Pillow Talk (1959)

An interior decorator and a playboy songwriter share a telephone party line and size each other up.

Director:

Michael Gordon

Writers:

Stanley Shapiro (screenplay), Maurice Richlin (screenplay)

Stars:

Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall

Won 1 Oscar. Another 6 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rock Hudson	...	Brad Allen
Doris Day	...	Jan Morrow
Tony Randall	...	Jonathan Forbes
Thelma Ritter	...	Alma
Nick Adams	...	Tony Walters
Julia Meade	...	Marie
Allen Jenkins	...	Harry
Marcel Dalio	...	Pierot
Lee Patrick	...	Mrs. Walters
Mary McCarty	...	Nurse Resnick
Alex Gerry	...	Dr. A.C. Maxwell
Hayden Rorke	...	Mr. Conrad
Valerie Allen	...	Eileen
Jacqueline Beer	...	Yvette
Arlen Stuart	...	Tilda

Storyline

In New York, the interior decorator Jan Morrow and the wolf composer Brad Allen share a party line, but Brad keeps it busy most of the time flirting with his girlfriends. They do not know each other but Jan hates Brads since she needs the telephone for her business and can not use it. Coincidently Jan's wealthy client Jonathan Forbes that woos her is the best friend of Brad and he comments with him that he feels an unrequited love for Jan, who is a gorgeous woman. When Brad meets Jan by chance in a restaurant, he poses as a naive tourist from Texas named Rex Stetson and seduces her. But Jonathan hires a private eye to find who Rex Stetson is.

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Plot Keywords:

telephone party line | telephone | split screen | womanizer | split screen telephone call | 

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Taglines:

It's what goes on when the lights go off!

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Passed

Did You Know?

Trivia

At one point in the movie, Doris Day says that Rock Hudson's character is 6 foot 6 inches tall. He was really 6 foot 4 inches tall, but adding to his height made short actors like Tony Randall and Nick Adams seem taller. They were both 5 foot 8 inches or shorter.

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Goofs

When at the bar singing 'Roly Poly' with Jan, "Rex" lets his real accent slip a few times.

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Quotes

Brad Allen: Why don't you take her over for the rest of the evening?
Jonathan Forbes: Me?
Brad Allen: Yeah! Take her dancing maybe. She's dying to learn how to dance.
Jonathan Forbes: Wait wait. She doesn't know how to dance?
Brad Allen: Well naturally, she doesn't get out of the house very often.
Jonathan Forbes: What do you mean, "naturally"?
Brad Allen: Jonathan, believe me, you and Moose - I mean Miss Taggett will get along...
Jonathan Forbes: "Moose"?
Brad Allen: So what the girl picks up a nickname? You know, how cruel kids can be. Especially, when some is a little different.
Jonathan Forbes: Different? How Different?
[...]

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Crazy Credits

As Doris Day sings 'Pillow Talk' over the closing credits, the film finishes with 'the end' on two horizontal pillows followed by 'not quite', 'not quite', 'not quite', 'not quite' stacked vertically on four pillows.

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Connections

Featured in The Movies: The Sixties (2019)

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Soundtracks

Pillow Talk
Words and Music by Buddy Pepper and Inez James
Performed by Doris Day (uncredited)

User Reviews

The wildest behind in New York City!

One of the first (and certainly the most popular) of the early-'60s bedroom comedies--movies about sex that never use the word, relying instead on double entendres, implications and innuendo. A New York City party-line connects a single working girl--a somewhat rigid and humorless interior decorator with a shapely figure--and a bachelor songwriter and ladies' man who has one tune for every new gal. They're enemies on the phone-line only; once he gets a good look at her (or rather, her shimmying behind on the dancefloor of a nightclub), he decides to woo her using the alias of a shy Texas cowboy. In their first of three pictures together, Rock Hudson and Doris Day share fresh, happy chemistry; their love scenes are convincing--Hudson is a great kisser--and soon Day is singing "Possess Me" to herself on the car-ride with Hudson to his pal's country hideaway. Tony Randall (who also appeared with Hudson and Day in both 1961's "Lover Come Back" and 1964's "Send Me No Flowers") and Thelma Ritter are equally terrific, and the picture has a lovely, cocktail lounge-styled plastic-perkiness which is very winning. With the advent of '60s permissiveness on the screen, "Pillow Talk" (with it's winking, nudge-nudge 'naughtiness') soon looked coy and antiquated; however, it holds up nicely today. Five Oscar nominations--including Day as Best Actress (her only such nomination!)--with one win: for Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin's original screenplay from an initial treatment by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene. *** from ****

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English French

Release Date:

7 October 1959 (USA)

Also Known As:

Pillow Talk

Filming Locations:

Universal Studios - 100 Universal City Plaza, Universal City, California, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$18,750,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Arwin Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

102 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Westrex Recording System)

Color:

Color (Eastman Color)

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1