Pillow Talk (NR)

Hudson and Day's Sex and the City, '50s-style.

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Movie details

Studio: Universal Studios
Directed By: Michael Gordon
Cast: Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall
Running Time: 103 minutes
Release Date: 10/07/1959
Video/DVD Release Date: 04/06/2004
Genre: Comedy
MPAA Rating: NR

Parents need to 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?

Message
Violence
Sex
Language

Message

Social Behavior:

Several characters show tremendous sexism, from Tony saying that it's his word against Jan's when he attempts to rape her, to Brad essentially telling Jan that she just needs to have sex and she'll feel better. There are also jokes at the expense of people of color and fat people. A rich woman calls an African fertility statue a "savage little thing." Brad convinces Jonathan to leave by telling him that his date is a fat woman he's trying to get rid of.

Consumerism:

There's a sign for Michelob in the window of a diner.

Drugs/Alcohol/Tobacco:

Alma is an alcoholic and is constantly hungover. She drinks Brad under the table, first drinking a bottle of scotch and then a bottle of vodka. The elevator operator says that Alma is "stoned." Brad is a chain smoker. Several characters drink scotch. Jan and Rex drink champagne. Jonathan makes Brad a bloody mary. Jan makes reference to Alcoholics Anonymous.

Violence

Tony forces himself on Jan, practically raping her. (He says, "It's your word against mine.") Jonathan slaps Jan, and a man punches Jonathan, giving him a bruise and loosening his teeth.

Sex

Lots of innuendo and sexual jokes, some kissing on screen and implied sex. Jonathan talks about an exotic dancer/stripper. The camera follows Jan as if it's a man's gaze, focusing on her legs and back and shape in general. Jan calls Brad a "sex maniac."

Language

Common Sense says

What's the story?

Reviewed by Heather Boerner

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. Jan Morrow (Doris Day) is a smashingly dressed single career woman in New York City desperate for her own phone line. 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?

Is it any good?

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.

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. (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.) And from a distance of decades, Pillow Talk is smart and funny with its send-up of modern masculine norms.