Bells Are Ringing (1960)
A Film by Vincente Minnelli
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | MPEG 2 | 16:9 | 2h 5min | 720x480 | 29.97 fps | Lang: English, French | Subs: English, French, Spanish
Audio#1: English AC3 @ 192Kbps | Audio#2: French AC3 @ 192Kbps | Cover + Extras | 6.51 GB
Genre: Comedy | Musical | Romance
IMDB
IMDB Rating: 7.1/10
Directed by: Vincente Minnelli
Starring: Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Fred Clark
Storyline: Ella Peterson is a Brooklyn telephone answering service operator who tries to improve the lives of her clients by passing along bits of information she hears from other clients. She falls in love with one of her clients, the playwright Jeffrey Moss, and is determined to meet him. The trouble is, on the phone to him, she always pretends to be an old woman whom he calls "Mom."
Screenshots:
A Film by Vincente Minnelli
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | NTSC | MPEG 2 | 16:9 | 2h 5min | 720x480 | 29.97 fps | Lang: English, French | Subs: English, French, Spanish
Audio#1: English AC3 @ 192Kbps | Audio#2: French AC3 @ 192Kbps | Cover + Extras | 6.51 GB
Genre: Comedy | Musical | Romance
IMDB
IMDB Rating: 7.1/10
Directed by: Vincente Minnelli
Starring: Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Fred Clark
Storyline: Ella Peterson is a Brooklyn telephone answering service operator who tries to improve the lives of her clients by passing along bits of information she hears from other clients. She falls in love with one of her clients, the playwright Jeffrey Moss, and is determined to meet him. The trouble is, on the phone to him, she always pretends to be an old woman whom he calls "Mom."
Screenshots:
In most cinematic overviews, Bells Are Ringing often merits just a couple of trivial footnotes as the final collaboration between director Vincente Minnelli and the godfather of classic movie musicals, Arthur Freed, and sadly, the last film of Oscar-winning actress and Broadway legend, Judy Holliday.
Bells dials up the story of Ella Peterson (Holliday), a switchboard operator who works for Susanswerphone, a New York-based answering service that originates from the home of its namesake owner (Stapleton). Perhaps making up for the absence of a significant other in her own life, the personable Ella tends to get a little too emotionally involved with the clients, much to Susan's chagrin. But darn if the bubbly blonde doesn't have fun with her gig, toying around with accents and personalities in dealing with the eclectic clientele, including a little boy who won't eat his spinach unless a certain holiday mainstay comes a-calling, a bookie looking for horse-betting tips, and most recently, down-on-his-luck playwright Jeffrey Moss (Martin), who Ella communicates with in the guise of a sweet, consoling, and encouraging soul he's come to affectionately refer to as "Mom."
Filled with concern since the auteur has been concentrating more on the bottle than his typewriter in the wake of a breakup with his collaborator (a veiled Jerry Lewis reference?), Ella opts to emerge from the shadows, though carefully, as one Melisande Scott coming to the rescue. Cured of the dreaded writer's block, Jeffrey becomes enamored with his new found muse, which becomes a double-edged sword for the equally infatuated Ella, who's been carrying a torch for him much longer than he knows. Adding to her emotional dilemma, there's this law that forbids phone service operators from becoming intimately involved with their customers.
And that's mostly where the strength of Bells Are Ringing lies. And thank goodness for that, for Minnelli's curiously stilted and at times deadweight direction, combined with too much emphasis on minor subplots (a bookie setup masquerading as a record company, for one) brings the proceedings to a screeching halt. But these failings just melt away thanks to the steady and ever-increasing chemistry between Holliday and Martin.
DVD Extras:
"Bells Are Ringing: Just In Time" featurette (11:12)
Outtakes:
- "Is It A Crime?" (5:43)
- "The Midas Touch" alternate take (4:12)
- "My Guiding Star" (1:54)
Theatrical trailer (3:01)
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