Mubi Monday: Pillow Talk (1959)

Although the idea may seem beyond comprehension to modern viewers, Pillow Talk is a rom-com based around the idea of two people sharing a party line. They both have a telephone, and can listen in on the conversations of the other. This causes a problem when one is a well-behaved young lady and the other is a, well, a bit of a cad. Hilarity, and romance, ensues. Of course.

Doris Day is Jan Morrow, the lady in this tale, an interior designer with a good life and no man in it to cause her any grief. Rock Hudson is Brad Allen, the cad, a man who plays the same tune on his guitar for different women, just changing the name to suit whoever he might be wooing. Brad is getting romantic with a number of woman. Jan is trying to politely avoid the affections of one of her clients, Jonathan (Tony Randall). Jonathan also happens to be friends with Brad, which is how the cad finds out about the lovely appeal of a woman who he has only encountered so far over the telephone, with her interrupting his calls to ask for some time on her own line. Brad decides to have some fun, giving himself a Texan persona to try and seduce Jan. As things play out, he finds himself falling for her, which makes things complicated as the truth must eventually out.

Written by Stanley Shapiro (who wrote a few movies featuring the pairing of Day and Hudson) and Maurice Richlin, Pillow Talk is light fun, entirely predictable throughout, and a real delight. And I do mean a delight. Director Michael Gordon has a filmography with very few titles that leap out as classics (this and the Day/Garner film Move Over, Darling being the highlights, from my experience), but he does a good enough job here. Everything is as bright and breezy as it should be, and the script has enough great laughs to keep things ticking over.

But this isn't really a film about the directorial style, it's a film about Day and Hudson working alongside one another. Both highly enjoyable stars in their own right, having them together onscreen creates the kind of chemistry we don't see enough of. I can't really think of any modern comparisons, although I am open to suggestions. Randall does just fine in his role, although he's really just the third wheel for most of the film, and Thelma Ritter steals a few scenes, playing a drunken housekeeper who has had her share of enjoyment listening in on the party line.

It's old-fashioned, in some ways it feels far too dated, and coasts along more on the charms of the two leads than any other aspect of the film, although things are done well, but I will happily watch this whenever I want to spend 102 minutes in good company. Day has always made me smile, just by appearing onscreen, and Hudson is as charismatic as she is beatific. They would enable me to enjoy even a bad movie, and this is by no means a bad movie.

8/10

You can buy the movie here.
Americans can get a nice 4-pack here.