Bells are Ringing(1960)

Bells Are Ringing (1960) Romantic/comedy/musical. Director: Vincente Minnelli. Cast: Judy Holliday and Dean Martin.

Brooklyn Switchboard operator Ella Peterson, works for telephone answering service Susanswerphone. Even though Sue's orders are only to "take and give" messages, Ella uses different voices to help her clients with their lives, even posing as Santa Claus to convince a small child to behave. Ella becomes interested in playwright Jeffrey Moss, who calls her "Mom". He just recently lost his writing partner and his having trouble finishing the outline for his play.. "Mom" tries to boost his ego, but instead.. Jeffrey drinks himself to sleep.


Meanwhile, Inspector Barnes and his assistant Francis, suspect that Susanswerphone is really a prostitution ring, and pretend to be magazine reporters, while interviewing Ella, they wire-tap the switchboard.

Sue's boyfriend, J. Otto Prantz, moves into the apartment to run his music distribution business, Titanic Records, which is really a front for a bookkeeping operation. During a meeting with his bookies, Otto explains the new system: When customers place their bets, they will be translated into a classical music record album code for instance, "Beethoven" is really Belmont Park and "five hundred orders" is a $500 bet.

The next morning, when Jeffrey does not answer Ella's wake up call, she goes to his apartment, excited to finally to know what he looks like. The trouble is, how will she tell him who she really is?


I thought Holliday and Martin where cute together. At first I thought it might be an odd paring.. The songwriting dentist will give you a few chuckles.


Fun Facts:

This was Arthur Freed and Vincente Minnelli's last musical for MGM.

Judy Holliday's last film.