Too much of everything

To me, this movie is perfection.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

Just before refreshing my memory of this film, I watched "The Glass Bottom Boat" , also costarring Doris. It's also a romantic comedy, but very different in tone from the present film. It includes more slapstick, and is not centered around apartments and nightclubs, as is the present film. I found it at least as amusing as the present film, and recommend that you check it out(Amazingly, it's free on YouTube). I realize that the present film was very popular in it's day, considered risque. Of course, today it seems quite tame, and even dated. It includes a few instances of slapstick. For instance, Rock tries to get in Doris's tiny sports car, but can't begin to fit all of his 6'4" frame in. So, they have to hire a taxi to get her home(So, what happens to her car they left at the nightspot?) .....The common prejudice that a desirable man should have had many girlfriends and should be sexually experienced, while his ideal wife-to-be should have had rather few boyfriends, and still be a virgin, more or less, is represented by Rock's and Doris's characters. That is one source of conflict, as judging from his use of their party line, he seems to have too many girlfriends for her liking, making him too conceited and seemingly untamable. He spends too much time talking to them, so that she can't use her phone to deal with her clients.. That's another sore point, which they more or less agree to remedy. Doris likes men who take her out and don't expect a sexual payback, men like Tony Randall(Johnathan), who keeps asking her to marry him, and she keeps saying she doesn't love him, which may be true, or just a smokescreen for the fact that she mostly likes her sexless single life. Then, she happens to meet Rock in a restaurant, not knowing what he looks like. He disguises his voice and persona as a born and bred Texan. She falls for him, until she discovers he's her hated party line neighbor. She's steaming mad at his deception, and embarrassed that she fell for it(It was quite good!). The last part of the film deals with Doris's role in redecorating Rock's apartment. She wants to get back at him for his deception and his innovative mechanical aids rigged up to facilitate his lovemaking. So she comes up with something quite garish. In turn, he wants to get back at her for making his apartment such a sight. Watch the film to find out how he does it. Then, from being hoping mad at each other, they let down their defenses way too quickly to be believable.....I didn't understand how Doris figured out that Rock the Texan was also Brad, merely by playing a note on the piano from the sheet music she found in his coat. This was a pivotal point in the story....The caper when Rock ducks into a baby doctor's office to avoid being seen, then is seen by the nurse leaving the ladies room next door, sets up the final scene in the film, when more evidence appears that he has a sex identity problem......Doris gets to sing a couple of songs, including the title song. I like the romantic song she sings when in the car with Rock, on the way to Conn.

Movies that were controversial during the Hollywood Golden Age are rarely still controversial in the contemptuous decade of the 2010s; Pillow Talk is yet another reminder of this notion. Back in 1959, S-E-X was on the shitlist of every major movie studio, but audiences were sickening of perfumey, sanitized entertainment. Doris Day was the epitome of that cloying wholesomeness — to the world, she was the 40 year-old virgin, a woman carrying all the sexiness of your mom. So imagine. It's 1959. You're sitting in a theater, waiting for your movie to start. Then, a preview for Pillow Talk comes on. You see Doris Day, her buttery voice in the background, singing the title theme. You automatically roll your eyes. But then, Rock Hudson, playing a womanizing cad, blames Day's hygienic uptightness on her lack of action in the bedroom. You're taken aback. Since when have "bedroom problems" been discussed in a movie?Naturally, everyone saw the film when it was released; it made $19 million (which was considered to be a blockbuster in the penny-for-an- ice-cream decade), renewed Day's status as a bona fide movie queen, and reestablished Hudson's box-office appeal. It was the talk of the town, a "racy" romantic comedy that could be charming but also risky.But now, Pillow Talk is merely a charming romantic comedy without the racy riskiness it carried in 1959. Doris Day is still about as sexy as your mom and the film is still perfumey, even if it is a little less sanitized than other rom-coms of the decade. Yet, Day and Hudson are attractive. The CinemaScope makes even the gaudiest of colors feel chic and nostalgic. The exchanges between the characters are sitcomy in an I Love Lucy way. The ballsy courageousness of Pillow Talk has severely waned over the years, but its appeal hasn't.Day portrays Jan Morrow, an interior decorator, and Hudson plays Brad Allen, a playboy musician. They live in the same apartment building and are forced to share a telephone party line; naturally, Jan accidentally interrupts many of Brad's gooey conversations with various women. She scoffs. She needs to make calls too, after all. Jan goes to the telephone company to complain, but the employee they send to resolve the situation is seduced by Brad. Of course. Jan has never seen her enemy in person, but if she did, she'd surely sock him.Well, that's what'd you think. When the two bump elbows at a local restaurant one night, Jan, unaware of who Brad actually is, is instantly smitten. Brad, meanwhile, knows who she is as his best friend is taken with her himself. But the former is surprised to find how much he is attracted to Jan, even if she does have bedroom problems. In panic, he devises a Southern accent and a fake name to fool her. Brad finds himself in quite a pickle, however, when the romance begins to take a more serious turn.The chutzpah in Pillow Talk is not balls-to-the-wall daring, but rather, hesitant, somewhat unsure of its footing. If it makes a sex joke, a double-entendre of sorts, it covers it with a sheen of CinemaScope glamour. It's a precursor to the soon-to-be sexual revolution. But if the film's gutsy movements aren't as penetrative as they once were, then there should be a much bigger focus on its stars. Day has become the underdog when reflecting on vintage films, as more attention is turned towards the voluptuous Marilyn Monroe or the exotic Sophia Loren. But she is a true talent, effortlessly at ease in her performances and radiant when she sings. She is at her best in Pillow Talk, marking a new name for herself in bright red permanent marker and knowing it will stick. The chemistry between Hudson and Day is uncomplicated and natural, transitioning smoothly from comedy foils to love interests.These days, you can see Pillow Talk's influence. Some scenes have the pupil staining pigmentation of an Almodóvar film. Others contain the split screen camera-work that would plague mod '60s capers and various television shows. If it hasn't aged well in consideration to the new age, then Pillow Talk should be seen as a template, a quintessential romantic comedy.

