Doris Day made some silly movies in the 1960s, part of the reason she retired from Hollywood. Lover Come Back was the first of the sillies, and it's by far the most tolerable. It seems like every comedy after this one went increasingly downhill. If you watch the preview, you'll think you're getting a shameless remake of Pillow Talk. Doris Day and Rock Hudson have a split-screen telephone call, she's prim and proper, he jokes her about her lack of a sex life, he cons her with a mistaken identity and pretends to be innocent in order to get her into bed, and Tony Randall is Rock's friend who quips about being rich. And let's face it, when you watch the movie that's exactly what you'll get: a shameless remake of Pillow Talk. In this one, instead of a Texan and a songwriter, Rock Hudson is mistaken for a scientist and pretends he's clueless about man-woman relationships. Doris Day hates who he really is-just as in Pillow Talk, she knows who he is without having met him-but completely falls for his act. Basically, if you liked Pillow Talk and want to watch a very similar movie co-written by one of the same writers, you'll want to check this one out. I actually liked Send Me No Flowers much better, but you can watch all three of the Doris and Rock movies and pick which one's your favorite.

In New York, Madison Avenue is the center of advertising world and like in a beehive, divided in workers and drones. Carol Templeton (Doris Day) is a professional that has just arrived from Omaha, Nebraska, to work in the Bracket, McGalpin & Gaines Advertising expecting to be a winner through hard work. The unethical Jerry Webster (Rock Hudson) works in the Ramsey & Son and entertains his clients with sexy women, bribe and booze to ensure contracts for his agency.When the Southern J. Paxton Miller (Jack Oakie) comes to New York to close the contract of the Cera Miller account, Carol prepares a presentation to the old man. However, Jerry wins the account bringing Miller to a nightclub with strippers, booze and a party later in his penthouse with the strippers led by Rebel Davis (Edie Adams).Carol is upset and goes to the advertising council to throw Jerry out of the advertising business. However, Jerry lures Rebel, who is going to testify against him, offering the position of VIP girl in TV commercials for the new product VIP. Then he asks the team to not broadcast but only file the footages since VIP that does not exist. However, the insecure Peter 'Pete' Ramsey (Tony Randall), who has inherited the Ramsey & Son, orders a massive advertising campaign broadcasting the commercials to show himself off to his employees. In order to save his job and the agency, Jerry hires Doctor Linus Tyler (Jack Kruschen), who is a lonely man, to develop VIP. Meanwhile, Carol decides to take the VIP account for her agency and she visits Dr. Tyler. However, she meets Jerry instead and believes that he is the famous scientist awarded with the Nobel Prize. Now Carol wants to convince Dr. Tyler to come to her agency and the cynical Jerry uses the situation to seduce Carol."Lover Come Back" is really a delightful and witty romantic comedy, with a funny story and a great screenplay that was awarded with the 1962 Oscar. Tony Randall is hilarious and his insecure character is among the funniest I have ever seen. Rock Hudson and Doris Day are excellent, showing magnificent chemistry. The two guys that stumble with Jerry Webster everywhere are also very funny. My only remark is to the disappointing rushed ending that gives the sensation that something is missing and makes Carol Templeton a stereotype of the women in the 50's and 60's. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Volta Meu Amor" ("Come Back My Love")

