Judy Holliday gained Broadway stardom and entry into Hollywood with her performance as Billie Dawn in BORN YESTERDAY. She also would score on Broadway for the last time in the musical THE BELLS ARE RINGING. I find it amazing, given the paucity of her film career, that these two stage performances were preserved, while so many great stage performances (of Ethel Merman, Mary Martin, Ethel Waters) failed to get preserved in the Hollywood system. Obviously the saleability of Holliday in 1960 was higher than that of Merman (even after ANNIE GET YOUR GUN), most likely due to her Oscar. One can only be grateful to providence or whatever for coming to Holliday's aid here - one wishes it could have stepped up for the others more often.
THE BELLS ARE RINGING was directed by Vincent Minelli, and has some great musical numbers in it: Eddie Foy's "It's a Simple Little System" where his record sales mask a bookie operation, culminating in a mock song spiel of serious music lovers singing the names of race courses to the "Hallelujah" Chorus; the "Drop that Name" number at Fred Clark's party, wherein the only name of a celebrity Judy can recall is Rin Tin Tin; the "Just in Time" song and dance by Dean Martin and Judy Holliday in a mini-park, and it's follow-up of "The Party's Over", probably Judy's best sung tune in her career. Not all the show's tunes are in the movie. Eddie Foy sings a song to Jean Stapleton (Sue of Sue's Answer Phone) to romance her with his mock European elegance - the song is called "Salzberg by the Sea" which shows how phony he really is (Salzberg is in the center of landlocked Austria!).
The film is well set in it's period, in two odd ways. One is a gag in the story: Frank Gorshin as method actor Blake Barton, who is an obvious spoof of Marlon Brando. The other is the appearance of Dean Martin as Jeffrey Moss, the troubled composer hero of the musical who romances Ella Peterson (Judy). In the Broadway production it was Hal Linden who played opposite Judy (he appears in this film, in his first film role, singing the song "The Midas Touch" at a nightclub). But Martin was a nationally known singer, and movie star. But he was, in real life, facing a situation exactly like Jeffrey Moss. Moss (before the story of the show begins) has been in a successful theater team, like Gilbert and Sullivan or Rodgers and Hammerstein...or like Martin and Lewis. In fact, Moss's partner just broke up the partnership (and is doing well on his own - like Lewis did at first). Moss's funk is what the public in 1960 thought Martin had faced a few years earlier when Lewis split with him.
The movie showcases Judy's comic talents, as she stimulates Martin, Gorshin, Bernie West (the musically inclined Dr. Kitchell), confronts Dort Clarke (the ambitious Inspector Barnes), and aids a desperate Otto when threatened by hoods. She handles the situations well, reminding us of how talented a lady she was. It was a fitting conclusion to her career - but a sad reminder that that career deserved to be far longer than it was.
THE BELLS ARE RINGING was directed by Vincent Minelli, and has some great musical numbers in it: Eddie Foy's "It's a Simple Little System" where his record sales mask a bookie operation, culminating in a mock song spiel of serious music lovers singing the names of race courses to the "Hallelujah" Chorus; the "Drop that Name" number at Fred Clark's party, wherein the only name of a celebrity Judy can recall is Rin Tin Tin; the "Just in Time" song and dance by Dean Martin and Judy Holliday in a mini-park, and it's follow-up of "The Party's Over", probably Judy's best sung tune in her career. Not all the show's tunes are in the movie. Eddie Foy sings a song to Jean Stapleton (Sue of Sue's Answer Phone) to romance her with his mock European elegance - the song is called "Salzberg by the Sea" which shows how phony he really is (Salzberg is in the center of landlocked Austria!).
The film is well set in it's period, in two odd ways. One is a gag in the story: Frank Gorshin as method actor Blake Barton, who is an obvious spoof of Marlon Brando. The other is the appearance of Dean Martin as Jeffrey Moss, the troubled composer hero of the musical who romances Ella Peterson (Judy). In the Broadway production it was Hal Linden who played opposite Judy (he appears in this film, in his first film role, singing the song "The Midas Touch" at a nightclub). But Martin was a nationally known singer, and movie star. But he was, in real life, facing a situation exactly like Jeffrey Moss. Moss (before the story of the show begins) has been in a successful theater team, like Gilbert and Sullivan or Rodgers and Hammerstein...or like Martin and Lewis. In fact, Moss's partner just broke up the partnership (and is doing well on his own - like Lewis did at first). Moss's funk is what the public in 1960 thought Martin had faced a few years earlier when Lewis split with him.
The movie showcases Judy's comic talents, as she stimulates Martin, Gorshin, Bernie West (the musically inclined Dr. Kitchell), confronts Dort Clarke (the ambitious Inspector Barnes), and aids a desperate Otto when threatened by hoods. She handles the situations well, reminding us of how talented a lady she was. It was a fitting conclusion to her career - but a sad reminder that that career deserved to be far longer than it was.