Bells Are Ringing. 1960. USA. Directed by Vincente Minnelli. Screenplay by Betty Comden, Adolph Green. With Judy Holliday, Dean Martin, Jean Stapleton. 126 min.
Ella, a switchboard operator at the Susananswerphone answering service, habitually gets involved in her client’s personal lives. One client in particular, Jeff, a playboy and writer dealing with writer’s block, has a dreamy voice that makes Ella swoon. Meanwhile Ella’s boss, Sue, is tricked into making Susananswerphone a call center for her bookie boyfriend when she thinks she’s landed a contract with the Titantic Record Company—and it turns out calls for Titanic are coded bets on horse races. Be on the lookout Frank Gorshin’s spot-on Marlon Brando impersonation. Holliday is reunited with her partners Comden and Green in what would sadly be her last role before her death in 1965.