Customer Reviews

Rock Hudson & Doris Day Romance Collection (Pillow Talk / Lover Come Back / Send Me No Flowers)

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am a huge fan of Doris and Rock's movies, so I was instantly attracted to this good deal. I do not regret my purchase one bit. First, about the packaging.

I have never seen such attractive packaging for classic movies before. The box opens up and you find a separate box containing the discs. It folds out and you are welcomed with a full photo from Pillow Talk. Then it folds open again and reveals the dvds. There is a pocket for the Doris Day music cd, which contains eight songs from her movies, a pocket for Pillow Talk, with a scene from Pillow Talk on the background of the pocket, a pocket for Lover Come Back with a scene as well, and also Send Me No Flowers. The pictures are vivid and romantic, really portraying the type of movies Doris and Rock were known for. The only gripe I really have, is that there are no keep cases (the boxes you usually buy dvd's in), only the pockets so extra care has to be given so that they don't get scratched. Now onto the dvd's themselves.

No changes have been made to the dvd's other than that Lover Come Back is new to dvd. I am still not crazy about the quality of the picture, being that it is a dvd. However, I do appreciate that the movies are seen in widescreen, which in my opinion gives it the edge of the vhs versions.

Looking at the overall presentation, this collector's set is the best dvd deal I have seen in a long time. The attractive, unusual packaging, the fact that you get three dvd's and a cd for just over $20 cannot be beat. Grab this up while you can, it will make a great addition to anyone's dvd collection young or old.

We all gathered around the family TV to watch a wholesome family movie that was clean, funny, entertaining and just plain fun. Both my teen daughters found the movie entertaining. I'm so glad I bought the DVD set because all three movies were great, the music CD was wonderful, and the packaging was beautiful. Worth every penny spent for several evenings of delightul fun.

Rock Hudson, Doris Day and Tony Randall made a memorable team in this trilogy of romantic comedies made between 1959 and 1964. Day and Hudson always played the (would-be) lovers; Randall was always the spare-part/best friend, a role that suited him.

In Pillow Talk, the best of the series, Day is a New York designer forced to share a party-line with womanizer Hudson. He takes a shine to her, and poses as a Texas rancher to try and woo her. Witty stuff, brilliantly scripted and acted, not forgetting Thelma Ritter, who won an Oscar for her hilarious performance as Day's drunken maid.

Lover Come Back hasn't aged quite as well, but it too is a witty and entertaining vehicle for the trio. The story is a variation of the first film.

Send Me No Flowers is different in tone. This time, Day and Hudson are married; he's a hypochondriac who thinks he has only a few weeks to live, and tries to make the best of the rest of his life without her finding out. Tends to get panned by critics, but it's a funny, engaging film.

Rock Hudson and Doris Day are probably the best romance comedy team ever. This DVD set has three classics, all of which are very entertaining and relaxing movies from the early 1960s. Color quality is excellent. The discs are in a beautiful tri-fold portfolio that further enhances their value and appeal.

I bought this Doris Day and Rock Hudson movie DVD boxset. Pillow Talk is my favorite of the movies that Rock and Doris made together, my second favorite is Lover Come Back and then Send Me No Flowers. I'm pleased with the anamorphic widescreen transfers for Lover Come Back and Send Me No Flowers but I'm very disappointed with the new anamorphic widescreen DVD for Pillow Talk, it is badly botched with horrible misframings of several scenes and the wider the TV screen is the more noticeable the misframing flaws are. I would have liked if all three movies came with their own DVD cases and I wish the music CD also included the song Roly Poly from Pillow Talk but those things are so minor compared to the misframing problems with the Pillow Talk DVD. Look up the reviews for the individual Pillow Talk DVDs and you will see that I'm not the only fan who is unhappy about the flawed DVD! Pillow Talk is set in New York and about a man named Brad Allen who pretends to be a visitor from Texas named Rex Stetson so he can get away with wooing a woman named Jan Morrow because if she knew who he really was she would tell him to get lost! She has never met Brad but had heard his voice on the phone because they share a telephone partyline and they got into a tif about his hogging the line so that is why when he sees her in a night club and sees how attractive she is he puts on an accent and pretends to be a tourist from Texas. In Lover Come Back once again Rock is playing a guy who pretends to be someone else. This time Rock and Doris play rival Madison Avenue advertising executives and once again has Rock Hudson's character tricking Doris Day's character by pretending to be someone else and in Send Me No Flowers Rock Hudson plays George a hypochondriac who overhears his doctor talking about another patient who is dying and mistakenly think he is talking about him so he thinks he has to find his wife Judy played by Doris Day a new husband which leads to even more misunderstandings when she gets suspicious and thinks he is having an affair. Tony Randall costars in all three of the movies and in Lover Come Back one of the other co stars is Ann B. Davis who played Alice in the Brady Bunch. Update: Universal aware of customers bing upset about the botched Pillow Talk DVD has offered new DVDs where the misframing flaw was corrected and I got a replacement and I'm very happy to say that it has indeed been corrected. The replacement DVD is a lot better and I would change my rating to 5 stars!

