PILLOW TALK (52)

Directed by: Michael Gordon (1959)

Starring: Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall

The Pitch: A rather prim decorator shares a party line with a ladies' man, who tries to seduce her disguised as a Texas oilman.

Theo Sez: Absurd that this could have won the Best Screenplay Oscar in the year of SOME LIKE IT HOT : for one thing it's not even particularly well-written, with an anti-climactic final section and a cop-out ending - not to mention the coyness about sex that's draped stiflingly over every scene like a virgin-wool blanket. The sexual politics of the 50s have rarely seemed more bizarre - you can't make a pass 'cause that makes you an out-of-control "sex-maniac", but you can't not make one either 'cause that makes you weird and probably a fag : the point is to have those feelings but to repress them. None of which would really matter very much if the film were funny or clever, which it is intermittently (but erratically) due more to the skill of its performances than any particular felicity in the writing. The point to remember is that this glossy, competent, generally thin comedy wasn't only a commercial hit but also showered with critical praise, a place on the New York Times best-of-the-year list, and Oscar nominations galore. You might say it's the 1959 equivalent of JERRY MAGUIRE or FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL ; will they also look so threadbare forty years hence?