Fifty Years of Film in 50 Weeks, #41: Lover Come Back, 1961

"Okay, so I've sewn a few wild oats.:

- Jerry Webster

"A few? You could qualify for a farm loan!"

- Carol Templeton

Lover Come Back, 1961

Director: Delbert Mann
Writers: Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning
Cinematographer: Arthur E. Arling
Producer: Robert Arthur, Stanley Shapiro, and Martin Melcher for 7 Pictures Corporation-Nob Hill Productions, Inc.-Arwin Productions, Inc. Production
Starring: Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Edie Adams, Jack Oakie

Why I chose it
After a few ultra-serious films, I was in the mood for a frothy comedy. When this one popped up on my list, I was especially attracted to it as a way to start filling in the gaping hole in the Rock Hudson-Doris Day films. When I saw Jack Oakie was in the cast, that sealed the deal for this secret Oakie enthusiast!

'No-spoiler' plot overview 
Carol Templeton (Day) and Jerry Webster work for rival ad agencies on Madison Avenue. Even though they haven't met, they often fight to win the same potential client, which engenders a bit of an (un)friendly 'in name only' rivalry. Womanizer Jerry doesn't hesitate to go to extreme lengths to win a client, much to the consternation of his neurotic boss and company owner, Pete Ramsey (Tony Randall). A major ruse is unleashed when in the midst of trying to keep one of his girlfriends (Edie Adams) from walking out, he makes up a product name (Vip) and promises she can be the "Vip Girl". Jerry then has to actually get Vip to materialize and enlists the help of brilliant chemist Linus Tyler (Jack Kruschen) to come up with something (anything). Hot on the trail of Vip, and not knowing there is no such product, Carol is introduced to Jerry who pretends to be Tyler to access to some of her business secrets. Of course, the two begin a relationship. Viewers must stay tuned to see what Vip will really turn out to be, and how long Jerry can keep his real identity hidden from Carol!

Carol (Day) tries to console Linus (Jerry in disguise) when
he just doesn't know what to do with his feelings for her (!).

Production Background
The first film pairing of the dynamic Rock Hudson and Doris Day in Pillow Talk (1959) was a huge success with late 1950s audiences, and co-producer Stanley Shapiro, who also wrote Pillow Talk, looked to pair them again in a similar tale of mistaken (or unknown) identities, and personality mismatches. 

Lover Come Back was also a hit, and oft-grumpy NY Times critic Bosley Crowther even loved it. He said, "Pillow Talk was but a warm-up for this springy and spirited surprise, which is one of the brightest, most delightful satiric comedies since It Happened One Night."

Despite the lauds it received from critics, Lover Come Back only garnered one Oscar nomination, for Best Writing, Screenplay.

Some other notable film-related events in 1961 (from Filmsite.org):

• The action war film The Guns of Navarone (1961) starring Gregory Peck, had one of the most expensive budgets of films at the time, at $6 million, and was one of the top-grossing films of 1961, along with Disney's animated 101 Dalmatians (1961).
• Method actor and maverick auteur John Cassavetes' low-budget film Shadows (1961) was his first directorial effort - deliberately created as a contrast to Hollywood's studio system. The self-financed, self-distributed cinema verite film was a story set in New York about an inter-racial couple. Shot on 16-mm film and using a non-professional cast and crew, the film symbolized the emergence of the New American Cinema movement, and inspired the growth of underground films and other independent ("indie") and personal works.
• A search commenced for the first James Bond actor, after UA announced it would produce seven films based upon Ian Fleming's 007 British super-spy, to be produced by Albert R. Broccoli and Harry Saltzman. Cary Grant, James Mason, Patrick McGoohan, and David Niven, were considered for the role, ultimately given to 30 year-old actor Sean Connery.
• Marilyn Monroe's last completed film, before her death in 1962, was director John Huston's anti-western The Misfits (1961) -- it was also the last film of screen icon Clark Gable.

My Random Observations

• ANOTHER film in which a chemist is portrayed as a socially-awkward misfit? Oh my. So it's especially hard to imagine that Doris Day is supposed to believe gorgeous Rock Hudson is a chemist, even if he wears a beard, along with an ill-fitting suit and bowtie, and acts ultra naive. That's OK, I suppose we are supposed to believe that Doris as Carol is a bit naive herself, even if she is a savvy marketing executive.
  