The second of the three Doris Day - Rock Hudson - Tony Randall romps, LOVER COME BACK actually is a slightly sharper film than it's closer rival PILLOW TALK, with SEND ME NO FLOWERS a bit behind them. The reason for this positioning is that PILLOW TALK did not really spoof anything (Randall is producing a show and needs music composed by Hudson; until the end when Hudson decides to allow Day to decorate his apartment - with horrendous results - Day's interior decorating career really was just a mild peg in the screenplay). SEND ME NO FLOWERS comes closest to satire in the business with Paul Lynde's friendly, helpful cemetery plot salesman. Most of the rest deals with hypochondria and the world of the suburbs. Only in LOVER COME BACK does the center of the script involve itself in the profession of the three leads: Madison Avenue Advertising Agencies.Hudson is the right hand man (one might say the central brain) for an ad agency that is owned (by inheritance, not character or brains) by Randall. Hudson has a formula for getting accounts - find the client's weakness, and play to it, pushing booze and girls at the same time. We see him steal the account of Jack Oakie (his final performance on film, but a nice one) as a Virginian who is still a loyal Confederate, and likes his booze ("jest a tetch" is a mantra of his, with Hudson or anyone else filling up the glass), and likes his fair ladies as well. Unfortunately for Hudson, Day had been scheduled to give a presentation to Oakie, and is really angry by the way Hudson stole the account. She starts asking questions, and finds the chief one of the chorus girls that Oakie was set up with (Edie Adams). When Hudson learns Adams plans to talk he tries to talk his way out by saying he was planning to make Adams the new "girl" for a new product. "Well, what is the product?", Adams asks. Hudson looks at a newspaper headline referring to V.I.P.s and says it is called "Vip". Adams does not testify against Hudson because he has a number of specious and vague, but sexy commercials shot with Adams selling "Vip".All this might have still remained under wraps, but Randall, in his first attempt to show he can make decisions rather than Hudson, tells his assistant (Joe Flynn) to release the commercials and saturate the television airwaves with them. Only later does a horrified Hudson tell him that there is no product called Vip.Day learns of "Vip" from Adams. She starts more of an investigation, and discovers that nobody is quite sure what VIP is. Her boss, Howard St. John, is dubious of any result. Her own job on the line she decides to investigate on her own. Hudson has decided to use an eccentric Nobel Chemistry Laureate (Jack Kruschen - in a fun performance) to concoct a product called Vip. At one point Day shows up at Kruschen's house, and sees Hudson wearing an apron. She jumps to the conclusion he is Kruschen, and starts trying to prevent him from signing with Hudson's agency. Hudson decides to take full advantage of this situation: it preoccupies Day in her snooping, and she is more attractive than he imagined.The plot then follows that of PILLOW TALK with Day not realizing she is dating the man she loathes, not the imagined great man of science with a fragile psyche. Hudson plays it to the hilt (his comic abilities were first brought out by Day in their films, and it possibly enabled his career as a star to last really as long as it did). As for Randall, his desire to show he is worthy of his father "the Commodore" (a forbidding portrait of Randall in yachting costume is above the desk the son sits at) is confronted by his total lack of understanding his business, of making decisions, or taking responsibility. He keeps hoping either Hudson or Flynn will fall on their sword (symbolically will do, but he is open for actual suicide) to save his firm from being wrecked. His only apparent close relationship is with his therapist Dr. Melnick (Richard Deacon - in a sadly wasted single scene with Randall at the end), and even Randall mentions that Deacon has said he finds him boring.So what does the great Kruchen concoct out of chemicals and smoke (multi-colored, as Randall finds to his cost)? Put it this way: It is very possible that that great Vice President of the U.S., Thomas Marshall, would have fully appreciated the perfect companion invented by Kruschen for Marshall's really good five cent cigar!

My personal preference is for films of all kinds from the '30's to the mid '40's. For me the writing is generally much more sophisticated than later films - especially films from the era of Lover Come Back. That said, I give this film extremely high marks for the script. The writing here is much more sophisticated than Pillow Talk. There is nothing in any of the Day/Hudson movies to compare with the aquarium scene. It is classic.Another key scene is when Rock comes up to Doris' apartment for dinner. The dress that she wears in that scene is one of the best ever! It is sophisticated, chic, glamorous and as sexy as they come! It accentuates her knockout figure without revealing anything! Wow is she ever hot in that dress!But that scene, paradoxically, is why I do not rate this film more highly. Rock really overdoes the poor, sheltered, inexperienced guy. (I wish he had played that scene with the subtlety he displays when Doris mistakes him for the professor in the lab, and in the subsequent aquarium scene. They are both perfect.) As hammy as it is, it is a real blemish on an otherwise great performance and fabulous comedy. That scene just seems more hammy than the rest of the film.One other criticism is the ending. It comes very abruptly. I wish there had been some film footage showing his mailing letters for 8 months before giving up in the 9th, rather than just having his character tell us about that long interval while proposing to Doris on her way to delivery.Lastly, I think that this film gets overlooked because of its title. If it had a title that actually reflected the story, it would be more memorable. Every time I hear "Lover Come Back" I just draw a blank. Day and Hudson aren't lovers except for one night very late in the story, and they are reunited a few scenes later at the very end of the film. The bulk of the film deals with their conflict! The title leads you to expect a story built around the efforts of one lover to rekindle a romance with an estranged beloved - not this movie at all! Big mistake.