In the late 1950s, the film industry decided that it was essential for Doris Day to change her screen image if she was to survive as a top star. By 1959, she had not only dropped from the top box-office personalities, but her last five films had not been as profitable as previous ones. She had been the girl-next-door for too many years and now, at 35, she needed to catch up with her moviegoing public, who had grown more sophisticated with the passing of decades.
When producer Ross Hunter sent Doris a script for a new project called Pillow Talk (1959), she was instantly attracted to its humour and cleverness. However, being genuinely unaware of her potential as a sex symbol, she had difficulty visualizing herself as a chic interior decorator. Fortunately, Hunter's argument that she had «one of the wildest asses in Hollywood» convinced Doris that she was not just an old-fashioned girl and she gladly took the job. There was just one key ingredient missing: a leading man. Who could it possibly be? Why, Rock Hudson, of course!
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| Doris Day and Rock Hudson in two scenes from Pillow Talk. |
When Hudson read the screenplay for Pillow Talk, he too was impressed by its witty dialogue, but was apprehensive about it being a comedy. Apart from a brief appearance as himself in an episode of the hugely popular sitcom I Love Lucy (1951-1957), in which Vivian Vance appropriately called him «Mr. Candy,» he had no previous experience with comedic acting. He was unsure of whether he could succeed at it, but a meeting in Hunter's office with Doris and director Michael Gordon persuaded him to move forward with the project.
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| Doris Day and Rock Hudson in scenes from Pillow Talk. |
Although Rock had been a fan of Doris Day since serving as an aircraft mechanic with the U.S. Navy during World War II, the two had never met before they started filming Pillow Talk. He was nervous to be working with Day, whom he considered one Hollywood's most accomplished comediennes, but she quickly put him at easy. «You don't have to worry about it,» she told him. «The script is funny. When you have funny lines, you're funny.»
Rock and Doris soon realized that there was great chemistry between them and that they could make each other laugh off camera. He gave her the nickname «Eunice Blotter» and she called him «Roy Harold,» which was, in fact, his birth name. It was in this atmosphere of clowning and giggling that one of the sexiest pairings in film history was born. «Doris and I became terrific friends,» Rock recalled. «She's a dynamo — a strong lady. And boy, what a comedienne she is! The trouble we had was trying not to laugh. Doris and I couldn't look at each other. You know, that sweet agony of laughing when you're not supposed to? That's what we had.»
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| Doris Day and Rock Hudson on the set during the making of Pillow Talk. |
In Pillow Talk, Doris played Jan Morrow, a successful and self-sufficient interior decorator who, much to her annoyance, shares a party line on her home phone with a philandering Broadway composer named Brad Allen (Hudson). Soon, they find themselves locked in an escalating feud, even though they have never actually met each other in person. When Brad finally comes face to face with Jan, he is surprised to discover how attractive she is and introduces himself to her as Rex Stetson, a wealthy rancher from Texas (with a proper Southern accent and everything). The clueless Jan is immediately taken in by his charming demeanour, but things get a little complicated when she finds out his true identity.
Despite their initial reservations about the film, Pillow Talk was a massive it upon its release in October 1959, earning Doris an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, the first and only of her career. It also succeed at reviving Rock's career, which had stalled in recent years with a series of box-office failures such as A Farewell to Arms (1957) and Twilight for the Gods (1958). Critics praised Rock and Doris's immediate rapport and scintillating chemistry, and the film was voted one of the ten best pictures of that year by The New York Times. Considering the extraordinary success of Pillow Talk and how much fun they had making it, Rock and Doris knew right away that they had to come back for another one.
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| Doris Day and Rock Hudson in Lover Come Back, their second film collaboration. |
With a plot similar to Pillow Talk, Delbert Mann's Lover Come Back (1961) revolves around Jerry Webster and Carol Templeton, two account executives who work for rival advertising agencies in Madison Square, New York. Although Carol has never met Jerry, she is disgusted by his unethical tactics, which have stolen many of her clients. When Jerry asks a scientist to invent a new product for him to sell, Carol is determined to steal the account from him. She tries to woo the scientist into giving her the product, but what she does not realize is that she has mistaken Jerry for the scientist. Needless to say, chaos ensues.
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| Doris Day and Rock Hudson in scenes from Lover Come Back. |
During the shooting of Lover Come Back, there was the same atmosphere of hilarity and juvenile pranks that had made Pillow Talk so much fun. «Sometimes we went ten or twelve takes because Rock and Doris would keep breaking up,» Mann later recalled. There was one scene on the beach, which was actually shot in a sandbox on the set, where they had to kiss and could not because they were laughing so hard. «Our teeth bumped one time, and after that, we got hysterical every time we tried to kiss,» Doris said.
Following its December 1961 premiere, Lover Come Back became an even bigger success than its predecessor and its witty screenplay earned the film a worthy comparison to the great screwball comedies of the 1930s. Rock always felt that Lover Come Back was the best of their films together, but Doris liked Pillow Talk better.
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| Doris Day and Rock Hudson filming the beach scene in Lover Come Back. |
In their final film together, Norman Jewison's Send Me No Flowers (1964), Rock and Doris played George and Judy Kimball, a happily married couple living in the suburbs. On one of his many visits to the doctor, the chronic hypochondriac George overhears a conversation about a terminally ill patient and erroneously believes that he is the one who is dying. Wanting to take care his wife, he does not tell her about his supposed imminent death and sets out to find Judy a suitable husband after he is gone. When he finally does tell her, she quickly discovers he is not dying at all (while he does not) and believes it is just a lame excuse to hide an affair.
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| Doris Day and Rock Hudson in two scenes from Send Me No Flowers. |
Although Send Me No Flowers was a box-office success upon its release in October 1964, it did not fare as well among critics, who praised the natural chemistry between Rock and Doris, but missed the sexual tension and innuendo. Since they were now playing a married couple, the thrill of the chase was gone and there was not much for them to do.
For the next twenty years, the pair tried to find another picture to do together, but unfortunately they were unable to find a suitable project. «We couldn't come up with a story what would have the same sexual innuendos that made those comedies fun — in a way that would be valid in modern terms,» Rock later explained.
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| Doris Day and Rock Hudson during the making of Send Me No Flowers. |
Send Me No Flowers was in fact the last of Rock and Doris's joint silver screen appearances, but they got the chance to work together in two other occasions after that. The first happened when Rock was one of Doris's guests in her television musical special The Doris Mary Anne Kappelhoff Special (1971). The second came in 1985, when she asked him to be the first guest in her cable television series Doris Day's Best Friends (1985-1986).
At this point in his his life, Rock was dying from what was then a mysterious new virus called AIDS, but he was determined to do the show anyway. When Doris saw him arrive on the set looking extremely thin and frail, she was devastated to see that her dear friend was now just a mere shadow of his former strong and handsome self. Even in pain, Rock managed to tape the show and the result proved that their chemistry was still as strong as it had ever been. Sadly, Rock Hudson died less than three months after the episode aired, but «Eunice» and «Roy» still got the chance to share the (small) screen one last time and reminisce about the good old days.
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| Doris Day and Rock Hudson on Doris Day's Best Friends. |
During one of their chats on Doris Day's Best Friends, Doris said to Rock, «I miss those laughs we used to have.» He replied, «Oh, me too.»
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SOURCES:
Considering Doris Day by Tom Santopietro (St. Martin's Press, 2007)
Doris Day by Eric Braun (Orion, 2010)
Doris Day: Sentimental Journey by Garry McGee (McFarland & Company, Inc., 2005)
Rock Hudson: A Bio-Bibliography by Brenda Scott Royce (Greenwood Press, 1995)
Rock Hudson: His Story by Sarah Davidson (Da Capo Press, 2007)
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