Bells Are Ringing
Director: Vincente Minnelli
Year Released: 1960
Rating: 3.0
Awkward answering service girl (Judy Holliday) gets involved with a playwright with a drinking-and-sleeping problem (Dean Martin) who doesn't know what she looks like - it's only time before she intrudes in his life, saves his career and they rumba into the night (that's amore). Standard issue concept aside, there are plenty of quirky details to make it more palatable, particularly in the form of a dentist who wants to be a jingle writer, a Brandoesque actor who talks with a mouth full of marbles and, of course, the inspired pairing of Holliday and Martin, both appealing and charismatic leads. Minnelli made better films than this, but was never afforded another chance to name drop himself in one of the movie's best musical numbers and you just can't pass up opportunities like that.
