Pillow Talk

Plot synopsis:
Jan Morrow is a successful, self-reliant interior decorator in New York City. She lives alone and claims to be quite happy, when questioned on that subject by her drunken housekeeper, Alma. The only irritant in her life is the party line that she shares with Brad Allen, a talented, creative Broadway composer and playboy who lives in a nearby apartment building. She is unable to obtain a private phone line because the telephone company has been overwhelmed by the recent demand for new phone lines in the area.
Jan and Brad, who have only ever "met" on the telephone, develop a feud over the use of the party line. Brad is constantly using the phone to chat with one young woman after another, singing to each of them an "original" love song supposedly written just for her, though he only changes the name or language he sings in. Jan and Brad bicker over the party line, with Brad suggesting that the single Jan is jealous of his popularity.
One of Jan's clients is millionaire Jonathan Forbes, who repeatedly throws himself at her to no avail. Unknown to Jan, Jonathan is Brad's old college buddy and current Broadway benefactor.
One evening in a nightclub, Brad finally sees Jan dancing and learns who she is. Attracted to her, he fakes a Texan accent and invents a new persona: Rex Stetson, wealthy Texas rancher. He succeeds in wooing Jan, and the pair begin seeing each other regularly. Jan cannot resist bragging about her new beau on the phone to Brad Allen, while Brad teases Jan by having "Rex" show an interest in traditionally effeminate things, thereby implying "Rex's" homosexuality.
When Jonathan finds out about Brad's masquerade, he forces Brad to leave New York City and go to Jonathan's cabin in Connecticut to complete his new songs. Brad invites Jan to join him. Once there, romance blossoms until Jan stumbles upon a copy of "Rex's" sheet music. She plunks the melody on the nearby piano and recognizes Brad's song. She confronts Brad and ignores his attempts at explanation, returning to New York with Jonathan, who has just arrived at the cabin
Back in New York, Jonathan is pleased to learn that the playboy has finally fallen in love, while conversely Jan will have nothing to do with Brad. Brad turns to Jan's housekeeper, Alma, for advice. Alma, pleased to finally meet Brad after listening in on the party line for so long, suggests he hire Jan to decorate his apartment so they will be forced to collaborate. Jan only concedes so that her employer will not lose the commission. Brad leaves all the design decisions up to Jan, telling her only to design a place that she'd want to live in herself.
Still quite angry, Jan decorates Brad's apartment in the most gaudy and hideous decor she can muster. Horrified by what he finds, Brad angrily storms into Jan's apartment and carries her in her pajamas through the street back to his apartment to explain herself. He tells her of all the changes he's made to end his bachelor lifestyle because he thought they were getting married. Her face lights up and, as he leaves in anger, she uses one of his "playboy" remote control switches to lock the door. She flips the second switch and the player piano pounds out a honky-tonk version of Brad's standard love song. He turns around, their eyes meet and they lovingly embrace.
At the end of the film, Brad goes to tell Jonathan that he is going to be a father, only to be pulled by Dr. Maxwell (an obstetrician) and Nurse Resnick into their office for an examination, when he says that he’s going to have a baby (a reference to when he ducks into Dr. Maxwell's office in an earlier scene to hide from Jan, but escapes before they can examine him). During the end credits, four pillows appear on the screen — pink, blue, pink, and blue — signifying the children Brad and Jan have together.

Tags: romantic, comedy

Review:
So the sexual politics maybe a little outdated, but there were some beautifully timed comedy set-pieces: The moment Doris Day discovers the real identity of Hudson's character has one of the best use of music I have seen in a movie since the Warner Bros cartoons!A film that I didn't think I would enjoy, but was completely bowled over by..
This smart and sassy sex comedy was made in 1959 but it could just as easily have been made in 1939 and the roles played here by Doris Day and Rock Hudson could have been played by Irene Dunne and Cary Grant.
This first teaming of Doris Day and Rock Hudson is a delightful, visually beautiful comedy - old-fashioned but hardly dated.
Well done Cinemax(cable TV channel) for showing this wonderful movie!Surely this must rank amongst the top romantic comedies of all time.Brilliant performances from the super stars Doris Day and Rock Hudson, with equally brilliant support from the likes of Tony Randell and Thelma Ritter.This picture is so good it had me laughing out loud constantly.Everything about this film is perfect: the script, the acting, the music, the story, the lighting, music, costumes, titles et al.Why is it that most movies of this type nowadays ain't a patch on this one?!
