Movie Review: Pillow Talk
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What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that while this movie was made in the
chaste '50s, it is anything but chaste: It focuses on the sex
lives of its main characters and implies that sex is the
solution for everything -- especially for testy women. Brad
tells Jan that if she had sex (he calls them "bedroom
problems"), she wouldn't be so upset with him monopolizing her
phone. Brad also lies to Jan about who he is to make Jan like
him. Another man forces himself on Jan, practically raping her
in one scene. There's also an excessive amount of drinking and
smoking in the film, from Brad's chain smoking to Alma's
alcoholism and perpetual hangovers.
Families can talk about how they interpret the value of films that are fun but depict prejudice against different groups. Do you ignore the racism, sexism, and fat-phobia of the film and only look at the comic storyline? Or does the prejudice change your enjoyment of the film? How much do kids know about the '50s? What has changed? How have romantic comedies changed?
Common Sense Media Review
Strong cocktails, lots of dating and sex talk, and a single
woman living in the city: No, it's not
Sex and the City
. It's the HBO show's decades-earlier forerunner, PILLOW
TALK. In it, you get all the '50s-style raciness and sexcapades
with snappy lines and a genteel finish.
Jan Morrow (the perky Doris Day) is a smashingly dressed single career woman in New York City desperate for her own phone line. (Teens today, in the world of individual cell phones, may have a hard time imagining a time when the telephone was so new that unrelated people had to share a single phone line if they wanted one at all.) As it is, she must share her line, which she uses for work, with suave lothario Brad Allen (Rock Hudson), who sings the same song to every woman who calls him cooing at every hour.
By the time Brad sees Jan, out on a grudging date with a 21-year-old would-be date rapist, she already hates him. But Brad is determined to have Jan as a conquest too. So he comes up with an alter-ego -- the sweet-tempered oil magnate, Rex Stetson -- and suddenly finds he has more than a simple conquest on his mind. After falling for her, will he be able to right his wrongs, say goodbye to his throngs of ladies, and convince Jan that she's the only woman for him?
Rock Hudson gets the best of this film. Not only does he get to play two totally different characters, but he's clearly having fun. And the viewer does, too, as he plays mind games with Jan, both as Brad and as Rex. Knowing what we know now about Hudson's closeted homosexuality, it's surprising and hilarious when Brad tells Jan, of Rex not trying to take advantage of her, "He could be one of those men -- you know, loves his mother; likes to cook…." The smile on Hudson's face tells us it's OK to laugh with him at this inside joke.
Like Sex and the City, fashion is another character in this film. Fashionista viewers will revel in Jan's never-ending parade of matching dresses and coats, her variety of coordinating fur hats and muffs, and wonder how she packed all her fabulous clothes into those two tiny suitcases on her way to Connecticut.
All of this almost makes the essential sexism of the film -- that all Jan needs is some sex to make her not care anymore about her stupid business and phone time -- forgivable. And from a distance of decades, Pillow Talk is smart and funny with its send-up of modern masculine norms.
People who enjoy this film may also like Lover Come Back, Touch of Mink, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, the modern send-up of such romantic comedies, Down With Love , and the retro-tinged gay love story Touch of Pink.
Common Sense Media is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing information to help parents make media and entertainment choices for their families.
