Bells Are Ringing

After she talks on the phone to Jeffrey Moss, Ella stands up from the switchboard and walks around the room singing.

When she returns the switchboard has changed place.

When Jeffrey cleans a spot on the mirror, his left hand is leaning on the wall next the mirror.

In the following shot his left arm is by his side.

As Jeffrey Moss changes the paper as he works on the outline for "The Midas Touch," the carbon paper between the blank sheets is shiny-side up.

This would give him a mirror image on the back side of the first sheet instead of an original and a copy, which as an experienced typist, he would surely know.

While Jeff is singing "I Met a Girl," various people in the background can be see mouthing the words along with him.

Ella tells Jeff that she used to procrastinate by sharpening her Ticonderoga pencil down to the T (or rather the "tuh").

However, Dixon Ticonderoga say that their pencils have always read from point to eraser, so the T would be the *first* letter to disappear.

During the "gathering of the bookies" scene in a basement, Eddie Foy Jr.

's speech is backed up with the hissing of steam and the clinking of pipes.

As soon as the pre-recording of "A Simple Little System" begins, all vestiges of the hissing of steam and the clinking of pipes miraculously cease until the final fade-out.

BELLS ARE RINGING probably seemed rather old fashioned even in 1960. The original Broadway production opened in 1957 and ran for two-and-a-half years (almost 1,000 performances).

Ella (Judy Holliday) is an answering service operator (this was way before answering machines existed). She unwisely gets involved in the personal lives of her clients.

Judy Holliday is the saving grace of this movie which feels like a 22 minute sitcom story line stretched to a little over 2 hours, complete with a variety of silly subplots to pad it out. Thankfully, Minnelli's direction is lively, Holliday's performance is impossibly winning, her chemistry with Dean Martin is great, and some of the songs are pretty good.

If I was asked to describe this musical with one word, it would be zany. Crazy, madcap, wacky, whacky, screwball, screwy and unconventional are the other words suggested by Microsoft Word.

Arthur Freed's final musical production for MGM was this very bright musical comedy from Jule Styne-Betty Comden-Adolph Green, Bells Are Ringing. Sadly this was also the farewell film performance of Judy Holliday who was playing the role of Ella Peterson which she had created on Broadway.

The question to ask when you are watching this musical is how well the humor holds up, since more time is spent on getting laughs than singing songs. Judy Holliday's vulnerable/meddling character and Dean Martin's debonair/immature counterpart seem like an unlikely romantic combination.

While "Bells Are Ringing" will never be classified as a musical on the lines of "Oklahoma!" or "My Fair Lady", it is one of the classics of the genre thanks to its winning score, light-hearted plot line, beautiful costumes and its fascinating leading lady.

First, let me say that I am a fan of Judy Holliday. She displays her broad array of talents in this film, but that is about all this film has going for it.