For example the two lovers talk romantically in separate bath-tubs in their different apartments the touching of each others feet is magically shown by the split screen.One of my favorite scenes is where Rock Hudson in one of his deceptions, pretends he is gay, and of course later history reveals the irony of that.I thought one of the best lines in the movie was when Thelma Ritter says in effect that one cannot tell a good bottle of wine from a mere sip.All in all, top class entertainment:10 out of 10..
1959'S PILLOW TALK redefined Doris' image and created an entirely new genre of the "will she or won't she" sex comedy as well as introducing one of the greatest romantic screen couplings in history...Doris Day and Rock Hudson.
Day plays Jan Morrow, an interior decorator who shares her phone line with Brad Allen (Hudson) a song-writing playboy who ties up Doris' phone by singing love songs (actually the same song) over the phone to the parade of women in his life.
Director Michael Gordon cleverly uses split-screen images to put Doris and Rock together on screen in seemingly compromising positions, very adult for 1959 and watching Brad pretending to be cowboy Rex Stetson, trying to romance Jan while Brad tries to advise Jan over the phone about what a cad Rex is, is a lot of fun.
Doris Day is dead on as Jan Morrow, a single interior decorator, living alone in New York City in the late 1950's who has to share a party line on her telephone (which was not that unusual for that day and time, as hard as it is to believe now) with Brad Allen, played with smarmy brilliance by Rock Hudson.
Doris can't stand sharing her party line with the womanizing Brad Allen, but when Allen sees her at a night club and figures out who she is and that she will never have anything to do with him if she knows his true identity, he invents an alter ego for himself, Rex, the cowboy from Texas.
Doris Day looks fantastic, in what I would consider the greatest film of her career and Rock Hudson shines in his double role - watch out for the scenes where the Doctor and Nurse mistakenly believe him to be pregnant!
They'd team for three films in all, but this is the best of them.Doris Day plays an interior decorator who finds she's sharing a telephone party line with a womanising songwriter (Hudson) - she finds him unbearable at the end of the phone, but there are definite sparks for the better when they meet for real.
Pillow Talk was the first of three films Rock Hudson and Doris Day teamed on.
Virginal interior decorator Doris Day happens to get the same party line as wolfish songwriter Rock Hudson.
Of course the imponderable of love always gets in the way in these films.Doris Day in all of her comedy films, be they with Rock Hudson or others always got a good group of supporting players.
In New York, the interior decorator Jan Morrow (Doris Day) and the wolf composer Brad Allen (Rock Hudson) share a party line, but Brad keeps it busy most of the time flirting with his girlfriends.
They do not know each other but Jan hates Brad since she needs the telephone for her business and can not use it.Coincidently Jan's wealthy client Jonathan Forbes (Tony Randall) that woos her is the best friend of Brad and he comments with him that he feels an unrequited love for Jan, who is a gorgeous woman.
This is the first time that I watch this movie and Doris Day and Rock Hudson show a great chemistry.
The plot is as follows: an intelligent, hard working woman (Doris Day) shares a phone line with a handsome womanizer (Rock Hudson) and he is always on the phone line romancing women, so she cannot use it.
After a string of serious dramas, Rock Hudson broke out into comedy and showed his adeptness to it in 1959's "Pillow Talk."As a swinging song writer, Rock was charming but nasty to the person that he shared a phone line with-Doris Day.The two really go at it as they accuse each other of monopolizing the phone.
What they don't know is that they share a common friend, the ever great Tony Randall, a millionaire in this one, who can't seem to get Day to marry him.Doris is an interior decorator in this one and when she does the home of the wealthy Lee Patrick, son, Nick Adams, in a funny performance, gets drunk while with her at a local nightclub.
Well all of the above helped me to enjoy this delightful sex comedy, however, it should be stressed that it has much more to offer.I loved that Doris was showing a more sexually knowing side with the character of Jan, I really feel that the chemistry between Hudson & Day is casting gold, and boy is the story a cheeky joyous romp.
Tidyily scripted and containing some visual treats {watch as Hudson towers over Randall whilst Randall picks him apart}, Pillow Talk is a film for film lovers to enjoy no matter what is the individual's preferred genre.Looking at the history of the film I was not surprised to find that it was a massive box office success, for although the film may have been {and still seen this way now} a bit too sweet and sickly for some, it is actually a delightful wink wink nudge nudge comedy that we could do with more of in this day and age.
It won an Oscar for "Best Screen-writing".Pillow Talk starred Doris Day and Rock Hudson.
The on-screen chemistry between Doris Day and Rock Hudson is among the best in film history.
Add the scene-stealing capabilties of Tony Randall and Thelma Ritter and "Pillow Talk" ranks as one of Hollywood's all-time romantic comedies..
