Pillow Talk (1959)

Directed by Michael Gordon. Starring Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter, Nick Adams, Julia Meade, Karen Norris, Marcel Dalio, Lee Patrick, Allen Jenkins.

First of three Hudson-Day pairings finds the two sharing a party line that Hudson monopolizes as a womanizer, much to Day’s work-from-home interior decorator’s chagrin. Borrowing a reversed page or two (or seventeen) from Shop Around the Corner, the two relentlessly squabble on the phone while swooning for each other in person, and only Hudson is in the know. Glamorous, trivial fluff, mildly agreeable and amusing—and laughably considered risqué at the time of its release—but weak overall as a farce that expects hearty laughter and champagne romance. The leads do comfort zone work and nothing more; dabbling Randall just plays frothy ducks and drakes, but Ritter gets a few shrewdly delivered lines that furiously scratch away at the sugar coating. Split-screen optics may be diminished in full-screen picture formatting. Oscar winner for Original Screenplay, awarded to Clarence Greene, Maurice Richlin, Russell Rouse, and Stanley Shapiro.

59/100