Lover Come Back *** (1961, Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall) – Classic Movie Review 1720

Director Delbert Mann’s delightfully breezy, glossy 1961 comedy of misunderstandings is the much hoped-for sequel to Doris Day and Rock Hudson’s 1959 hit Pillow Talk.

Day plays a Madsion Avenue advertising executive who tries to take a non-existent account on an imaginary product away from his rival Hudson in this clever, witty battle-of-the-sexes comedy. This leaves the adman with a campaign for a product that has not yet been invented while he romances his rival in the guise of its inventor.

Screenwriters Stanley Shapiro and Paul Henning were Oscar-nominated for Best Original Story and Screenplay for their bright dialogue and lively comedy situations that provide lots of sizeable laughs. And Mann’s pacy direction and the able support performers are further essential ingredients – particularly Golden Globe nominated Tony Randall again as the dithery ad agency boss Pete Ramsey and Jack Kruschen as a zany boffin called Doctor Linus Tyler who has to help Hudson come up with the product named VIP that he’s just made up.