How can you critique something you are just meant to enjoy? There will never be another combination like Doris and Rock, both giving everything to their roles. And you can tell they are having fun doing them. I especially enjoyed Rock's bit of physical comedy trying to squeeze himself into a very low sports car!

Just before refreshing my memory of this film, I watched "The Glass Bottom Boat" , also costarring Doris. It's also a romantic comedy, but very different in tone from the present film. It includes more slapstick, and is not centered around apartments and nightclubs, as is the present film. I found it at least as amusing as the present film, and recommend that you check it out(Amazingly, it's free on YouTube). I realize that the present film was very popular in it's day, considered risque. Of course, today it seems quite tame, and even dated. It includes a few instances of slapstick. For instance, Rock tries to get in Doris's tiny sports car, but can't begin to fit all of his 6'4" frame in. So, they have to hire a taxi to get her home(So, what happens to her car they left at the nightspot?) .....The common prejudice that a desirable man should have had many girlfriends and should be sexually experienced, while his ideal wife-to-be should have had rather few boyfriends, and still be a virgin, more or less, is represented by Rock's and Doris's characters. That is one source of conflict, as judging from his use of their party line, he seems to have too many girlfriends for her liking, making him too conceited and seemingly untamable. He spends too much time talking to them, so that she can't use her phone to deal with her clients.. That's another sore point, which they more or less agree to remedy. Doris likes men who take her out and don't expect a sexual payback, men like Tony Randall(Johnathan), who keeps asking her to marry him, and she keeps saying she doesn't love him, which may be true, or just a smokescreen for the fact that she mostly likes her sexless single life. Then, she happens to meet Rock in a restaurant, not knowing what he looks like. He disguises his voice and persona as a born and bred Texan. She falls for him, until she discovers he's her hated party line neighbor. She's steaming mad at his deception, and embarrassed that she fell for it(It was quite good!). The last part of the film deals with Doris's role in redecorating Rock's apartment. She wants to get back at him for his deception and his innovative mechanical aids rigged up to facilitate his lovemaking. So she comes up with something quite garish. In turn, he wants to get back at her for making his apartment such a sight. Watch the film to find out how he does it. Then, from being hoping mad at each other, they let down their defenses way too quickly to be believable.....I didn't understand how Doris figured out that Rock the Texan was also Brad, merely by playing a note on the piano from the sheet music she found in his coat. This was a pivotal point in the story....The caper when Rock ducks into a baby doctor's office to avoid being seen, then is seen by the nurse leaving the ladies room next door, sets up the final scene in the film, when more evidence appears that he has a sex identity problem......Doris gets to sing a couple of songs, including the title song. I like the romantic song she sings when in the car with Rock, on the way to Conn.

The settings are cute, the wardrobe lovely, the actors talented, and the script snappy, but I really could not get into this film.This is one of the many movies I have seen with the formula of manipulative louse finds upstanding citizen with something they want (ex. power, wealth, that body), cons them, louse ends up not following through with it because true love, upstanding citizen finds out truth and freaks, but no worries, they get back together in under twenty minutes.I disliked it in Guys and Dolls, but here there are no side plots or fantastic music numbers to distract me.So the story is that a man with fantastic charisma which he uses to pick up women is hogging the party line of the female lead. She is rightfully annoyed about this but he is dismissive and says she is just jealous he isn't one of the women he chats up.She complains to multiple people, but everyone without a crush on her hints that she is not really mad about not being able to call people from her home (what?) but what she is really upset over is not getting the D.Manipulative louse gets away with it because he put all his character points on charisma. (I did some home installations a few years ago and I would have been really uncomfortable with someone crowding me like that, no matter how pretty they are.) Then they meet outside of the apartment, face to face, for the first time. Louse goes,'Wait, the woman who has been yelling at me is hot. I want a piece of that.' He proceeds to use a fake accent to chat her up. Cue shenanigans of him trying to keep her from finding out the truth. Insert rest of formula.Movies like this make me want to take the upstanding citizen aside and go, "Honey, I know you are lonely and really attracted to this person, but I want you think about something for a moment. The person you are attracted to has spent years of their life manipulating people to get what they want. Behavior like that does not clear up overnight. Just because they love you doesn't mean those bad habits won't reemerge. So I want you to think about this for a while away from them before you find yourself swept along in something that could be really damaging down the line. I know I'm over-thinking this, it's a comedy. On the other hand, there are much worse movies out there who don't deserve such a loop hole. I'll stick to my 6/10, only because many people won't be bothered by the same things as I.

Before I saw Pillow Talk, as much as I did love Young At Heart, Move Over Darling, Love Me or Leave Me and The Thrill of It All, I thought I'd never see a Doris Day film that I loved more than Calamity Jane. Well with Pillow Talk, I found it. It is witty, charming, smart, fresh and funny, and like I said with Move Over Darling it doesn't have a single wasted scene. Also it is my personal favourite of the films Day made with Universal Studios.I will admit when I first saw the film I did occasionally find it slow and the ending a little abrupt. Seeing it again, any flaws I had with it initially went completely, and the more I saw Pillow Talk the more I found to like and the more I liked it. The story about a telephone party line is smart and quite original. It is glossy froth, but I like glossy froth. The production values are pretty simple yet glamorous and the music is pleasant and memorable, I especially loved the title song which is really quite catchy. The screenplay is witty and funny and has charm to it too, while the film is very well directed by Michael Gordon.Even better are the performances. Doris Day once again is fresh and endearing, and Rock Hudson also has his share of adroit humour and does it with flair. But these two are superbly supported by Tony Randall, who I think gives his best performance in this film and Thelma Ritter who also have the best material. In conclusion, a truly wonderful film, if you give it a chance I think you'll like it. 10/10 Bethany Cox