Send Me No Flowers (1964)

How sad is this?

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

No offence intended here, f-f-folks, but I seriously think that the only sort of person who could ever possibly get any kind of real enjoyment out of this completely contrived, suburbanized piece-of-fluff would be a total square.This film's unfunny, badly-conceived story-line is, in a sense, very much in tune with its time (the early 1960s). In other words, it's a prime example of an over-long TV Sit-Com/Soap Opera at its absolute worst.This is the kind of story that's teaming with despicably boring, suburbanized couples where the dreary housewives (in their teased-up hairdos and fluffy slippers) get their daily fix of local gossip from Ernie, the milkman, who never fails to have some juicy bit of dirt to stir up their interest and liven up their horrendously drab, little lives.This movie, whose story gets more and more moronic by the minute, is overflowing with whining, snivelling characters and really terrible attempts at slapstick comedy.And, in order to hopefully generate some much-needed laughs, this film's story actually stoops to getting Rock Hudson's & Tony Randall's characters into bed with each other. Of course, this business is all done very innocently, but, now that we are all very aware of what Hudson's sexual preference was, I take this dumb scene as being something of an in-joke that clearly went right over the heads of the movie-audiences back in 1964.In my opinion, Doris Day & Rock Hudson made for a totally unconvincing on-screen couple. There was no chemistry, whatsoever, happening between these 2. And I would never, ever believe in a million years that a man of Hudson's good looks would ever find anything attractive or marriage-worthy about the likes of that annoyingly-stunned, super-flake, Doris Day. (Sheesh! Like, hey, give me a break, already!)This film's wafer-thin story about George Kimball, a hypochondriac pain-in-the-neck, who tells everyone else, except his nagging wife, Judy, that he believes he's only got 2 weeks to live, literally hangs onto its wits by a single thread. And, with that, it milks this stupidest of situations right to its very last drop. (Ho-Hum!) *Trivia note* - This film's title song, which was sung by Doris Day, was written by Hal David & Burt Bacharach.

Send Me No Flowers (1964)I know a lot of us have affection for Doris Day and her regular woman spunky Mom next door approach. And Rock Hudson and his sidekick Tony Randall are first rate comic actors. Even director Norman Jewison is a solid force in 1960s and 70s Hollywood, if not one of their inventive geniuses (think "Fiddler on the Roof" and "Moonstruck"). So I understand that a lot of people have liked this movie for its lighthearted charm and the bright 1964 colors and sets.But at its it's a rotten movie. The script is one of the worst you can imagine--simplistic in its main idea, with clumsy or even mindless dialog, and a kind of television-at-its-worst tone. This is especially distressing because Julius Epstein wrote it--he's one of the Epstein twins who did the "Casablanca" screenplay. It might be actually a simple fact that Epstein was from a different generation than the movie's characters and he didn't have a feel for the Cold War let alone this flip side to the Cold War. Put all this another way? This ain't no "Pillow Talk."That 1959 movie, most of you know, is the classic Doris Day/Rock Hudson comedy, and it plays well into both of their personas (and includes Randall, too). It has some really funny writing, a clever idea that lets Hudson work his acting chops a bit, and a more neurotic and annoying/lovable Day. Here you have to get into a kind of loping cornball, a series of interludes of comic anger and one-liner comebacks. It does have a fascinating aspect in the second half where Randall moves in with Hudson and there is a pre-saging (pre-staging?) of "The Odd Couple" (which Randall would later perform on television. They even are in bad together (unhappily), which you couldn't yet do in Hollywood due to the last vestiges of the Hays Code. (Hudson was gay, Randall was not, if this matters much.)Hudson rushes into the bright, sunny kitchen and says, "When a man's wife thinks he's having an affair, how can he convince her he's not?"Randall titters, "He can't." (This is right where there is an interesting early product placement: Rice Krispies and Maxwell House.) Randall (a lawyer) then suggests he confess he's having an affair as a way to break through the problem. Comic potential--and it gets a bit more silly than funny, but it does lead to the most interesting parts of the movie. Stick it out that far if you can.Maybe it's wrong to expect too much from any Doris Day movie (full disclosure: I find her more annoying than lovable). It's a time in both America and in the movies where part of society wore its glibness as a kind of badge. I mean, if you see "Glass Bottomed Boat" you'll see this maybe at it's clearest. Or here, where there is so little to really think or care about, except maybe enjoying the company of the three main characters, as far as that can go. It is kind of gussied up sit-com television half hour stretched into a full 100 minutes.

Send Me No Flowers is a very entertaining film, and a real treat for fans of Doris Day and Rock Hudson. I marginally prefer Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back, but Send Me No Flowers is still very good. It is a touch too long however, and it lags a tad on occasions. Even with these very minor criticisms, it is very sophisticated and funny. The script has many witty lines delivered with panache by all involved, and the story although the subject matter is somewhat morbid manages to be beautifully constructed and sophisticated. The production values are beautiful especially in the cinematography and Doris Day's clothes, while the music is lovely with an irresistible title song. The acting is great, Rock Hudson in particular is brilliant in a difficult role, while Paul Lynde really stands out being hysterical as the cemetery plot salesman and Doris Day still has that fresh and endearing approach that I love her for. Also Norman Jewison does do a stellar job directing. Overall, very nice film. 8/10 Bethany Cox

After directing Doris Day in 1963's still-hilarious "The Thrill of It All!", Norman Jewison showed similar comic sensibilities with this screwball 1964 marital farce complemented by a sharp screenplay by longtime veteran Julius Epstein. This one represents something of a departure in that Day and Rock Hudson, in their third and last pairing, 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 likability, Day is relegated to the role of the confused wife here, though she has funny moments along the way. Randall steals practically 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 films, 1959's "Pillow Talk" and 1961's "Lover Come Back" and is usually dismissed as a domestic comedy, but I think the set-up is genuinely clever and the laughs well-earned. The only extra on the 2005 DVD is the original theatrical trailer. For those interested in all three films, your best bet is to purchase the bargain-priced "Doris Day and Rock Hudson Comedy Collection".