill from there. In fact, Send Me No Flowers is the last movie that I saw out of the three.
When I think about it, the movies are pretty interchangeable -- a comedy of mistaken identity on Doris's part with unintentional (well, kind of) deception on Rock's part. Add Tony Randall as Rock's best friend who just can't get it together romantically, and you've got a great bedroom comedy. I think Pillow Talk is probably the best because of the double entendre -- especially the parts where they end up touching each other in the bath while on the phone. It's also the only one where Doris's character gets wise to the deception and really takes it out on him. There is no whimpy advertising board confrontation like in Lover Come Back. No, Doris tortures him with a hideously decorated apartment, complete with player piano!
I love these movies so much because of their cheesiness. They seem like such a slice of the early 1960s. And Doris Day is just so adorable. Had I been around then, I would have wanted to be like Doris -- always lusted after but remaining pure and virginal.
Since I enjoyed these movies so much, I thought I would enjoy a film from last summer, Down With Love. Despite not enjoying the squinty charms of Renee Zellweger, I do really enjoy Ewan McGregor as a lovely piece of Scottish eye candy that can act. Plus it had the added bonus of David Hyde Pierce in the Tony Randall role -- the only actor I could conceivably see as filling his shoes. But this movie disappointed me -- the scenery was fantastic and very much period, but the film itself was very knowingly winking at the sixties ideal. There was too much double entendre, and the split screen scenes went from the cuteness of Pillow Talk into the overdone antics in the vein of Austin Powers. The story was also incredibly stupid -- a riff on the deception-heavy Rock-Doris films, but then it threw in an additional twist at the end to make the Doris character come out on top.
The moral of the story: Hollywood doesn't make them the way they used to. It's a cliche, but true in some respects. The "innocent" romantic comedy has gone the way of the dodo, and can only be enjoyed on video.
FILE UNDER: News and Notes
posted by Rebecca at 12:49 PM
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