Pillow Talk

Pillow talk is a charmingly fun romantic comedy set in 1959 New York City. Directed by Michael Gordon in 1959 and staring the likes of Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall, it is a feel good olden day ‘chick flick’ as us in generation Y would call it. Doris Day was renown for playing clean, non controversial roles who always gets the charming attractive male lead character. I found it amusing when watching this film, that the thoughts that were verbalised throughout the film are somewhat similar to the insecure everyday thoughts of women today. The similarities between the late 50’s portrayal of ‘girl meets boy’ storyline and the 21st century portrayal are somewhat uncanny and make the viewing of the film that little bit more amusing. The clothing is also what contributes to its classic style, with colourful classic ball gown frocks with diamonted earings and necklaces - in many ways the style has cycled and is very similar to todays working and going out attire. A main difference I did notice at the beginning of the film is the idea that women trusted strangers (men in particular) so easily. In today’s society, children are taught from a young age never to trust strangers, where it seems in the 1950s allowing a complete stranger to drive you home after a night out is the ‘norm’ if not expected. Dories Day played Jan Morrow, a beautiful career woman who shares a telephone line with a footloose bachelor/ musician named Brad Allen (Rock Hudson). She plays a woman in control of her own world, with little patience for men like Brad. Although she has never actually met Brad, his constant use of the telephone to contact his many women present a problem for both her private and professional world. However when she meets a man who she believes is everything she is looking for, she turns into an insecure, uncontrollable school girl. (Hmmm...kind of sounds familiar)…

Rock Hudson on the other hand has a charming arrogance about him that makes all women go weak at the knees, I would probably describe him as the 1950s version of Matthew McConaughey, with his smile, eyes and fake Texas accent that his character puts on. Doris and Rock have this amazing on screen chemistry that make you want them to end up together, no matter what. Even with Jan’s wealthy, good looking client Jonathan Forbes (Tony Randall) constantly proposing to her, you only ever want her end up with the deceitful, charming musician. Why is that?

I love movie like these where you can get completely lost in the 1950s style of it all. You can help but smile at the naivety of Doris’s character and the arrogance of Rocks, all in all, I give it about an 8 out of 10.