Send Me No Flowers

In "Send Me No Flowers" Hudsons performance was certainly as good as Stanley Holloway's in "My Fair Lady" that same year, 1964.
This proves that comedy acting hadn't at the time and doesn't today, get the respect it so richly deserves. Similarly, Janis Paige was certainly nominee-worthy for her 'Deborah Vaughn' in "Please Don't Eat the Daisies".
Instead, the Academy gives awards to people like first time nominee, Laugh-In's "sock-it-to-me girl", Goldie Hawn for "Cactus Flower", which was certainly not Oscar-calibre acting.
Even Miss Hawn commented that she "appreciated the award" but wishes that she had "gotten it for something else".
After six nominations, the legendary Thelma Ritter ("All About Eve" and "Pillow Talk") was still Oscar-less.

"Send Me No Flowers" has been described as a "dark comedy" probably because of its subject matter, hypochondria.
Why George Kimball (Rock Hudson) has developed this condition is not explained. We know from his doctor, Ralph Morrissey (Edward Andrews) that he has complained about everything since he became his doctor.
His medicine cabinet is filled with prescription bottles and he pops pills like a dope fiend.
His wife, Judy (Doris Day), seems to be a happy housewife living in "the burbs" who takes her husband's "health problems" with a grain of salt. She seems to find it amusing.

Always feeling that he "has something", George visits the doctor for a check-up.
While he is taking a pill in the rest room, he overhears the doctor discussing another patient, one who is terminally ill and about to die.
This being a screwball comedy, George immediately believes the doctor is talking about him. Distraught, he confides in his best friend and next door neighbour,

Arnold (Tony Randall) who falls completely apart and starts drinking to deal with the impending "tragedy".
The whole thing is a bunch of nonsense.
A must see for all Doris Day & Rock Hudson fans.

Young at Heart

Young at Heart is a 1954 film, directed by Gordon Douglas.
It was a remake of the 1938 film Four Daughters, and it starred Frank Sinatra, Doris Day, Gig Young, Ethel Barrymore, Alan Hale,
Jr and Dorothy Malone and was the first of five films that Gordon Douglas directed Frank Sinatra.
When song-writer Alex Burke (Gig Young) enters the lives of the musical Tuttle family, each of the three daughters falls for him.
His personality is a match for Laurie Tuttle (Doris Day), both she and Alex seemingly made for each other.
Soon they are engaged, although, when a friend of Alex', Barney Sloan (Frank Sinatra) comes to the Tuttle home to help with some musical arrangements, complications arise.
His bleak outlook on life couldn't be any more contradictory to that of Laurie's and Alex's, and although the family welcomes Barney into their lives, a feeling of genuine self-worth escapes him, even after both he and Laurie fall in love and marry.
Barney, with a black cloud perpetually hanging over his head, decides one evening to kill himself by driving on a snowy night into traffic with his headlamps turned off.
Barney lives, and with a new found affirmation of life, finally writes the song he had been working on, finding his self-esteem in the arms of Laurie.
The character of the self-destructive Barney Sloan was originally written to die at the end of the film when Sloan drives into on-coming traffic during a snow-storm.
Sinatra, whose characters in his two previous films - From Here to Eternity and Suddenly - perished at the end, thought Sloan should live and find happiness.
Sinatra's growing influence in Hollywood was enough to have the ending re-written to accommodate. Just the opposite would happen a decade later when Sinatra had the ending of Von Ryan's Express changed.

Interesting Blog Award

Thank you so much blue for this amazing award,its very much appreciated

Doris Day Update

One of the most popular and successful American multimedia stars to emerge since the end of WWII and the most forward-looking heroine in popular culture of the 1950s and 60s.
Day entered films in 1948 after a brief but highly successful singing career as a band vocalist, and for the next two decades virtually defined the wholesome blonde girl-next-door type in musicals, dramas and innocent but sly sex farces.
Day became an immediate star with her debut film, "Romance on the High Seas" (1948), and was one of the last stars developed under the old studio system by Warner Brothers, starring in such nostalgic light musicals as "On Moonlight Bay" (1951) and "I'll See You in My Dreams" (1952).
She also showed promise in drama ("Storm Warning" 1950) and raucous comedy (at her most tomboyish in the cult classic "Calamity Jane" 1953) when given a chance. Day's rich alto voice and supple dramatic phrasing also enjoyed considerable success on the pop singles ("It's Magic", "Secret Love") and album charts through the 40s and 50s.

