criterionforum.org

These days while vacationing in the turquoise world of Cancun, I've been devouring The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson (thanks to davidhare for the recommendation). What a fascinating books waved with juicy details of beach studs and young truckers (with zero acting experience or education) being sculptured into Hollywood stars. Two nights ago, a storm ravaged through the Yucatan, I decided to rent a DVD player and with Rock very much alive in my mind from reading the book, I bought the only Rock Hudson movie I could find in the area I was staying in. The movie was Pillow Talk. Rain bulleting everywhere outside, I curled up with my first Rock and Doris romance.

Even though Rock played the guy in love with Doris, I was exhilarated by how gay he played in Pillow Talk. And I came across this Bright Lights Journal article that wondefully tackles everything that floored me about the movie. The comic timing is knock-out brilliant. Doris cracked me up and Rock completely charmed me. So thoroughly funny and smart. The Connecticut scene when Doris discovers the truth about Rock is a sliver of pure genius. Summer is here, Pillow Talk is perfect to watch on a lazy day. Roly-poly, YEAH!

Not a Doris Day convert yet but I loved her in Pillow Talk. The only other Day movie I saw before that is The Man Who Knew Too Much. Doris really stands out in the Hitch, the best thing about it for sure. Rock Hudson was the reason why I initially picked up Pillow Talk but then I ended up loving Doris as much as Rock.

I will make sure to watch Love Me Or Leave Me and Romance On The High Seas by the end of this week. It's too costly to buy the Doris Day Collections (two volumes) for just those two films. Plus Pillow Talk will certainly save my sick/depression days so I'm planning to buy that film as well. Love Me Or Leave Me will be on TCM tomorrow night and Romance On the High Seas is now on its way to me from Netflix.

david, I love that you mentioned Vidor and Ozu in the same sentence like you did with Walters and Dreyer for Summer Stock and Gertrud somewhere on this forum.

I saw this last night and was amazed at how underwhelming the transfer is. You would think that Universal would do a little more "interior decorating" on a film that made so much money in its time, but nope. Honestly, this is actually a pretty nice looking film that makes surprisingly fine use of the Cinemascope format, and it deserves better on DVD.

Unless the DVD I saw is an older one and they did a better one later, I can only assume each subsequent re-release (in boxed sets, or whatever) are just the same as mine.