I can still remember my mother telling me of how much she loved Doris Day and that I would have to find a certain movie for her that also had Rock Hudson in it.
Instantly I fell in love with Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall!
Funny and charming--Rock Hudson and Doris Day are at their best in their first film pairing..
"Pillow Talk" was the first time Rock Hudson and Doris Day were teamed as a romantic couple, and it is easy to see why they became so popular as a team.
Doris is cast as Jan Morrow, a successful interior designer and Rock Hudson is Brad Allen, the playboy songwriter with whom she is forced to share a party line.
Humming in her underwear, full-figured interior decorator Doris Day (as Jan Morrow) wants to make an important telephone call, but her New York City "party line" is occupied by playboy songwriter Rock Hudson (as Brad Allen).
Immediately attracted, Hudson assumes a phony Texas accent and begins to court his attractive blonde phone-mate..."Pillow Talk" was the first Rock Hudson & Doris Day comedy.
Frank DeVol's soundtrack music is perfect and Day's "Pillow Talk" title song is one of her best.******** Pillow Talk (10/6/59) Michael Gordon ~ Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter.
After hearing about Jonathan's infatuation with Jan, who Brad has never met, and after coincidentally coming across her in a bar, he adopts a fake Texan accent and backstory, and seduces Jan. Aiming to teach her a lesson, it's only a matter of time before his cover is blown and the possibility that he may just fall in love with her.The sight of Doris Day and Rock Hudson, with their squeaky-clean personas and rather smug characters, is usually enough to induce vomiting.
Tony Randall, always a reliable supporting character, is great fun too.Modern-day romantic comedies should take notes from this on how to create a film with actual chemistry between the two leads, a witty script, and genuine charm.
Pillow Talk (1959)A silly comedy, not quite screwball, but clever as can be, and filled with things you sort of half expected but when they happen they are even funnier because you knew it was coming.Rock Hudson is super charming as the heterosexual stud he wasn't, in real life (his character makes a hilarious comment about gay men, the ones who like recipes etc.).
One of the things I appreciate about this film is that Rock Hudson (even in his country hick role) comes across as a grown man behaving with restraint rather than an asexual half-child who hardly knows what to do with a woman, a character all too popular in old Hollywood comedies.
One must see the film to appreciate the expressions of Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter or the nurse and doctor, with delivery of so many laughter lines.
I saw "pillow talk" when I was a child and it's still much fun to watch when you are older.Two people who share the same phone line ,one of them has never found love,the other literally lives in love,surrounded by gorgeous women,mad about him and his syrupy songs (one verse sung in French).The phone calls are just a joy with a good use of the split screen,and the gynecologist and his nurse provide the movie with hilarious moments.Is the scene in which Hudson tells Day that her love (himself in fact) could have an over possessive mother and may be his taste might be special ,a private joke ?Fine songs ,particularly the title track" and "the Rolly Polly man" and a marvelous chemistry between the two leads who remained good friends till Hudson's death..
the best of the Doris Day/Rock Hudson films.
Rock plays a playboy who is pretty nasty to his annoyed neighbor, Day. He seems to spend all his time chasing women and talking on their party line--such that she can't get much sleep or make a phone call.
Doris' comic timing and her chemistry with Rock Hudson goes unparalleled in the annals of film to this day.
I have given 'Pillow Talk' 10 out of 10 points because it is a masterpiece of its genre; late 1950s technicolor excess, a squeaky clean Manhattan, squeaky clean sexual innuendo (how refreshing!) and eye-soothing pastel colors to soothe the worst hangover ala Thelma Ritter.To add to the enjoyment is the very funny script delivered with perfect timing and vocal inflections by Rock Hudson, Tony Randall, Doris Day, Thelma Ritter and a supporting cast that makes this delightful fluff a classic of its kind.The music is good, and not too corny, the cars are beautiful and Rock Hudson is shown at the height of gorgeous male pulchritude.
I liked the fact that because of Rock Hudson's scheming, Doris Day didn't know up from down.
Jonathan (Tony Randall) loves Jan (Doris Day), but Jan doesn't love Jonathan; Jan hates Brad(Rock Hudson); Brad wants to meet Jan and pretends to be Rex, a Texas rancher; Jan loves Rex. As you can see, it's very confusing.
The best film pairing Day and Hudson who are terrific as Jan Morrow and Brad Allen.
I heard that Rock Hudson had turned down this movie three times before Doris Day finally convinced him to do it.
