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| Judy Holliday |
Judy Holliday had a short, but successful film career, and twice reprised roles she appeared in on stage (the first being in Born Yesterday, for which she won a Best Actress Oscar, and the other being this film, Bells are Ringing.). Holliday is sort of like a mix between Doris Day and Lucille Ball, but of course is in a class by herself. She's got all of the expert musical talents of Day, paired with the uproarious comic timing of Ball. Holliday's first big film role was in Adam's Rib, starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. After she won the Oscar for Born Yesterday, she appeared in the stage version of Bells are Ringing, and her film career kicked into high gear. She appeared in 5 films before Bells Are Ringing was filmed. Holliday died in 1965, due to breast cancer.
Bells are Ringing is a perfect showing off of Judy Holliday's talents. In it, she plays Ella Petersen, a lonely switchboard operator for an answering service called Susanswerphone, who amuses herself by getting involved in the lives of her clients. She does this by putting on different character voices for different people. One client, down on his luck playwright Jeffrey Moss (Dean Martin), knows Ella as a old lady character he calls Mom. Ella, has of course, fallen in love with Moss, and romantic comedy complications ensue when Ella meets Moss under a false name. A subplot involves Ella's boss and cousin Sue (Jean Stapleton, also reprising her Broadway role) and her boyfriend Otto (Eddie Foy, Jr.), a bookie, who is using Susanswerphone's offices as a front for his horse gambling, disguised as a mail order record company.
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| Holliday and Martin in the musical number "Just in Time" |
The film is based on the stage musical, which ran for three years on Broadway, and features music by Jule Styne and lyrics and book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green, favorites of the Freed Unit. I'd go out on a limb and say that if it hadn't been for Comden and Green's involvement in the musical, and their involvment in the Freed unit, this film never would have been made, but thank goodness it was! The stage musical was written for Holliday by Comden and Green, who had come up with her through the Broadway ranks. Holliday took home a Tony award for her performance in Bells are Ringing in 1957.
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| Dean Martin |
Dean Martin is the leading man in this film, and I realized while watching that it was my first time ever seeing him on screen. He is a fine actor, and of course as we all know, an excellent singer. Martin and Holliday have a great chemistry together, and Martin, in his scenes alone is great fun to watch too.
There is not a dull song in the movie, and a few were written for the movie, replacing original songs from the stage play. Styne, Comden, and Green again write all the songs, and the latter two wrote the screenplay. the two most famous songs from Bells Are Ringing are "Just in Time" and "The Party's Over", but as stated before, all of the songs are great fun. "A Perfect Relationship", "Drop That Name", and "I'm Going Back" were all highlights for me.
The movie has all of the lush settings of previous Freed unit musicals, and also has the feel of romantic comedy films like Pillow Talk, which was made the year before. Bells are Ringing is a delightful treat to watch and a definite new favorite of mine. The fact that Holliday played this role before shows. She seems supremely comfortable in Ella's shoes and I am so glad that it was preserved on film.
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| Movie soundtrack album cover |
