This post is an entry in the Dynamic Duos in Classic Film Blogathon hosted by Once Upon a Screen and Classic Movie Hub. And only five days late....
On occasion, certain pairs of actors make magic onscreen. While this chemistry is not commonplace, I wouldn't venture to call it rare. I can think of many examples. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, William Powell and Myrna Loy, Bogie and Bacall. And it's not just limited to male-female couples. Two buddies, like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby or Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, can achieve that same kind of magic. Even the bitterest of rivals, like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford have a magic just as strong as any of the others. Often when this magic occurs, Hollywood, in pure Hollywood style, reteams these stars to recapture the magic and it usually works, so I can't in good conscience say this magic is rare.
What is rare is finding this magic twice in the same film with two different sets of characters, and rarer still repeating this in a series of films. Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and Tony Randall made three films together, Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961), and Send Me No Flowers (1964). Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back have very similar in plots and involve Rock Hudson posing as somebody else in order to get Doris Day in bed. If you look at it a certain way, the biggest difference between these two films is the relationship between Tony Randall and Rock Hudson. Of course, there's great chemisty between Rock Hudson and Doris Day, but almost as strong is the magic between Rock Hudson and Tony Randall.
******************************************************************
** Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers, probably of all **
** all three films, Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961), **
** and Send Me No Flowers (1964). **
******************************************************************
In Pillow Talk, Tony Randall and Rock Hudson are old college buddies, and Tony Randall is in love with Doris Day and trying to get her to marry him. Rock Hudson plays Brad Allen a playboy songwriter sharing a telephone party line with interior decorator, Doris Day. Rock Hudson is always on the phone talking with his many girlfriends, so much so that Doris Day is unable to make calls for her decorating business.
Tony Randall knows that Rock Hudson is a womanizer and tries his best to keep Rock Hudson away from Doris Day. When Rock Hudson meets Doris Day and falls for her, he knows he will have no chance with her once she discovers he is the playboy on other end of her party line. Rock Hudson invents an alter ego, a wealthy Texas rancher named Rex Stetson, in order to seduce Doris Day. From there on, it's just a matter of Rock Hudson keeping both Tony Randall and Doris Day from discovering his ploy.
Early in the film, Tony Randall tries to get Rock Hudson to give up his playboy lifestyle and find true love with a good woman, like he has found with Doris Day. Tony Randall is brilliant here. On one level he is condescending of Rock Hudson's philandering, but one another level you can tell he is secretly jealous of him. Later when Tony Randall almost walks in on Doris Day and Rock Hudson on a date, Hudson's subterfuge with Tony Randall to get rid of him is priceless. When it all blows up on him, the way Tony Randall gloats over his friend’s misfortune is perfect. Pillow Talk was a big hit, and when the followups to the film, Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964) came out, fortunately, producers felt that Tony Randall was as integral to the formula as Doris Day and Rock Hudson.
In Lover Come Back, Rock Hudson and Doris Day are rivals at competing advertising firms. When word comes down that the owner of Miller Floor Wax is looking for a new advertising firm, both Rock Hudson and Doris Day set their sights on the account. Knowing that J. Paxton Miller of Miller Wax is from the South, Rock Hudson prepares to land the account by studying up on the Civil War, and finding out what kind of women and booze he likes. On the other hand, Doris Day realizes that the reason Miller Floor Wax isn’t selling is that the can is ugly. She says, “Believe me, the agency that lands this account is the one that shows Mr. Miller the most attractive can.” They then cut to a party where Rock Hudson is showing Miller a very attractive can, the rear end of a dancing girl. This sums up Doris Day and Rock Hudson's varying approaches to advertising.
Tony Randall is Rock Hudson's boss at the advertising firm but he has no idea how the business is run. Rock Hudson wins new clients by getting them laid. Tony Randall is neurotic and allows himself to be bullied by everybody. With Doris Day, he is afraid that she will make good on her threat to report them to the Advertising Council. He is bullied by Rock Hudson, who really runs the firm that is his in name only. He is even bullied by the memory of his late father who it dominated him since childhood.
When Tony Randall is criticized by Doris Day for Rock Hudson's behavior, he shows up at Rock's apartment indignant and demanding an explanation. Tony Randall wakes up a sleeping and hungover Rock Hudson by tapping him with his walking stick, a walking stick that Tony Randall’s psychiatrist said would give him confidence. Rock Hudson breaks the walking stick. At every turn, Tony Randall tries assert his leadership, only to have Rock Hudson show him just how little he knows about the advertising business. Tony Randall is weak and a weasel, and Rock Hudson, though unscrupulous, get results. Their interplay is perfect.
