Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.5

Bells Are Ringing Blu-ray Movie Review

Enchanting Ella

Reviewed by Michael Reuben February 1, 2017

Judy Holliday achieved stardom playing dumb blondes who sometimes (but not always) turn out to be not so dumb. Her performance in Born Yesterday won her a Best Actress Oscar, but Holliday soon became impatient with being typecast. Luckily for her (and us), Holliday's circle of friends included Betty Comden and Adolph Green, two of the most successful writers of musical comedy in the history of theater and film. (See, for example, Singin' in the Rain and On the Town.) Comden and Green proceeded to write Bells Are Ringing as a vehicle for their show biz pal, giving Holliday the chance to play a witty and intelligent answering service operator who can't resist interfering in her clients' lives. With music by veteran composer Jule Styne (Gypsy), the stage production premiered on Broadway in November 1956 and ran for over two years, winning Holliday a Tony Award.

In June 1960, MGM released a filmed version of Bells Are Ringing, which retained much of the Broadway cast and was overseen by the legendary team of producer Arthur Freed and director Vincente Minnelli. Although the reception was enthusiastic in New York, where audiences fondly remembered both the Broadway production and Holliday's lead performance, the rest of the world was underwhelmed. The film lost money, and it also marked the final collaboration between Freed and Minnelli. But Bells Are Ringing has retained a devoted fan base over the years, in part because it was Holliday's last film, but primarily because it so richly showcased her considerable gifts. Rarely have a performer and a part been as ideally matched. The role so thoroughly belongs to Holliday that Broadway producers have, for the most part, left the original play in the vaults. (An attempted revival in 2001 fizzled within weeks.) Fans and newcomers alike can now experience Bells Are Ringing in a glorious new Blu-ray presentation from the Warner Archive Collection.

The central device of Bells Are Ringing is a now-obsolete enterprise known as a telephone answering service. In the days before cell phones, voicemail and answering machines, busy people who couldn't afford to miss a call would hire a service to monitor their line and take and relay messages. Bells Are Ringing opens with a mock advertisement for "Susanswerphone", a service run from the basement of a crumbling New York brownstone, where Ella Peterson (Holliday) spends her days working the switchboard. Her clients include a dentist who's a frustrated songwriter (Bernard West), a struggling actor who thinks he's Marlon Brando (Frank Gorshin) and, most importantly, a successful playwright named Jeffrey Moss (Dean Martin), who is suffering a crisis of confidence after a recent split with his longtime writing partner. Ella cajoles, consoles and advises these and many other clients, and she adopts a different personality for each one (including Santa Claus, for the young son of one caller). With Jeffrey Moss, Ella pretends to be an elderly woman whom the playwright addresses as "Mom", never suspecting that the voice he so looks forward to hearing belongs to a beautiful young woman who has fallen in love with both the writer and his work.

Ella's ministrations to her clients are a constant source of worry to the owner of Susanswerphone, whose name really is Sue (Jean Stapleton, still years away from her career-defining role as All in the Family's Edith Bunker). But Sue shortly has more immediate issues to concern her. A new client with a vaguely continental accent and the grandiose name of J. Otto Pranz (Eddie Foy Jr.) begins romancing Sue while utilizing her office and phones for what he claims is a classical music publishing business called Titanic Records. In fact, it's an illegal betting operation using messages coded as album orders to record wagers on horse races. (Pranz's explanation to his fellow bookies, "It's a Simple Little System", is a rousing production number.) At the same time, a zealous police detective, Inspector Barnes (Dort Clark), suspects Susanswerphone of being a front for an escort service. Wherever Ella goes, Barnes and his assistant, Francis (Ralph Roberts), shadow her with a camera, hoping to capture proof that will give the ambitious cop a career-making bust.

It's Ella's concern for Jeffrey Moss that finally gets her out from behind the anonymous security of the switchboard. On a day when the struggling playwright doesn't answer his scheduled wakeup call for an important meeting with his producer (Fred Ward), Ella is so worried that she risks visiting Jeffrey's apartment, where she impulsively introduces herself as "Melisande Scott". In the guise of Melisande, she inspires Jeffrey to continue with his new play, The Midas Touch. Emboldened by her accomplishment, Ella adopts other identities so that she can seek out and encourage both the musical dentist and the aspiring actor. Eventually, of course, her charades go awry, as a grateful Jeffrey Moss finds himself falling in love with the fictitious "Melisande". After crooning the show's best-known song, "The Party's Over", Ella slinks back to Susanswerphone, discouraged and determined to leave town. But a happy ending awaits, as Jeffrey gradually pieces together the identity of the mystery woman who rekindled his artistic passion and tracks down his new muse.