  

  The chemist vs. the leading man - which do you choose?

  
  

  

  Hudson as Jerry as Linus (!) feigns shock watching a strip show
  with Carol. Carol either doesn't like the show or is embarrassed by 
  Rock's wardrobe.

  
  
• With the prevalence of social media, business sites like LinkedIn, etc., it did strike this modern viewer as quaint that the main plot revolved around Carol having no idea what her well-known but hated rival Jerry actually looked like!
• Jack Oakie's role was much too small. This comedy star of early talkie cinema had a unique slapstick style and loved to put on accents (think 'Napaloni' in The Great Dictator (1940)). Here he is a rich Virginia gentleman who plays into the hands of Jerry and Carol who duke it out to win his account. As a mere tool to set up the characters and scenario for the film, he disappeared after the first ten minutes, much to my chagrin. This film was the last Oakie made.
  

  

  Jack Oakie (right) being treated to a good time by
  Rock Hudson as a prelude to a deal.
  

  
  

  

  The good time was just a bit too good. Carol 
  (Day, left) looks at the aftermath in horror.

  
  
• How much inspiration did Matthew Weiner, the creator of TV's smash hit Mad Men, get from this movie, set in precisely the same era, with the focus on sexual politics interfering with work politics? For fans of the series, I would strongly recommend this film, even if the romantic comedy angle is not the main theme of the series. I really enjoyed the film and felt that the pacing, performances, script were perfect, and the set and costume design were scrumptious.
  

  

  Jon Hamm (left) and John Slattery in a scene from Mad Men

  
  
• Tony Randall is wonderful. He underplays a comic role that could tempt most actors to slice the ham a bit too thick, but his interactions with Hudson are believable enough to be downright hysterical.

Tony Randall (left) as the boss uses a horn to beckon moose as 
the clearly unamused Jerry wishes here were anywhere else.

• For Bit player bingo this time, I present Ann B. Davis, well known as the smart-aleck but loveable maid Alice in The Brady Bunch, here playing Day's assistant.
  

  

  Ann B. Davis (right) looks uncannily like Alice when she helps
  Doris Day with her outfit.

Where to Watch
It's available on DVD and can be streamed for a small fee on many standard streaming services.

Further Reading
Check out this piece in Vanity Fair detailing the lives of Doris Day and Rock Hudson, and how they intersected inside and outside the movies they made together.

Fifty Years of Film in 50 Weeks, #36: The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956

"Que Será, Será"

The Man Who Knew Too Much, 1956

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Writers: John Michael Hayes, based on a story by Charles Bennett and D. B. Wyndham-Lewis
Cinematographer: Robert Burks
Producer: Herbert Coleman and Alfred Hitchcock for Paramount Pictures, Inc.
Starring: James Stewart, Doris Day, Brenda de Banzie, Bernard Miles, Daniel Gélin, 

Why I chose it
At first, I considered watching another Christmas-themed film, but when this Hitchcock popped up on a list of best films of 1956, it was an easy choice. Anytime I get to fill in a gap in an auteur's filmography, I go for it. This is the first, and will probably be the only, Hitchcock in this blog series. But you never know, so check back!

'No-spoiler' plot overview 
Dr. Benjamin McKenna (James Stewart) and his former stage musical star wife, Jo, take a holiday in Marrakesh with their school-aged son, Hank (Christopher Olsen). It isn't long before they make the acquaintance of a mysterious Frenchman, Louis Bernard (Daniel Gélin), of whom Jo is instantly suspicious. When Bernard, disguised as a Moroccan, is knifed in a market in broad daylight, the fun begins. Before dying, he whispers something to McKenna about an imminent assassination of a political figure in London along with some disconnected details. McKenna and Jo decide to pick up the trail of this intrigue in London, made more urgent by not only the impending assassination but by the kidnapping of little Hank, who is being held for ransom to ensure that the 'man who knew too much' doesn't talk to the wrong people.

Jo and Ben McKenna (Day and Stewart) try to get details about
their son's whereabouts.