This is a real enjoyable movie collection for those who like the oldies but goodies that have somehow been forgot in today's continuous stream of new releases. The movies are very well made and my spouse love's them just like the first time she had ever seen them. The older movies are always a breath of fresh air and can be watched over and over.

Disk 1: (Pillow Talk) Day and Hudson are great together. They are two people who meet due to a party line with their local telephone service. Hudson finds out which the other person is on the party line (Day) and begins a double life to win who love.

Disk 2: (Lover Come Back) Day and Hudson are revile advertising agents who fight each other to win over Companies contacts. Its great to watch them compete against each other to win over a fake product which has a very funny conclusion.

Disk 3: (Send Me No Flowers) Day and Hudson are married and living a grand life together. But, Hudson is a hypochondriac who runs to the doctor and thinking he's about to die. Well, after he thinks he's going to die he try's to find a companion for (Day) before his dying day approaches and how everything backfires. This is another great movie to watch.

I hope this helps people who want to purchase this set?

Universal Studios has released for the first time on DVD "The Rock Hudson and Doris Day Romance Collection" a series of their most memorable romance comedies of the 1950's & 60's. This Collection is a cleverly assemblage of 3 movies in Anamorphic WideScreen (picture automatically adjusts to the viewers screen size including 16:9 HDTV Home theatre but not enhanced) with Dolby 2.0 mono sound. The only extra fearures are trailer and some Production notes.
Summary: "Pillow Talk (1959)" - Was Hudson (his first comedy role) & Days (she is awesome) first and best movie together. Day's performance got her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in a Comedy - lost. This delightful romantic comedy that started it all uniting Hudson & Day 2 of the screens most popular and enduring stars. They are 2 single professionals who find themselves sharing a partyline (telephone situation of the 50's) and a whole lot more in this delightful comedy. The funny & witty Tony Randall co-stars in all 3 of these movies. This movie is their best and alone is worth the price of addmission. "Lover Come Back (1961)" - Is their 2nd film and just okay in my opinion. They play are couple of rivalry advertising executives who are both after the same account and eventually each other in this outrageous romantic comedy. "Send Me No Flowers (1964)" - Almost a stupid kind of movie has hypochondriac husband (Hudson) and his wife (Day) happily healthful married and he is suddenly in critical condition following a mistaken diagnosis in this heartwarming comedy of errors. ALSO INCLUDED "The Doris Say Romance Music Collection CD" an eight song mini sampler of her greatest hits to include; Secret Love (from her 1950 musical "Calamity Jane"), Lover Come Back, High Hopes, Send Me No Flowers, Pillow Talk, Pretty Baby, Makin' Whoppie and What Ever Will Be, Will Be (Que Sera, Sera (from Hitchcocks 'THe Man Who Knew To Much Best Song Oscar Winner)). This was a great Bonus !!!.

Universals clever packaging provides us with a nice sample of the great romantic comedy team Rock Hudson and Doris Day. Plus the the triple threat talents of Doris Day especially her singing CD. This is fun stuff but renting first to sample it's staying power. Enjoy.

Peyton Reed's execrable retro-tribute to the beloved Doris Day-Rock Hudson pairings, 2003's "Down with Love" with Renee Zellweger and Ewan MacGregor, simply proved that some movies should not be copied out of their time. Presented in a welcome 2004 DVD package, the trio of films Day and Hudson made for Universal between 1959 and 1964 are hardly pinnacles in cinema history, but they show what deft writing, nimble direction and expert farceurs can do to make these soufflé-light romantic comedies thoroughly enjoyable. Not coincidentally, all three films have storylines that turn on acts of deception initiated by Hudson's character, whether intended or not, and then it becomes a series of humiliations and comeuppances before the inevitable happy ending.

Directed with Eisenhower-era panache by Michael Gordon, 1959's luxuriant-looking "Pillow Talk" fruitfully began not only the stars' partnership but a phase in both careers that redirected them into sophisticated adult-oriented comedies. Day plays uptight interior decorator Jan Morrow, who shares a party line (apparently a common practice in the 1950's) with a lecherous Broadway tunesmith Brad Allen played by Hudson. They never met in person, so their animosity builds as they eavesdrop on each other's private phone conversations. Brad finally meets Jan in a nightclub, becomes instantly smitten and then pretends to be a gentlemanly Texan named Rex Stetson in order to deflower her. Things come to a head during a Connecticut rendezvous when she figures out that Rex is really Brad, and an act of revenge is in the offing when she accepts an offer to redecorate his apartment. Both Day and Hudson are terrifically game here. Tony Randall (who plays pretty much the same role in all three films) is hilarious as Jan's multi-divorced millionaire suitor Jonathan, and Thelma Ritter is her typically sardonic self as Jan's boozy maid Alma giving romantic pointers to Brad in one of the film's funniest scenes. The period-rich set décor is at a kitschy high here, and still transitioning from her fifties musicals, Day even gets to sing three songs including the bouncy title tune.