Ella's constant dissembling allows Holliday to play numerous parts, all of which she infuses with the sweet combination of naive optimism and adorable klutziness that makes Ella irresistibly appealing. She's wistful and starry-eyed as she sings about her telephone liaison with Jeffrey ("It's a Perfect Relationship"); gracefully clumsy as she tries to keep pace with the theatrical crowd at a party to which Jeffrey brings her as Melisande ("Drop That Name"); and gamely resolved when Ella decides to stop living her life through others and return to her old job at the Bonjour Tristesse Brassiere Company ("I'm Going Back"). By the time all the subplots are neatly wound up, Holliday's Ella has won over not just Jeffrey Moss but everyone else on both sides of the screen.

Bells Are Ringing Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Bells Are Ringing was shot in Cinemascope by veteran cinematographer Milton R. Krasner (All About Eve), with director Minnelli exercising his usual fastidious control over the smallest details of production design, costume and lighting. Minnelli's creative use of color is evident throughout the film. An early example occurs in Ella's opening number ("It's a Perfect Relationship"), in which her dress is a distinctive shade of light blue that, without being obvious about it, pops her out of the frame by contrast with the kaleidoscopic palette of the Susanswerphone set. When the scene switches to Jeffrey Moss's apartment, his sofa and chair just happen to be the same shade of blue, thereby establishing a visual connection that foreshadows the coming romance.

For this 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray, the Warner Archive Collection has newly scanned a recently manufactured interpositive at 2K, which was then corrected by a senior colorist at Warner's Motion Picture Imaging facility. By this point in cinema history, the problematic stock that plagued such productions as Silk Stockings had been supplanted by more stable emulsions, and the image harvested by MPI is remarkable in both detail and clarity, despite the characteristic softness imparted by early Cinemascope lenses. Minnelli's meticulously constructed tableaus can be appreciated in all their splendor, especially in crowded frames like Pranz's meeting with the bookies, Ella's and Jeffrey's walk through Times Square, the party given by Jeffrey's producer, or the self-consciously hip café where Ella tracks down her Brando-esque actor-client. Colors are varied, vivid and saturated, with bright reds and intense blues (the dress worn by Valerie Allen, who plays an actress with amorous designs on Jeffrey, is especially memorable). Bells Are Ringing is a feast for the eye on Blu-ray.

The alert viewer will notice brief fluctuations in color and density at some scene changes, which appears to be an unavoidable side effect of the optical dissolves. The film's grain pattern is natural and finely rendered. WAC has mastered Bells Are Ringing at its usual high average bitrate of just under 35 Mbps.

Bells Are Ringing Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Bells Are Ringing was originally released in four-track stereo, but Warner created a new 5.1 soundtrack for the film's DVD release in 2005. The 5.1 mix was sourced from original recording session masters, plus the dialogue and effects track, and it has been encoded on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA. The expanded listening space gives ample breathing room to André Previn's Oscar-nominated scoring, so that the instrumentation effectively surrounds and supports the singers' performances. The dialogue is clearly and crisply rendered, as are critical effects such as ringing telephones. The dynamic range is impressive for a film that's almost 60 years old.

Bells Are Ringing Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

The extras have been ported over from Warner's 2005 DVD release of Bells Are Ringing. The trailer has been remastered in 1080p.

• Bells Are Ringing: Just in Time Featurette (480i; 1.33:1; 11:15): This 2005 featurette was made for the DVD release. It features Hal Linden, who understudied the role of Jeffrey Moss on Broadway and made his film debut as the singer performing "The Midas Touch". Frank Gorshin is also interviewed, as are Comden and Green in archival footage.



• Outtakes (480i; 2.40:1, enhanced): Two of these songs were cut from the final film; the third is an alternate version.
• Is It a Crime? (5:44)
• The Midas Touch Alternate Take (4:14)
• My Guiding Star (1:56)



• Trailer (1080p; 2.40:1; 3:01): "Now what in the world could be romantic about an answering service?"

Bells Are Ringing Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

You wouldn't know it from her performance in the film, but when Judy Holliday made Bells Are Ringing, she was already suffering from the cancer that would end her life five years later at the age of 43. The world lost a peerless comedienne far too early, but at least she was able to complete one film that captured the full range of her unique abilities. WAC has brought Holliday's last (and, arguably, best) work to Blu-ray in all its glory. Highly recommended.