Pretty Good

People are voting emotionally.

Better Late Then Never

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

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."

While "Bells Are Ringing" will never be classified as a musical on the lines of "Oklahoma!" or "My Fair Lady", it is one of the classics of the genre thanks to its winning score, light-hearted plot line, beautiful costumes and its fascinating leading lady. Judy Holliday won America's heart the moment she stepped onto Broadway to play the dumb Dawn in "Born Yesterday". A decade after that smash hit on Broadway, she returned to the stage with an Oscar to her credit for the movie version of that comedy classic. The result was "Bells Are Ringing", and ten years after her Oscar, she got to repeat that role as well for the MGM musical, the last of the Arthur Freed/Vincent Minnelli movie musicals, and thus the end of an era.A 2001 Broadway revival utilized the whole answering service plot to indicate what was happening with the rise of social media in modern America. While that comparison didn't work (the revival was greeted as a slight antique), the movie does hold up better. From the moment you meet Judy Holliday's Ella Peterson, you can't help but adore her. She is a New Yorker, who like many New Yorkers, just likes to see everybody happy. Yes, that whole concept sets the musical in motion for a spoof of the Big Apple like book writers Comden and Green had done with "On the Town" and "Wonderful Town". Ella is in love with a playwright (Dean Martin) and gives him advice over his answering service disguised as a sweet old lady whom he calls "mom". When Ella sneaks into his apartment on the pretense of leaving him his messages, he discovers her, and a new romance is born. But she is still posing as "ma", and her other intrusions into her client's life gets into trouble thanks to the police investigation of a horse racing racket lead by Eddie Foy Jr.The romance of the two leads to some wonderful musical numbers, most lively "Just in Time" and most romantically "Long Before I Knew You". There is a hysterical spoof of the problems of riding on a crowded subway without acknowledging the people around you and a fabulous "Drop That Name!" production number with Holliday taking over at a party. When Holliday realizes that she is about to exposed, she breaks into the beautiful "The Party's Over", but is it? Supporting performances by Jean Stapleton and some other Broadway vets give this a real theatrical feel. The result is a lot of fun. A recent revival at City Center with Kelli O'Hara showed this musical to still be fresh and charming, even with its dated morals of society long gone some 55 years later.

"Bells are Ringing" is a must for Judy Holliday's fans. The bubbly star of some of the best comedies of the fifties, is the main reason for watching this musical, directed by Vincente Minnelli. Betty Comden and Adolph Green were the creators of the book and lyrics with music by Jule Styne.The film was an excuse for showcasing Ms. Holliday and Dean Martin, who took over Sydney Chaplin's role. The two stars show an easy chemistry in their scenes together, even though the transfer to the screen seems somehow clumsy coming from an experienced director of musicals like Mr. Minnelli."Bells are Ringing" is a nostalgic look at the New York of the 1950s. It was quite a status symbol to have an answering service in those days before the automatic devices of today. There is a hilarious second plot involving illegal gambling by linking classical music works to the different races in several horse race tracks that are channeled through Susanswerphone service, which makes the police Ella is involved in the scheme.Judy Holliday gave a tremendous performance in the film as the kind, but somehow naive Ella. Dean Martin is fine also as the blocked writer. In supporting roles Eddie Foy Jr., Jean Stapleton, and Dean Clark, are seen among others.

Director Vincente Minnelli gets this stagy adaptation of the Broadway success off to a splashy start; however, like most musicals helmed by the erratic Minnelli, he never quite lives up to that colorful opening. Beginning with a succession of ringing rotary phones--all in kicky colors--the prelude acts as an advertisement for Susanswerphone, a telephone answering service. It looks as though this going be pure genius, until we find out that nervously-wired Judy Holliday is the only operator Susanswerphone seems to have (and she's the kooky type, getting involved in other people's lives because she has nothing going on in her own). Holliday is in love with one of the clients, a Broadway playwright who thinks he's washed up, and feels guilty about dating him under an alias, but her situation doesn't seem exceptionally dire. Dean Martin (miscast) sings a nice, funny version of "Just in Time" with Holliday, but otherwise hasn't much to offer. The stale plot, trite and cozy-contrived, gets a boost from the musical moments, but even those are not staged with much excitement. Too bad...Susanswerphone had great possibilities. **1/2 from ****