In Send Me No Flowers, Rock Hudson and Doris Day are married couple and Tony Randall is their neighbor and Rock Hudson's best friend. Rock Hudson is a major hypochondriac and through a misunderstanding at his doctor's office, he thinks he is dying. When he confesses this to Tony Randall, Tony Randall, dutiful friend he that he is, becomes a total wreck and spends about the first half of the film on a drunken bender. The easy grace that Rock Hudson and Tony Randall had in the first two films is on full display.
In all three films, there is gay subtext. Rock Hudson was gay, and his sexuality was fairly common knowledge in Hollywood, but definitely not to the general public when the three films were made. Tony Randall always came off as gay on film and TV, but was married to his first wife Florence Gibbs for over 50 years until she passed away in 1992. Tony Randall later remarried a woman 50 years his junior and they had two children and remained married until his death in 2004. I honestly don't think it fair to speculate on Tony Randall's person life, when he wanted it kept private, but he did come off as gay onscreen.
In retrospect, the gay jokes in Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back must have been some the best inside jokes in Hollywood history. In Pillow Talk, Rock Hudson tells Doris Day that his alter-ego, Rex Stetson, must be gay. “Well there are some men who... hmmm how shall I put it? Well they're very fond of their mothers... They like to share bits of gossip... collect recipes,” he says. In Lover Come Back, when Doris discovers that Rock Hudson is not the famous scientist she thinks him to be, she lures him to the remote beach where they first kissed on the promise of a moonlight skinny dip. She then abandons him without any clothes. Rock Hudson must hitch a ride home (in seaweed jockey shorts) with a delivery truck from a furrier. He has to walk into his apartment wearing only a woman’s mink coat. Two men who had been watching Rock’s sexual exploits throughout the entire movie observe this. One of them turns to the other and says, “He's the last guy in the world I woulda' figured.”
In Send Me No Flowers, Rock Hudson realizes that Doris Day will never be able to take care of herself, so he sets out to find her a new husband while he is still around to do so. Naturally, he recruits his best friend Tony Randall to help him. Think about, practically the whole plot is gay subtext. Rock Hudson and Tony Randall spend most of the movie on a man-hunt trying to find a surrogate husband for Doris Day. When one of Doris’s old flames Clint Walker appears, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall faun over how good a tennis player and dancer he is and how handsome and virile he is. Later when Doris Day discovers the truth that Rock Hudson is not dying, she kicks him out of the house. He has no choice but to spend the night with neighbor Tony Randall. Rock Hudson borrows a pair of Tony Randall’s pajamas, about three sizes too small. And they go to bed together. Straight guys do that, right? No couch surfing for Rock Hudson and Tony Randall, right to the master suite. And Rock complains about Tony’s cold feet and Tony complains about Rock needing to trim his toenails.
Of course, it’s played for laughs, and it works great like the other two films. There seems to be a juxtaposition of comradery and rivalry that permeates all of their scenes. Sure, when you think Rock Hudson, you think Doris Day, but would those films be the same with Tony Randall, I think not.
On occasion, certain pairs of actors make magic onscreen. While this chemistry is not commonplace, I wouldn't venture to call it rare. I can think of many examples. Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn, William Powell and Myrna Loy, Bogie and Bacall. And it's not just limited to male-female couples. Two buddies, like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby or Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, can achieve that same kind of magic. Even the bitterest of rivals, like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford have a magic just as strong as any of the others. Often when this magic occurs, Hollywood, in pure Hollywood style, reteams these stars to recapture the magic and it usually works, so I can't in good conscience say this magic is rare.
What is rare is finding this magic twice in the same film with two different sets of characters, and rarer still repeating this in a series of films. Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and Tony Randall made three films together, Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961), and Send Me No Flowers (1964). Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back have very similar in plots and involve Rock Hudson posing as somebody else in order to get Doris Day in bed. If you look at it a certain way, the biggest difference between these two films is the relationship between Tony Randall and Rock Hudson. Of course, there's great chemisty between Rock Hudson and Doris Day, but almost as strong is the magic between Rock Hudson and Tony Randall.
******************************************************************
** Spoiler Alert: This post contains spoilers, probably of all **
** all three films, Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961), **
** and Send Me No Flowers (1964). **
******************************************************************
In Pillow Talk, Tony Randall and Rock Hudson are old college buddies, and Tony Randall is in love with Doris Day and trying to get her to marry him. Rock Hudson plays Brad Allen a playboy songwriter sharing a telephone party line with interior decorator, Doris Day. Rock Hudson is always on the phone talking with his many girlfriends, so much so that Doris Day is unable to make calls for her decorating business. Tony Randall knows that Rock Hudson is a womanizer and tries his best to keep Rock Hudson away from Doris Day. When Rock Hudson meets Doris Day and falls for her, he knows he will have no chance with her once she discovers he is the playboy on other end of her party line. Rock Hudson invents an alter ego, a wealthy Texas rancher named Rex Stetson, in order to seduce Doris Day. From there on, it's just a matter of Rock Hudson keeping both Tony Randall and Doris Day from discovering his ploy.