After her screen career petered out in 1968, Day immediately embarked on the mild TV sitcom, "The Doris Day Show", which opened with "Que Sera Sera", typecast her as a bright career woman and stayed high in the popularity ratings for the length of its five-year run.
It was only after the death of Day's husband-manager Marty Melcher that it came out that he had entrusted the majority of Day's substantial earnings to a lawyer who flagrantly squandered them.
Day's income from her show supported her lengthy court battle,
and since the close of her series she has been largely retired, devoting most of her energies to pet adoption and animal rights advocacies.

Lover Come Back

The movie-going public was waiting with anticipation for this movie. The re-teaming of Doris Day and Rock Hudson.
How could they equal or top "Pillow Talk", which had been a runaway hit- garnering Miss Day with an Oscar nomination and hurling her to the No. 1 spot on the Herald's Top Box Office list?
Critics were sharpening their poison pens and their wit, to bring down those who have climbed to the top of the heap.

They were shocked to discover that screenwriter, Stanley Shapiro, now teamed with Paul Henning had produced a clever,
bright script that actually equaled or bettered "Pillow Talk".
Doris Day's performance was much improved here, for she had found the right key in which to present the totally sophisticated character of Carol Templeton and Rock Hudson
(Jerry Webster) looked more comfortable playing comedy than he did in the former film.
This movie became an instant success and was hailed as a triumph by the majority of film critics worldwide.

This time 'around, there was a better director, Delbert Mann, who handled this material with an expert's touch.
In reality, the film is very much like "Pillow Talk" because of the deceptive nature of the story, but the lines are funnier here and the situations are more risqué.
Jerry Webster and Carol Templeton work for rival advertising agencies on Madison Avenue. Webster's firm has a reputation of stealing accounts from other agencies by using unscrupulous tactics to nab new accounts (wine, women and sex).

Carol has plans to snag the Miller's Wax account, which is metamorphosing it's image with a new can and Templeton has, she thinks, just the right ideas to convince Mr. J. Paxton Miller (Jack Oakie) to give the account to her firm.
Webster, on the other hand, decides to shower the gentleman with liquor, women and carnal activities. Guess who wins out?
Furious at Webster's tactics, Carol accidentally learns from Webster's some times girlfriend, nightclub performer, Rebel Davis (Edie Adams) that he is going after a new account for a product called VIP.
Determined to "get even" with Webster for stealing the Paxton account, Carol sets out to outsmart her competition.She begins to mount a campaign for a product that doesn't exist.
Jerry Webster invented "VIP" to accommodate Rebel's disappointment in him at not getting her lucrative commercials and to bribe her into not testifying before the Advertising Council against him for unprofessional tactics in advertising.
You see, Carol Templeton has filed a complaint.

Listen to the opening music to "Lover Come Back"
"Lover Come Back" became an instant success"
The movie-going public was waiting with anticipation for this movie.
The re-teaming of Doris Day and Rock Hudson.
How could they equal or top "Pillow Talk", which had been a runaway hit- garnering Miss Day with an Oscar nomination and hurling her to tNo. 1 spot on the Herald's Top Box Office list?

Critics were sharpening their poison pens and their wit, to bring down those who have climbed to the top of the heap.

They were shocked to discover that screenwriter, Stanley Shapiro, now teamed with Paul Henning had produced a clever,

bright script that actually equaled or bettered "Pillow Talk". Doris Day's performance was much improved here, for she had found the right key in which to present the totally sophisticated he character of Carol Templeton and Rock Hudson
(Jerry Webster) looked more comfortable playing comedy than he did in the former film.
This movie became an instant success and was hailed as a triumph by the majority of film critics worldwide.
This time 'around, there was a better director, Delbert Mann, who handled this material with an expert's touch. In reality,

the film is very much like "Pillow Talk" because of the deceptive nature of the story, but the lines are funnier here and the situations are more risqué.
Jerry Webster and Carol Templeton work for rival advertising agencies on Madison Avenue. Webster's firm has a reputation of stealing accounts from other agencies by using unscrupulous tactics to nab new accounts (wine, women and sex).
Carol has plans to snag the Miller's Wax account, which is metamorphosing it's image with a new can and Templeton has, she thinks,

just the right ideas to convince Mr. J. Paxton Miller (Jack Oakie) to give the account to her firm. Webster, on the other hand, decides to shower the gentleman with liquor, women and carnal activities.