COME SEPTEMBER
US, 1961, 112 minutes, Colour.
Rock Hudson, Gina Lollobrigida, Sandra Dee, Bobby Darin, Walter Slezak, Brenda de Banzie, Joel Grey, Rosanna Rory, Ronald Howard.
Directed by Robert Mulligan.
Come September is a fluffy sex comedy, very popular at Universal Studios in the late '50s and early '60s. Rock Hudson appeared in many of these films - often in the company of Doris Day. Stanley Shapiro, Oscar-winning author of Pillow Talk with Day and Hudson, co-wrote this screenplay. It is lightweight and generally pleasantly inconsequential. It is of interest in the romantic teaming of Rock Hudson and Gina Lollobrigida. They were to appear some years later in Melvin Frank's more amusing Strange Bedfellows. The film also capitalises on the popularity of Sandra Dee and Bobby Darin at the time. There is some amusing support by Walter Slezak, Brenda de Banzie and Joel Grey, who was later to establish himself in Cabaret. Direction is by Robert Mulligan, a director of many sensitive films with social implications including Fear Strikes Out, Love With The Proper Stranger, Up The Down Staircase.
The filming of Come September appears in Kevin Spacey’s portrait of Bobby Darin, Beyond the Sea (2003) and his marrying Sandra Dee.
1. The popularity of this kind of comedy? Romance? Sex comedy?
2. The conventions of this kind of comedy: European locations, the atmosphere of affluence, the playboy hero, the romantic heroine? The supporting cast - juvenile romantic leads? The background comedy of the older generation? Deceptions, sex farce and innuendo, coincidences, happy resolution?
3. The contribution of the colour photography, European locations? Sets and decor? The musical score and its atmosphere? Audiences accepting the implausible plot as plausible? The rich American hero with his financial background, holidays in Europe, mistress in Europe? The beautiful Italian mistress and her making the most of the house left to her? The wily major-domo and his establishing the house as a hotel? The range of guests? The tangle when the owner arrives a month early?
4. Rock Hudson's style of romantic hero? The American style, wealthy background, business? His romance with Lisa? His attitude towards his major-domo? Their deceiving him? His interest in the young generation? The amusing contrasts with the ageing generation and the younger generation? The happy resolution?
5. Gina Lollobrigida as romantic lead? Her fiery Italian style? The generation gap with the young visitors? Her double-dealing with the hotel? Her happy resolution of the difficulties - after romance, fights, reconciliations?
6. The major-domo and his shrewd use of the villa for a hotel? His trying to keep up the deception? The discovery of the truth? The young group?
7. Sandy and Tony and their falling in love? The songs provided for them? Geared for the teenage response of the times? The rest of the young group, especially Beagle? Innocuous juvenile romance themes? The humour with the chaperone?
8. The film's reliance on contrivance, mistaken situations and identities? How amusing? Their perennial appeal?
9. The basic irony of this kind of romantic plot - conventional values and their being contradicted? The conventional happy ending to make everything right finally? How successful of its kind was this film?