The best of the trio, 1961's "Lover Come Back" directed by Delbert Mann works the exact same plot devices as "Pillow Talk", even the split-screen confrontations, but converts the pair into highly competitive advertising account executives at separate agencies. This time, Day is even more priggish as Carol Templeton, who loathes Hudson's Jerry Webster, as he manages to steal accounts under her and everybody else's nose by holding wild parties for the prospective clients. In an effort to pacify an ambitious model who wants to become a TV star, he shoots her in commercials for VIP, a product that doesn't exist. Through the incompetence of his nominal boss Pete Ramsey (again Randall), the commercials hit the airwaves, which force Jerry to recruit reclusive scientist Linus Tyler to invent a product for VIP. In her effort to steal the VIP account from Jerry, Carol mistakes Jerry for Linus, and the rest becomes inevitable. Co-written by Stanley Shapiro who also co-wrote "Pillow Talk", "Lover Come Back" is more far-fetched than the earlier film, but its more frenetic pace, plethora of sexual double-entendres, constant tweaking of Madison Avenue ad agencies and a wildly improbable ending make it a funnier movie. Both Day and Hudson also seem more assured here, and Randall plays Ramsey with his trademark boastful befuddlement.

After directing Day in 1963's hilarious "The Thrill of It All", Norman Jewison shows similar comic sensibilities with 1964's "Send Me No Flowers" with a sharp screenplay by longtime veteran Julius Epstein. This one represents something of a departure in that Day and Hudson play a married couple from the outset. As George and Judy Kimball, they are a happily married suburban couple hamstrung by his persistent hypochondria. Convinced that he is dying after a regular check-up, George spends the rest of the story preparing for what he thinks will be his imminent death, including setting up Judy with her next husband, a former suitor whom they literally run into at their country club. Unlike the previous two films, Hudson actually dominates this movie, and he is in peak comic form with a dryly funny turn as George. With her glamour minimized in favor of her homespun likeability, Day is relegated to the role of the confused wife here, though she has funny moments along the way. Randall steals all his scenes as devoted neighbor Arnold constantly in a drunken stupor in his premature bereavement over George's departure, and Paul Lynde has a riotous scene as an overly zealous memorial park director. This one may lack the will-she-won't-she dilemma of the first two and is usually dismissed as a domestic comedy, but I think the set-up is genuinely clever and the laughs well-earned.

The print transfers of each film are unfortunately variable on this collection with a certain level of graininess evident in each. The only extra provided with the individual DVDs is an eight-song CD of Day singing songs from the three films, a worthwhile treat to appreciate her fresh-sounding vocals on some melodies that sound very much like the period from which they come. Regardless of the print quality, this collection is a treat for fans of well-turned romantic comedies.

i bought this set for my wife at christmas and she has loved it very much! these movies are great and look better than ever!
1. pillow talk= the first and best of the three movies that rock and doris made together,tame today but very daring in it's day, it's the tale of doris and rock shareing a party line and at war with each other,even though they have never met.when he sees her rock lies and pretends to be someone else to date her,and the fun begins! 5 stars
2.lover come back=really just a retread of pillow talk,but this time as ad people who are working against each other(but have never met,see how it works!!),after a huge mistake they meet and rock pretends to be someone else to,wait for it,DATE her again. this one is as funny if not better than pillow talk!! 5 stars
3.send me no flowers= rock and doris are married and rock is always going to the doctor thinking he's sick. after a mix up(hum,where has that happened before????)he thinks he's dieing and sets out to find doris a new husband. 4 stars
the whole set would be better if it had some(any)extras,but you do get a cd of hit songs from doris' movies.

I am a fan of Doris Day. My soul smiles when I'm watching one of her movies. This is probably the greatest collection of her movies. Doris & Rock are great together and Tony Randall is absolutly hilarious in all three movies. Doris is an awesome actress. She reminds me of sunshine and flowers. I have a large collection of her movies and when I just want to feel 'happy' I'll watch them. My favorite comedies are "Pillow Talk", "Lover Come Back", "The Thrill of it All" & "Move Over Darling" (which is FINALLY being released on DVD this month). My favorite drama is "Love Me or Leave Me" and suspense " Midnight Lace", musical "My Dream is Yours" . I think every famous male actor of that time wanted his name shared with hers on movie billboards. There's something to be said about an actress and actor who consumes your being when watching them perform. If they can make you laugh or bring a tear to your eye then they have what it takes to be classified as an actor. Betty Davis said "there is a difference between an actress and a movie star" - by Davis' definition, Doris is an actress! She is fantastic in every genre of film and is also a gifted singer. What a voice! Again, when I feel I need a lift I'll put on her CD's. As for fashion statements...she ranks with Audrey Hepburn in this category. She brings class and elegance to the fashion industry. She epitomizes class and pizazz. She is a fantastic actress who lives in my heart. You can't go wrong with any Doris Day movie.