Bells Are Ringing (1960) on Netflix
NR19602h 6mComedyMusicalRomance
Ella Peterson works the switchboard at Susanswerphone, a Brooklyn answering service, and meddles in the lives of the subscribers. One of them is Jeffrey Moss, a playwright stuck for ideas.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.9/104,194 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes82%
Trailer
Plot summary
Ella Peterson takes calls at the switchboard of Susanswerphone, an answering service in Brooklyn, and cannot keep out of the subscribers' affairs. Her clients include a dentist who sets lyrics to an air hose, an actor, and a small boy who thinks she is Santa Claus. She likes the voice of Jeffrey Moss, a playwright whose partner has walked out and who drinks more than he should; over the phone she plays a motherly figure for him. The producer of Jeffrey's play, The Midas Touch, gives him a deadline: deliver an installment or the job is gone. Drunk and out of spirits, Jeffrey leaves the receiver off the hook, so Ella breaks the rules and introduces herself to him as Melisande Scott, hoping to rouse him for the meeting and persuade him that he can make it alone.
Cast
- Ruth Storeyas Gwynne
- Ralph Robertsas Francis
- Bernie Westas Joe Kitchell
- Steve Peckas Gangster(Steven Peck)
Show all 20 cast
- Jimmy Amesas Bernie Dunstock(uncredited)
- Bernard Westas Dr. Joe Kitchell(Bernie West)
- Martin Abrahamsas NYC Kid(uncredited)
- Suzanne Amesas Party Guest(uncredited)
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Bells Are Ringing (1960)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bells Are Ringing was Judy Holliday's final film. She and Jean Stapleton reprised their stage roles from the show, and jazz musician Gerry Mulligan, Holliday's real-life ex-lover, cameoed as her disastrous blind date.
- The film was the last musical from MGM's "Freed Unit" under producer Arthur Freed, the unit behind Singin' in the Rain and An American in Paris, and the 13th and final collaboration between Freed and director Vincente Minnelli.
- Several songs from the Broadway production were dropped or replaced for the film, among them "On My Own" and "Long Before I Knew You", and a new number written for Dean Martin, "My Guiding Star", was filmed but cut.
- Hal Linden, a friend of Judy Holliday who had played Jeff Moss opposite her on Broadway in 1958-1959, made his first film appearance here, uncredited, singing "The Midas Touch" in a gold lame suit.
- The Manhattan row house used for the film's exteriors, at 215 East 68th Street, had once been the home of author Stephen Vincent Benet; a holdout from its row, it was torn down in the early 1960s.
