Lover Come Back

Plot Summary

• In a Manhattan advertising agency, Jerry Webster (Rock Hudson), a Madison Avenue ad executive, has achieved success not through hard work or intelligence but by wining and dining his clients and setting them up on dates with attractive women. Jerry's equal and sworn enemy at a rival agency is Carol Templeton (Doris Day). Although she has never met him, Carol is disgusted by Jerry's unethical tactics and reports him to the Ad Council. Jerry avoids trouble with his usual aplomb, sending a comely chorus girl, Rebel Davis (Edie Adams), to seduce the council members.In exchange for her cooperation, Jerry promised Rebel a spot in commercials, so he goes ahead and arranges shoots of some featuring her for "VIP," a nonexistent product. He has no intention of allowing them to be shown, but the perplexed company president, Pete Ramsey (Tony Randall), orders them broadcast on television.This means Jerry must come up with a product quickly. He bribes a Nobel Prize winning chemist, Dr. Linus Tyler (Jack Kruschen), to create one. When Carol mistakes Jerry for Tyler, he pretends to be the chemist, so that in her attempt to steal the account from Jerry she is actually wining, dining, golfing, and frolicking at the beach with him as Tyler.Carol ultimately learns the truth. Appalled, she once more reports him to the Ad Council, this time for promoting a product that does not exist. Jerry, however, arrives at the hearing with VIP, a mint-flavored candy Dr. Tyler has just created. He provides many free samples to everyone there, including Carol.VIP turns out to be intoxicating, each piece having the same effect as a triple martini. Its extreme effects lead to a one-night stand between Carol (who has a low tolerance for alcohol) and her bitter rival, Jerry, in a motel in Maryland, complete with a marriage license. Carol has the marriage annulled. Representatives from the liquor industry visit Jerry, saying he will be paid well to pull VIP off the market and destroy the formula. Jerry convinces them to give Carol's firm 25% of its $60 million ($600 million today) annual advertising expenditures, then burns a confession that he has just signed that they mistake for the formula. He leaves New York to work in his company's San Francisco branch-only to be called back nine months later to remarry Carol in a hospital maternity ward, just before she gives birth to their child.

Storyline

• Jerry Webster and Carol Templeton are both in the advertising business, but for different agencies. Annoyed by Jerry's methods of using alcohol and women to ensure contracts for his agency, Carol tries to get him thrown out of his profession. To avoid this Jerry bribes the girl who would testify against him by starring her in a TV commercial for a product named VIP that he's just made up. By accident these commercials are broadcast, and to keep his job, Jerry must come up with VIP for which he enlists the help of Doctor Linus Tyler. Carol goes to see the Doctor to try to get the VIP account, but because she and Jerry have never met, she mistakes Jerry for the Doctor. Jerry takes advantage of this situation to win her. — Leon Wolters <wolters@strw.LeidenUniv.nl> A series of misunderstandings between Carol Templeton and Jerry Webster, representatives of two different advertising agencies, leads to a campaign for a product VIP, which doesn't exist. Meanwhile, Jerry romances Carol, although she does not realize who he is. — Huggo In New York, Madison Avenue is the center of the advertising world, divided into workers and drones like a beehive. Carol Templeton is a professional that has just arrived from Omaha, Nebraska, to work in the Bracket, McGalpin and Gaines Advertising, expecting to be a winner through hard work. The unethical Jerry Webster works in the Ramsey and Son and entertains his clients with sexy women, bribes, and booze to ensure contracts for his agency. When the Southern J. Paxton Miller comes to New York to close the contract of the Cera Miller account, Carol prepares a presentation to the old man. However, Jerry wins the account by taking Miller to a nightclub with strippers, booze and a party later in his penthouse with the strippers, led by Rebel Davis. Carol is upset and goes to the advertising council to throw Jerry out of the advertising business. However, Jerry lures Rebel, who is to testify against him, offering the position of VIP girl in TV commercials for the new product VIP. Then he asks the team to not broadcast but only file the footage, since VIP doesn't actually exist. However, insecure Peter 'Pete' Ramsey, who has inherited the Ramsey and Son, orders a massive advertising campaign broadcasting the commercials to show himself off to his employees. In order to save his job and the agency, Jerry hires Doctor Linus Tyler, who is a lonely man, to develop VIP. Meanwhile, Carol decides to take the VIP account for her agency and she visits Dr. Tyler. However, she meets Jerry instead and believes that he is the famous scientist awarded with the Nobel Prize. Now Carol wants to convince Dr. Tyler to come to her agency and the cynical Jerry uses the situation to seduce Carol. — Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil