Following the success (and enduring popularity) of their first rom-com together, Pillow Talk, Rock Hudson and Doris Day teamed up again in this charmer. Hudson plays a boozy playboy who passes his working hours as an ad exec, while Day plays a principled, driven competitor at a rival firm. When fate brings the polar opposites together, they travel a long, hilarious road to romance.
Buy Lover Come Back Blu-rayThe action kicks off when Hudson arranges a bogus TV commercial shoot starring his latest fling, hoping to stay in her good graces with no intention of using the footage. When the nepo baby idiot (Tony Randall) currently running his company foolishly broadcasts the fake campaign, it kicks off a nationwide fever for the advertised product which doesn’t actually exist. Hudson hurriedly hires a brilliant chemist to concoct a real product to bring to market, leading to Day’s involvement as she tries to steal the chemist away as a client for her agency.
Mistaken identities are always fun in rom-coms, and this one has a doozy, as Day mistakes Hudson for the chemist, erroneously applying her charms on a male chauvinist pig she abhors. Hudson plays along as he stalls for time for the chemist to actually produce a marketable product, squiring her around town as he pretends to be a dowdy, reserved dork with no luck with the ladies, all the while angling to get her into bed.
Hudson is bemused and smarmy throughout, when not pretending to be naive, while Day is all fussy and straitlaced. The only other actor with any significant screen time is Randall, here playing his typically high-strung, tightly wound nerd. In one particularly odd sequence, the boys go on a fishing trip together, somehow sprouting a month’s worth of facial hair during the short trip, giving us the rare chance to see the uncharacteristically bearded Hudson and Randall. Otherwise, the actors play to type and don’t mess with perfection.
The Blu-ray doesn’t list any restoration efforts, but the image quality is free of defects and the DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 sound is crisp and clear. Colors are a bit undersaturated, in keeping with the film’s era. No bonus features are included.
Hudson and Day are a legendary pairing, and all three of their films together are gems. This second pairing shows them both at the top of their game, a delight to watch together in any scenario. Fortunately, the hilarious script is fully worthy of their talents, and director Delbert Mann keeps their romance percolating at a perfect level all the way to the delightful conclusion.
