Send Me No Flowers

George Kimball, a hypochondriac, misunderstands his doctor's phone call and believes he is dying. Rather than tell his wife Judy he decides to find her a new husband. He buys a burial plot and brings in an old flame of hers. When Judy reads his agitation another way, the marriage really does come to the edge. Norman Jewison directed. Rock Hudson plays George, Doris Day plays Judy and Tony Randall plays their neighbour Arnold. It opened on 14 October 1964 and took 9.1 million dollars domestically. It is the third and last film Hudson and Day made together, after Pillow Talk in 1959 and Lover Come Back in 1961. Hal David and Burt Bacharach wrote the title song. The reviews were mixed. The New York Times called the situation a beautiful farce; Variety wrote that it does not carry the same voltage as the earlier Hudson and Day collaborations. Doris Day won the Laurel Award for Top Female Comedy Performance. Who it is for: viewers who like the bright-coloured Hollywood comedy of the sixties and the Hudson and Day pairing. Who it is not for: anyone bothered by the period's marital comedy. A husband deciding on his wife's behalf is never questioned here.