The story goes like this. We begin the movie with Jan Morrow. She is a frustrated, rude woman that has no patients. She is also not in any kind of a relationship. I guess she's waiting for the right one to come along. She is sharing a party line with Brad Allen, played by Rock Hudson. He is the opposite of her because he is far from frustrated. He has relationships with the opposite sex every night. In the middle of these two is their friend Jonathan Forbes, played by Tony Randall. Jonathan also happens to want Jan and has no idea Brad even knows her. Jan and Brad have many arguments and they aren't exactly crazy about one another. That's until Brad sees her at a restaurant and overhears who she is. Being that Jan appeals to Brad and that he also feels like screwing with her head, he wins her over and begins a romantic relationship with her. Only she doesn't know who he is. He is Brad Allen on the phone, but with her in person, he is a Texan named Rex Stetson. His western accent hides his real voice that she hears on the phone. When watching the movie, you wonder if she'll find out who he really is. And if she does, what will happen.There are so many funny scenes in this movie that I don't even know where to begin. The three actors in this movie are great together. We have Rock Hudson, Doris Day and Tony Randall, a perfect trio for a romantic comedy. This movie is very funny and fun to watch. This is probably my favorite movie that Rock Hudson and Doris Day made together. See this classic. See this great romantic comedy and you won't be disappointed. Turn it on, get a bowl of popcorn and watch a great movie. It's great for a date night.

This is a very successful romantic comedy. It's often maligned because Doris Day doesn't hop into bed with the robust Rock Hudson, but, after all, this is the 1950s and, also after all, she's willing enough to spend the weekend in Connecticut with Hudson's alter ego. What do you think they're going to do in that woodland cottage for two days -- make fudge? Doris and Rock have never met but share a party line and argue constantly on the phone about the problems it's causing. Hudson accidentally bumps into Day at a night club. He recognizes her, and immediately forms one of his usual rakish plots. She's attracted too but doesn't know who he really is because he assumes the identity of an honest, naive and filthy rich visitor from Texas. Tony Randall plays a splendidly comic third banana, trying to talk Day into marrying him and becoming his fourth wife.But -- true enough -- you have to alter your mind set to fully appreciate the comic touches. It's like watching an exceptionally well-done example of a TV situation comedy, more risqué than others, and certainly more expensively mounted. The set dressers did such a good job that a couple of imitations that followed turned tastefully appointed apartments into vulgar displays. (I'll mention "One Thousand Bedrooms" as an example.) A lot of the humor depends on homosexuality, a subject still amusing at the time, especially when applied to the ironically masculine Rock Hudson. And the story is studded with sex jokes and double entendres. Randall advises Hudson: "A mature man looks forward to being married and having his branches cut off." Actually Randall is flawless. And even Doris Day gives a professional performance. Her double takes are sometimes exquisite. Hudson isn't asked to do more than smile and be charming in a phony way and he does it well.Sometimes I wonder if I'm not more impressed with Doris Day than I ought to be, or, on the other hand, if others appreciate her talent. A German girl from Cincinnati (where else?) she was cute as hell, first of all, and had a sassy figure. Second, an appealing soprano. She could act, too, and not only in roles like this one. She was better than could be expected in early dramatic parts in "The Man Who Knew Too Much" and "Storm Warning," but her career never really took off. "Pillow Talk" and its sequelae established her, at least in a certain generic context, but she was already approaching forty. It was just the right age for the kinds of characters she played but I suppose her directors wanted teen agers with gigantic bosoms because within a few years, her close ups were filmed through lenses smeared with Vaseline or KY Jelly or something. Bog in Heaven, how Hollywood fears age. Even performers who have become magnificent wrecks are spurned. Fortunately, age has not withered MY infinite variety, though I can't say the same for my three ex wives. Okay, that was a nasty crack. To quote my drill instructor in boot camp, what's the sense of getting out of bed in the morning if you can't give somebody the shaft during the day? That man was a saint, although although he was sick and perverted. Actually the comment was meant as a compliment to Doris Day. But alright, alright. It's still an unnecessary vile remark. Can I take it back? See this movie -- or give me twenty.