Pillow Talk

In New York, interior designer Jan Morrow and songwriter Brad Allen share a telephone party line, and their clashing habits turn them into bitter adversaries before they ever meet face to face. Jan is exasperated by Brad's endless calls to the women he courts, while he is amused by her complaints. Brad's wealthy friend and sponsor, Jonathan Forbes, is himself pursuing Jan without success, and when he confides in Brad about the woman he hopes to marry and the insufferable man who shares her line, Brad recognizes the voice and the situation as his own. He then approaches Jan while hiding who he really is, presenting himself as a sincere visitor from Texas. The deception sets up a romantic comedy in which mistaken identity, jealousy and professional pride all collide.

The film was directed by Michael Gordon and written by Stanley Shapiro and Maurice Richlin, with Martin Melcher and Ross Hunter producing for Universal Pictures and Arwin Productions. Doris Day stars as Jan, Rock Hudson as Brad, Tony Randall as Jonathan, and Thelma Ritter appears as Alma, with Nick Adams and Julia Meade among the credited cast of thirty-two. Made for around two million dollars, it took roughly nineteen million worldwide, a strong return by the standards of its time. On IMDb it holds 7.4 from about twenty-one thousand votes, and on TMDB 7.1 from roughly three hundred; a critics' rating of 7.6 from thirty-one reviews places it slightly above both audience scores.