Professor Popinjay's Compendium of Perspicacity

A Non-Review by Prof. Popinjay

I don’t care if this is the 83rd Doris Day film I’ve reviewed, this one is pure comedy gold! The script is genius, the one-liners are a hoot, and Tony Randal is a riot!

“I’m not going to let you [un-alive] yourself alone! We’ll get Hadley to join you! Hadley! Jump out this window! Your job depends on it!”

That’s just one of Randal’s lines. The whole movie is like that!

I’ll give you a bit of the plot. Rock Hudson plays a rather immoral advertising campaign manager. Doris Day is a rival advertising campaign manager who maintains moral integrity and good business ethics. Naturally she takes issue with Hudson’s methods. These two inadvertently meet but while Hudson knows precisely who Day is, she on the other hand is completely clueless as to who he is. Hudson uses this to his advantage and puts on the guise of a naive scientist country boy. Hilarity ensues. Randal plays Hudson’s meek and sheepish boss who is constantly terrified and consequently in awe of Hudson’s machinations. Of course this all blows up in their faces.

The ending is a bit abrupt and kind of tacked on to make everything hunky dory with what producers probably wanted at the time but nevermind that. 

“The journey is the destination.” -Deepak Chopra

If you like this, I might also recommend Down With Love which basically features Renée Zellweger in the Day role, Ewan McGregor in the Hudson role, and David Hyde Pierce in the Randal role. It’s not the same story exactly but is clearly an homage to Lover Come Back with a slightly racier subtext and it eventually turns some of the more archaic supposistions on end which some modern audiences might find bristling in Lover Come Back.

Both are great films though.

Oh, be sure to pay attention to what’s going on in the fish tank behind Doris and Rock while they’re talking. So freaking funny.