Bells Are Ringing (1960)

A long time ago, answering services were used before technology improved. Ella Peterson (Judy Holliday) runs such a service and takes care of many clients. She gets involved in their personal lives although she has never met them. Only 2 really notable songs in this movie musical: "Just in Time" and "The Party's Over". "It's a Perfect Relationship" and "I'm Going Back" are clever, but many songs are totally forgettable. Most notable as the "Tour De Force" of the persona and style of Judy Holliday, who tragically died of throat cancer just five years later, in 1965 at age 43. (She was a chain smoker.) A clever and unique "book" involving dumb cops, bookies, stereotypical gangsters, and many personalities. Jean Stapleton and Frank Gorshin in a rather large cast. Dean Martin plays the musical author with writer's block and Judy Holliday plays his "Muse". They work well together. I also love the tacky bar showgirls bumping and grinding to "The Midas Touch" song which is truly terrible. Based on the often-used concept that one single life can affect many people in a very positive way. The last Arthur Freed-Vincente Minnelli production.

The writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green had successive hits with "Bells Are Ringing." The first was on Broadway where the musical play ran for 924 performances from 1956-1959. The second was this 1960 film starring Judy Holliday and Dean Martin. Holliday and Jean Stapleton reprised their roles from the play as Ella Peterson and Sue, respectively. The Broadway romp won Holliday a Tony award as best actress in a musical, and co-star Sydney Chaplin the Tony as best actor in a musical. While the film just received one Oscar nomination – Andre Previn for musical composition, it was a box office hit. Musicals were supposed to have been passé by 1960, but this film showed there was still interest in the genre. Indeed, every decade since has had at least one smash hit musical, and some have had a few to several. The ingredients for success in that genre today are either a knockout plot or dynamite music. Some have had both. This film has a dilly of a plot with a very clever story idea. And, of its songs, three became popular tunes in their day – "Just in Time," "The Party's Over," and "Long Before I Knew You."For history buffs, "Bells Are Ringing" also has a bit of nostalgia, showing the days when businesses and people used telephone answering services. "Susanswerphone" is a clever name the writers gave to the business in this film. Another very clever, and funny aspect is the bookie betting system based on music. Racetracks were represented by names of classic composers. The parody of Handel's Hallelujah chorus is excellent, and I don't think irreverent. Otto Prantz (played superbly by Eddie Foy Jr.), "What is Handel?" Chorus, "Hialeah, Hialeah!" Prantz, "What is Handle?" Chorus, "Hialeah, Hialeah." Prantz, "Oh, what a system."Holliday, Martin and the entire cast are very good. One of the numbers toward the end of the film, "Drop That Name" has Ella singing with an ensemble of a cast of people at the party. It may hold the record for most name-dropping ever in a movie. Holliday especially shows her talent with some skits in which she plays a number of different characters with voice changes and mannerisms to suit. Here are a couple funny lines from the film. For more funny dialog snippets, see the Quotes section on this IMDb Web page of the film. Blake Barton (played by Frank Gorshin), "So I get this image see, of a ostrich – a ostrich trying to bury his head in a cement pavement." Two guys listening to him, "Cuckoo. Cuckoo."Jeffrey Moss, "You know, if I hadn't found you crawling around on my floor, I wouldn't be invited anyplace. I'd just be resting comfortably, face down, in the gutter."

This movie is practically the embodiment of the big MGM musical dragging itself into the 60s on its last legs. The songs are dull and forced. There's no memorable dancing. It comes across as cheap local theatrics. Who was buying tickets to watch this in 1960? People born in the 1800s? Once the thrilling West Side Story - a flawed film version of a great musical - has been committed to celluloid I fail to see how dialing back the clock 5 or 6 decades would sell tickets. Just check out the staircase scene where they're singing about who knows what, with the men in tuxedos and women in their gowns. The women look and move elegantly. But then the men starting singing. Check out the guy in the white tux. He prances around like a Kansas City...well, lets just say he wasn't dating any of those gals in real life. I couldn't bare to watch. And it seems to go on all night.

I first saw this film when they made a new 35mm CinemaScope/Metrocolor print for the Joseph Papp theater back in the seventies. I thought it was mildly entertaining but very stagy and padded with too many unrelated subplots. At least the color and CinemaScope looked good although the production value made the movie seem as if it had been made a decade earlier. By 1960, many musicals, were being shot at least in part on location (i.e. "Oklahoma!", "South Pacific") rather than on artificial looking studio sets. In terms of the cast, Dean and Gorshon were amusing. Holiday is an acquired taste. I thought she was good in "Born Yesterday" but her dumb blond act seemed a bit stale ten years later and she was too old for this role. The musical numbers ranged from good ("Just in Time") to ridiculous (The betting song, "The Midas Touch"). I recently screened the picture again on TCM and I found it even more dated. It's worth seeing once but don't expect the quality level of the director's earlier pictures.