Early in the film, Tony Randall tries to get Rock Hudson to give up his playboy lifestyle and find true love with a good woman, like he has found with Doris Day. Tony Randall is brilliant here. On one level he is condescending of Rock Hudson's philandering, but one another level you can tell he is secretly jealous of him. Later when Tony Randall almost walks in on Doris Day and Rock Hudson on a date, Hudson's subterfuge with Tony Randall to get rid of him is priceless. When it all blows up on him, the way Tony Randall gloats over his friend’s misfortune is perfect. Pillow Talk was a big hit, and when the followups to the film, Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964) came out, fortunately, producers felt that Tony Randall was as integral to the formula as Doris Day and Rock Hudson.
Tony Randall is Rock Hudson's boss at the advertising firm but he has no idea how the business is run. Rock Hudson wins new clients by getting them laid. Tony Randall is neurotic and allows himself to be bullied by everybody. With Doris Day, he is afraid that she will make good on her threat to report them to the Advertising Council. He is bullied by Rock Hudson, who really runs the firm that is his in name only. He is even bullied by the memory of his late father who it dominated him since childhood.
When Tony Randall is criticized by Doris Day for Rock Hudson's behavior, he shows up at Rock's apartment indignant and demanding an explanation. Tony Randall wakes up a sleeping and hungover Rock Hudson by tapping him with his walking stick, a walking stick that Tony Randall’s psychiatrist said would give him confidence. Rock Hudson breaks the walking stick. At every turn, Tony Randall tries assert his leadership, only to have Rock Hudson show him just how little he knows about the advertising business. Tony Randall is weak and a weasel, and Rock Hudson, though unscrupulous, get results. Their interplay is perfect.
In Send Me No Flowers, Rock Hudson and Doris Day are married couple and Tony Randall is their neighbor and Rock Hudson's best friend. Rock Hudson is a major hypochondriac and through a misunderstanding at his doctor's office, he thinks he is dying. When he confesses this to Tony Randall, Tony Randall, dutiful friend he that he is, becomes a total wreck and spends about the first half of the film on a drunken bender. The easy grace that Rock Hudson and Tony Randall had in the first two films is on full display.
In retrospect, the gay jokes in Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back must have been some the best inside jokes in Hollywood history. In Pillow Talk, Rock Hudson tells Doris Day that his alter-ego, Rex Stetson, must be gay. “Well there are some men who... hmmm how shall I put it? Well they're very fond of their mothers... They like to share bits of gossip... collect recipes,” he says. In Lover Come Back, when Doris discovers that Rock Hudson is not the famous scientist she thinks him to be, she lures him to the remote beach where they first kissed on the promise of a moonlight skinny dip. She then abandons him without any clothes. Rock Hudson must hitch a ride home (in seaweed jockey shorts) with a delivery truck from a furrier. He has to walk into his apartment wearing only a woman’s mink coat. Two men who had been watching Rock’s sexual exploits throughout the entire movie observe this. One of them turns to the other and says, “He's the last guy in the world I woulda' figured.”
In Send Me No Flowers, Rock Hudson realizes that Doris Day will never be able to take care of herself, so he sets out to find her a new husband while he is still around to do so. Naturally, he recruits his best friend Tony Randall to help him. Think about, practically the whole plot is gay subtext. Rock Hudson and Tony Randall spend most of the movie on a man-hunt trying to find a surrogate husband for Doris Day. When one of Doris’s old flames Clint Walker appears, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall faun over how good a tennis player and dancer he is and how handsome and virile he is. Later when Doris Day discovers the truth that Rock Hudson is not dying, she kicks him out of the house. He has no choice but to spend the night with neighbor Tony Randall. Rock Hudson borrows a pair of Tony Randall’s pajamas, about three sizes too small. And they go to bed together. Straight guys do that, right? No couch surfing for Rock Hudson and Tony Randall, right to the master suite. And Rock complains about Tony’s cold feet and Tony complains about Rock needing to trim his toenails.
Of course, it’s played for laughs, and it works great like the other two films. There seems to be a juxtaposition of comradery and rivalry that permeates all of their scenes. Sure, when you think Rock Hudson, you think Doris Day, but would those films be the same with Tony Randall, I think not.
Great post! Gets me in the mood for Rock/Doris.
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