Production Background
Hitchcock had already filmed this story with the same name, during his British years (1934). The earlier version was a taut black-and-white suspense story (only 75 minutes long) with different settings and slightly different characters. In 1941, David O. Selznick bought the rights to the story and wanted Hitchcock to remake it for him, but Hitchcock was not inspired. It was only a decade and a half later that his inspiration came when he was vacationing with his wife in Morocco. 

In his interview with François Truffaut, Hitchcock compared the two versions by saying that the first film was "the work of a talented amateur, and the second was made by a professional."

The only Oscar the film earned was for Best Music, Original Song, given to Jay Livingston and Ray Evans for "Que Será, Será", which became Doris Day's signature song.

Some other notable film-related events in 1956 (from Filmsite.org):

• The elegant Grace Kelly, "Hollywood's Fairy Tale Princess," married Prince Rainier III of Monaco on April 18, 1956. Kelly met Prince Rainier III while attending the Cannes Film Festival, and during the making of her third film for Alfred Hitchcock (as his icy cool blonde) - To Catch a Thief (1955). 
• Legendary producer/director Cecil B. DeMille remade his own 1923 silent epic, The Ten Commandments (1956) -- it was his last film, and his first and sole widescreen feature film. 
• Producer Michael Todd's and director Michael Anderson's Best Picture-winning Around the World in 80 Days (1956) was notable for its all-star casting -- with dozens of credited cameo roles for its many stars. The term "cameo appearance" was popularized by this film.
• The Wizard of Oz (1939) was first televised (on CBS-TV) on November 3rd, 1956 -- an event that would become an annual holiday season event for many decades. It was the first feature-length film broadcast on a major TV network in its original, uncut form. 
  

My Random Observations

• I've decided that James Stewart's superpower was playing not just the everyman, but the super-cranky everyman.  And I do mean super cranky. After years of perfecting this persona, he's at it again in this film, whether it's in scenes in which he bickers with his wife or when, unprovoked, comes to fisticuffs with a group of taxidermists (!). Even in It's a Wonderful Life, and The Shop Around the Corner, where his characters have a right to be cranky, he'll never be accused of underplaying, and I find it annoying. I recall early in the history of this blog I reviewed Destry Rides Again, and found it to contain my favorite Stewart performance because he struck a perfect balance between reluctant hero and cynic. 
  

  

  James Stewart with his "I'm really cranky right now" look.

• Even though the film was a bit long at 120 minutes, Hitchcock didn't waste any time getting the action started, putting our heroes in the middle of Marrakesh. The brightly colored Technicolor camera work combined with the on-location locales made for a sumptuous and sometimes exotic visual banquet. It was just a good way to spend a couple of hours on a rainy day.
  

  

  On a bus in Marrakesh.

  
  

  

  In London.

• For those looking for typical Hitchcock suspense, his subjective camera, or even his black humor, it's all here. I was reminded of why Hitchcock has the reputation he has.
  

  

  The composition of this shot gives me the chills.

  
  

  

  McKenna doesn't yet realize he's about to do battle with a 
  stuffed tiger here.

• One of my favorite podcasts, the somewhat irreverent 'Classic Film Jerks', has a regular segment called "So Old", in which they point out to hilarious effect all the outdated elements of the particular film they're reviewing. The Man Who Knew Too Much had many of these elements. For starters, how about leaving your young son in the care of strangers you'd just met over dinner the night before, and in a foreign country? And despite the cleverness of spunky Jo McKenna, the marital dynamics here were distinctly of their time, with her promising career truncated so she could be a wife.
  

  

  The McKennas meet the Draytons (Bernard Miles,
  Brenda de Banzie) at dinner.

• It's a great song, but the contrast between "Que Será, Será" and the Storm Cloud Symphony as performed by the London Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall may induce a bit of cultural whiplash.

The London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus at Royal
Albert Hall.

• For this week's edition of 'Bit Player Bingo," I present the one and only film appearance of renowned composer Bernard Herrmann, Hitchcock's frequent collaborator, and Carolyn Jones, who went on to greater fame as Morticia in the original Addam's Family TV series

Bernard Herrmann conducts.

Carolyn Jones (red dress) with other friends of the McKennas.

Where to Watch
The film is available on many streaming services to be rented for a small fee. It's on several DVDs/Blu-Ray that can be purchased or borrowed from your local library.

Further Reading
As always, TCM details more about the film's production in their article here.