Article Date: August 29th, 2021 Written By: Elizabeth
My thoughts
I think this movie is simply charming. Released on October 6th, 1959 in Cinemascope, Pillow talk stars Rock Hudson, Doris Day, and Tony Randall. This is the movie that started the 26-year friendship between Rock Hudson and Doris Day (until his death in 1985). Hudson and Day would star in three movies together: Pillow Talk (1959), Lover Come Back (1961), and Send Me No Flowers (1964).
Pillow Talk is a classic boy-meets-girl movie with an enemies-to-lovers trope.
Rock Hudson was one of the Gold Age of Hollywood's leading men and considered one of the biggest heartthrobs of his day. Up until Pillow Talk, Hudson had starred in several hit movies such as A Farewell to Arms (1957), and Giant (1956) (which garnered his only Academy Award Oscar nomination).
Doris Day on the other hand had her own successful career- being nominated for countless awards, including Academy Awards, Grammys, Golden Globes, and more. In 2008, she earned the Grammy Lifetime Achievement award.
In her Acting career, Doris Day starred in many hits including Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1960), On Moonlight Bay (1951), and Romance on the High Seas (1948).
Review:
Jan Morrow (Doris Day) is a successful, single, and self-reliant interior decorator living in New York City in the late 1950s. As it appears she has everything she wants and is quite content. The only thing we see that she is disagreeable with is the party line that is run by a local playboy & Broadway composer, Brad Allen (Rock Hudson).
Note: For those who may not remember, a party line is a local loop circuit that is shared by telephone subscribers. With party lines, one had no privacy as any subscriber could listen in on any conversation, and if someone was using the line, the other subscribers had to wait to use the telephone.
Allen is a playboy- he has multiple women on the phone with him at all hours of the day, serenading each of them with a song- the same song- just changing up the name and language used to customize it to each woman (claiming the song is- to each of them- an original). Morrow becomes annoyed with Allen because she can never get through on the phone to make phone calls, which is affecting her ability to do her job to get in touch with clients. The two are misunderstood to one another in the beginning; both are stuck in their ways to even work out how to use the telephone party-line system- the only thing they have of each other is their voices.
Allen's best friend and business partner, Jonathan Forbes (Tony Randall) is the client of Jan Morrow. Forbes mentions to Jonathan in conversation that he likes a woman named Jan, mentioning that Jan has spoken of a man on the phone that is a "nut", and has a "phone fetish". Realizing it's the same Jan that he's had his own troubles with, he decides to meet Jan, but introduces himself instead as Rex Stetson- a cowboy from Texas, to see if she's as lovely as Jonathan claims, as he knows she won't talk to him knowing he's Brad Allen.
As he goes along with the charade as time passes, he finds himself charmed with her- though he keeps the charade up even calling her randomly as himself to continue toying with her, planting seeds of doubt (a protective measure for himself to not get hurt). He makes her question this man "Rex", even bringing up the question of Rex's sexuality (Allen asks Morrow if Rex asks about recipes, and if he's close to his mother- effeminate traits alluding to Rex Stetson's potential homosexuality).
(Note: This movie is filmed in 1959 when Homosexuality was seen as something negative, and such traits were seen as negative in a man)
Unfortunately, the day comes when Johnathan finds out that Brad has been seeing "his lady" and becomes upset, ordering Brad to go to Jonathan's cabin in Connecticut to work on the songs that he's supposed to write for Jonathan's show or he'd tell Jan the truth. Instead of being honest, Brad asks Jan to come with him for the weekend. At the cabin, Jan discovers the deceit as well, and leaves angrily. Both are angry with Allen, with Jan refusing to see him again.
As in most of these movies, the main actress gets a form of revenge- Jan Morrow's decorates Allen's apartment in the most over-the-top gaudiest decor she can (she takes the job because she does not want her boss, Mr. Pierot to lose the commission of the job when Allen requests his apartment to be re-done by Morrow) not realizing the depth of emotions and actions of both regret and love Allen actually has for her during that time (Allen has ended all of his relationships with other women, so he could earn Jan's love and trust back).
In the end, the two embrace once they talk it out, and begin dating as Jan and Brad, happily in love, with them expecting their first child just three months later.
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