★ 8 / 10
Look, you're dealing with your wife. You can
John Chard
Look, you're dealing with your wife. You can forget the Constitution. Send Me No Flowers is directed by Norman Jewison and collectively written by Julius J.…
Look, you're dealing with your wife. You can forget the Constitution.
Send Me No Flowers is directed by Norman Jewison and collectively written by Julius J. Epstein, Norman Barasch and Carroll Moore. It stars Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall, Clint Walker, Edward Andrews, Paul Lynde and Patricia Barry. Music is by Frank De Vol and cinematography by Danial Fapp.
A hypochondriac believes he is dying and makes plans for his wife, which creates many misunderstandings for themselves and everyone around them...
The pairing of Hudson and Day was an utter joy, producing romantic comedy escapism from the upper echelons of such genre stations. Send Me No Flowers is the last of their collaborations, so how wonderful to find it to be a grand way to bow out.
In parts it's thunderously mirthful, even joyously tasteless in the process, in others it's mature and smart about the subjects to hand. Cast are on fire across the board, but this is undoubtedly Hudson's show all the way. He puts a gracefulness into what is a tricky role, while his sly comedic timing - both visually and vocally - is top dollar.
This is a guaranteed bad mood lifter, a pic to blow away the black clouds for a while. The actors are great company to be in, the writing cunning with humorous intent. From some nifty animation at pic's start to introduce Hudson's character's hypochondria, to the sight of the hulking Clint Walker getting out of the world's smallest car! this never lets up on the passion to entertain us. 8/10
Read full review
★ 7 / 10
The best of the three Hudson/Day comedies
mrsastor
While not terribly well received here on IMDb, this is in my opinion the best of the three Hudson/Day/Randall teamings. While Pillow Talk remains fresh and…
While not terribly well received here on IMDb, this is in my opinion the best of the three Hudson/Day/Randall teamings. While Pillow Talk remains fresh and sharp fifty years later (with Lover Come Back being a rather unfortunate and less enjoyable recycling of the same script), it is Send Me No Flowers that gets the most air-play of the three in our home video library.From the superb opening theme song performed by Doris Day, we are transported into the beautiful suburbia of yesteryear. Rock Hudson's George Kimball is absolutely hilarious as the king of all hypochondriacs (if you've ever known such a person, you'll die laughing). And for 1964 it makes some rather amusing and insightful observations into the nature of medicinal advertising. Ms. Day plays wife Judy Kimball; she is a delight as always and it's perhaps the most satisfying aspect of the screenplay that at last Hudson and Day are married and thus involved in a relationship that extends beyond never-realized innuendo. Randall plays the usual right-next-door character attached to Hudson's, Arnold Nash, and again this is the best of the virtually identical characters he plays in the three movies they made together.Being the hypochondriac that he is, Kimball misinterprets a conversation he overhears at the doctor's office and subsequently believes he is dying. Once he and his accomplice Arnold absorb the blow, they set about to find a suitable replacement husband for Judy to marry once George is gone. It's really a rather touchingly honorable intention and also generates the bulk of the misunderstandings that constitute the remainder of the film.There are some negatives, these are things we see through our 21st century eyes and were certainly never intended to be offensive at the time. These mainly revolve around Day's character; Judy Kimball is a beautiful and intelligent woman, but is given no other pastimes in the entire course of the film other than playing golf and preparing her husband's breakfast. And despite being beautiful and intelligent, George apparently considers her to be too big of an idiot to ever possibly survive without him, and thus he must find a man to take care of her once he is gone. She has no children, no occupation, doesn't understand a mortgage, can't write a check to the gas station correctly, her greatest interest is in the impending divorce of a neighbor she doesn't even know and she apparently doesn't even know what she pays for groceries. We are clearly shown George's greatest dread as he imagines a number of scenarios in which Judy evidently has no judgment whatsoever and is easy prey to any slick con artist that should come along once she is widowed. It might also be said that this is absolutely typical of the way virtually all women are depicted in movies and television of this era.Like all three of the Hudson/Day/Randall comedies, this one is lush and colorful, with exquisite sets and wardrobe. The supporting cast are excellent, particularly Paul Lynde as the cemetery proprietor and Edward Andrews as Kimball's exasperated physician. This film carries a warm, comfortable feel of a happier bygone era and packs lots of laughs. Highly recommended.
Read full review
60%
TOMATOMETER
· 15 reviews
74%
AUDIENCE
· 5K ratings
7.0/10
8.2K
•••
classics forever