I bought a Rock Hudson and Doris Day DVD set the other day, the Romance Collection, consisting of three disks. I've seen their movies before, some time ago, and knew I'd enjoy them. I was correct in that. What I wasn't prepared for was that these films are a lot less innocent than I remembered. There's is nothing wrong with that, and they are pretty innocent in the way it's all presented in that a lot isn't said outright.
For example, in Pillow Talk, Doris Day's character is made to suspect that Rock Hudson's character is gay (oh, the irony of hindsight). At no point is anything said about him liking men, but there are more subtle, somewhat stereotyped ways of making it clear what's being talked about. Things like he may be too interested in recipes and too close to his mother. When Doris Day is trying to determine his orientation, she asks, "Are you attracted to me?"
The second movie, Baby Come Back, has even more. There was the one reference to sexuality when it came to a male employee of Doris Day's who has a lilac floor in his kitchen, but the thing that caught me by surprise was the unnamed mention of pot. Essentially the same plot as Pillow Talk, Rock Hudson's character was pretending to be someone else while persuing Doris Day, as her character hated his even though they had never met. When caught by her in his own apartment, he had to concoct a reason for being there. What he came with was not remembering anything after being offered a strange cigarette by his real self, one with no writing on the paper. If there was any doubt they were talking about marijuana, Doris Day's reaction to this outrage erased that.
The biggest shocker to me was how obvious it was that not only did Rock Hudson's character have non-marital sex, one well-timed phone call that revealed his true identity was all that prevented Doris Day from getting into bed with him. As it was, when they did get into bed it was only after getting married while very drunk, and that was annulled soon after. Of course they got married again nine months later, just as Doris Day was going into labour (he had moved to another city, so was unaware of her pregnancy).
I'm not complaining about any of this. It makes it fun looking for this stuff, and adds a spicy touch to the procedings. I've always been a fan of the two, and it's nice to know that Doris Day's non-Hitchcock movies weren't completely lily white.
posted
by Tabby at 10/25/2004 03:24:00 p.m.
