Pillow Talk

I have been "babysitting" one of my Netflix movies for a little over a month. It was simply one of those situations where I got a movie, and just never quite had the right time to watch it.

In the meantime I've cycled through a bunch of other discs (including most of the 80s TV series "Voyagers!"). And Christopher and I have been finding other things to watch either from our own DVD library, or from things we've recorded off of TV. But, in the middle of my long weekend at home alone, I decided Sunday afternoon was a time for a good 1950s screwball romantic comedy. So I broke out "Pillow Talk."

If you don't know anything about "Pillow Talk" it's pretty much the ultimate in Rock Hudson/Doris Day movies. (These are the same movies Rupert Everett's character refers to in "My Best Friend's Wedding." But that's another story.) The movie puts Doris Day's sweet, yet spunky, Jan at odds with Rock Hudson's smarmy, womanizing, Brad. To make matters worse, Jan and Brad share a party-line telephone and so Jan is subjected to Brad's womanizing ways before they even meet.

Of course, once Brad realizes he can't charm Jan in his usual ways, he creates a Texan good-ole-boy alter ego named Rex Stetson. Courting and exposure ensue, of course, and... eventually... a mostly happy ending. (I already said it was a 1950s screwball romantic comedy. Telling you it has a happy ending is NOT a spoiler!)

Of course, all these years later, knowing that Rock Hudson was gay, the movie takes on a whole different level of humor. The wink-to-the-camera jokes. The "you-know-what-I-mean" asides. I found myself laughing almost as much at what wasn't said as I did in response to what was said.

Oddly enough, I found myself both happier and a little sadder because of all of those inside, after-the-fact, comedic moments. I was thrilled that Rock and Doris (and Tony Randall) thumbed their noses so blatantly at the Hollywood machine, while still flying under the censors' radar.

But I was also bothered by knowing the fact that, eventually, Doris Day would have to watch her lifelong friend Rock Hudson die of AIDS, having never been able to enjoy an open and honest life as a gay man -- even in the usually accepting world of Hollywood. And, worse yet, I know that even in this day and age there are a lot of people who are fine with that.

Of course, this might all be easier to handle if it could all be treated as ancient history. But there are still plenty of people afraid of losing their livelihoods (in Hollywood and everywhere else) if they come out of the closet. And there are still a whole list of "universal" rights and privileges not available to gays and lesbians.

So, while on the one hand I thought the movie was really fun. I was left with some measure of... well... angst after watching it.

Overall rating: A-. It was pretty forward thinking and ahead of the curve in 1959, but it made me think to much in 2010. (Okay. So it probably deserved an A+ for covering both of those things, but since my ratings are subjective, and since I ended up kind of sad at the end of a happy movie, I'm sticking with the A-.)