Pillow Fights are Great Fun. Even though I like Doris Day I'd avoided seeing this film for a long time, mostly because of my inner-resentment toward this 'type' of film, the mid-century rom-com, plus an inexplicable aversion to Rock Hudson.
Rock Hudson and Doris Day made excellent sparring partners and Tony Randall was also very good.
In PILLOW TALK, she's a decorator, whoshares a party-line telephone with a womanizer played by theimpossibly handsome Rock Hudson.
Two New Yorkers (Rock Hudson, Doris Day) sharing a party line find themselves annoyed with one another.
The Classic Doris Day/Rock Hudson Film.
The most famous of the three Doris Day and Rock Hudson movies, Pillow Talk is a delightful escapism flick.
There's nothing in my bedroom that bothers me," and Rock quips back, "Oh, that's too bad." If you think that's funny, you'll probably like the rest of the movie.Doris is given some beautiful dresses to wear in the film, showing off her beautiful figure and also showing the audience part of her character.
DORIS DAY and ROCK HUDSON were at the top of their form in PILLOW TALK, and it was the beginning of a wonderful friendship that lasted through the years, until the actor's untimely death from AIDs.In this sunny romantic comedy, they share a party line (which makes the story dated already), and the comedy stems from their instant dislike for each other that melts only when Hudson happens to see what she looks like at a night club.
A man (Rock Hudson) and woman (Doris Day) share a telephone line and despise each other, but then he has fun by romancing her with his voice disguised.This is an absolutely brilliant romantic comedy.
Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and Tony Randall at their best.
We have Rock Hudson, Doris Day and Tony Randall, a perfect trio for a romantic comedy.
This is probably my favorite movie that Rock Hudson and Doris Day made together.
When Doris Day talked to Rock Hudson about the script she said it was very funny and she was right on the money.
He was the top male lead in movies at the time and did not want to do a thing to damage his reputation, but Day convinced Hudson the film would work and they would have fun making it and they did.
Between Pillow Talk and Lover Come Back Day and Hudson established themselves as one of the great romantic pairs in film..
***SPOILERS*** Getting constantly interrupted on her telephone party line in her job as an interior decorator Jan Morrow, Doris Day,is determined to keep the other party on the party line handsome music composer Brad Allen, Rock Hudson,off her phone while she's doing business with her customers.
Brad's good friend and who's financing his latest Broadway musicale millionaire and three time divorced Jonathan Forbes, Tony Randall, who's madly in love with Jan and want's to make her wife number four!One of the best screwball comedies of the 1950's and 1960's with the tall dark and handsome Rock Hudson, Brad Allen, trying to get the apple pie all-American girl or women, she's 35 at the time the film was made, Doris Day, Jan Morrow, in the sack with him only to find out that she's involved with his best friend Tony Randall, Jonathan Forbes.
There's also a very ironic scene in the film with Hudson, as Brad Allen, using the fake name and persona of Texas oil and cattle millionaire Rex Stetson trying to convince Doris, Jan Morrow, that he, or Brad, is in fact gay or a sissy and doesn't really go for girls in the romantic and manly way of doing things.
The movie "Pillow Talk" would end up being one of the biggest money makers of 1959 and spinning off two more like wise and successful adult screwball comedies "Lover Come Back" in 1961 and "Send Me No Flowers" in 1964 reuniting Rock Hudson again with Doris day and Tony Randell as his co-stars in them..
This funny comedy about two people sharing party line with expected romantic complications revived Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Universal studios fortunes.
The first of the three so-called "sex comedies" made with Doris Day and Rock Hudson.Day plays interior decorator Jan Morrow.
Singer-actress Day had a healthy career going prior to this film, but this one revolutionized her career, gave her a snazzy new image and led to countless other "good girl" sex comedies for her until she left the movie biz in the late 60's to honor her TV show commitment (and soon after that, quit the business almost completely!) She plays an interior decorator, successful in every area of her life but love, who shares a party line with a woman-juggling songwriter (Hudson) who enjoys a never-ending parade of conquests, each of whom he makes feel special by "composing" the same exact song in her honor.
Doris Day was number 84 on the 100 Greatest Movie Stars, Rock Hudson was number 79 on The 100 Greatest Sex Symbols, and he is a gay man playing straight, and the film was number 99 on 100 Years, 100 Passions.
It was the first of the three "Rock Hudson-Doris Day-Tony Randall" sex comedies of the 1960's, although it would be rated G today.
Very good film with Doris Day and Rock Hudson.
At the end scene where Rock Hudson's character picked up Doris Day to bring her to the house she did up for him and that he would want her to have it as his wife, it was hilarious!