Lover Come Back

Published July 7, 2024

Film info

Title Lover Come Back
Director Delbert Mann
Year 1961
Run time 1hr 47m
Genres Romance, Comedy
Tagline A riotous new twist in the art of gentle persuasion!

Jerry Webster and Carol Templeton are rival Madison Avenue advertising executives who each dislike each other’s methods. After he steals a client out from under her cute little nose, revenge prompts her to infiltrate his secret 'VIP' campaign in order to persuade the mystery product’s scientist to switch to her firm.

Live blog

Time	Comment
1:43	Doris singing the theme tune.
3:19	You’re at work, goodnight, is weird if you’re not on the nightshift.
7:34	He’s not really from Virginia, right? The underhanded tactics of these Mad Men!
16:31	“You don’t know what a handicap it is to be rich.” UGH.
26:42	Doris had better win this movie or I’ll be so mad.
31:47	Ramsay as the insecure boss is quite fun.
42:13	This can’t be a Nobel-prize winning scientist.
50:23	Fish in the background providing commentary on the action.
57:30	They would buy him a whole new wardrobe just to get the account?
1:03:33	She does have an odd taste in hats, even for the time.
1:15:35	“I’m afraid I can never get married.” Oh Rock.
1:19:33	This would work much better as a musical.
1:35:23	“You’re starting our marriage off with a fight.” “No, I’m not, I’m starting it off with an annulment.”
1:40:21	This has taken SOME twists and turns over the last half hour.

Thoughts

I wasn’t 100% convinced about this one. Rock Hudson and Doris Day are both brilliant, and have great chemistry (which is good because they did a few other films together too) but I’m not sure what to make of the plot. I thought it might be two top execs going head to head with wise business moves, but it ended up being a deception-style rom-com with misunderstandings aplenty and then whoop, at the end they’re a happy family? I feel like I missed some steps. Enjoyable but a little confounding.

Rating: 3 / 5