I decided to go with a classic today.
1959's Pillow Talk is a romantic-comedy starring Doris Day and Rock Hudson. Most romantic-comedies I don't get into. It's just not one of my favorite film genres. However, there are a few that I enjoy and this is one of them. The films plot is about two strangers, with very different personalities, who are forced to share a telephone party line. Rock Hudson's character Brad is a womanizing musician who hogs the phoneline all day, much to the dismay of Doris Day's character Jan. While they've never met in person, the two bicker over the phone and Jan even files a complaint with the telephone company. By sheer coincidence the two end up at the same nightclub one evening. While Brad overhears her name and immediately realizes it's the woman from the other end of the phone, she has no idea what he looks like. So, Brad puts on a fake Texas accent and basically acts like the opposite of himself. Over the course of the film the two start to fall in love but, as all these types of stories go, the lie is eventually revealed.
This premise itself is obviously nothing special. Two people who dislike each other falling in love because one (or both) of them doesn't realize who the other person is, had been done before and has been done since. Where this film shines is in the performances of not only Hudson and Day, but the whole cast. Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter, and Marcel Dalio are just as memorable as the lead characters. It's also well-written, it moves at a good pace, and a lot of the comedic beats do hit the mark. The film even won the Oscar for Best Screenplay beating out, among others, North by Northwest.
Overall, it's just a fun, light-hearted movie that I enjoy and recommend checking out if you've never seen it.
4 out of 5
No comments:
Post a Comment