Pillow Talk
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Movie Reviews of Pillow Talk
Movie Review: Horribly Screwed-Up DVD Transfer Of A Great Film!
Summary: 2 Stars
Rating for this movie -- 5 Stars.
Rating for the 2004 DVD version of the film -- 1 Star.
"Pillow Talk" stars Doris Day, Rock Hudson, Tony Randall, and Thelma Ritter. It remains today what it was when released in October of 1959, and that is -- a highly-entertaining and well-acted romantic comedy.
The film was re-released on DVD-Video by Universal Studios on April 6th, 2004. This newer version has been enhanced for 16x9 widescreen TVs, and the anamorphic enhancement has helped in many places. However, the picture quality here does seem to be a bit of a "hit and miss" proposition. Several portions of the movie still look rather crummy (artifact-wise), exhibiting obvious dirt speckles and "noise". The opening titles sequence is peppered with dirt and artifacts galore, as are a few other parts of the film, particularly ALL of the "split screen" scenes. For some reason, it seems that these "split screen" shots could not be cleaned-up nearly as much as the other portions of the movie.
But by far the biggest atrocity is the fact that this 2004 DVD print has been mis-framed! In some places pretty badly, too. Head room is way too tight here, with the tops of many character's heads being cut off. This was NOT the case with the previous 1999 DVD print of this movie.
When you compare the '99 print with this 2004 one, the mis-framing is obvious in many places. It appears that this new print has been "zoomed in" quite a bit, creating the tight head room. Some of the most blatant examples of this "zooming in" occur in Chapter 10, where the piano player's head is severely cropped. Whereas, on the '99 DVD, her entire head is visible in the frame. Plus, a few seconds later in that "Roly Poly" scene, we see a shot of several people singing along to the music and clapping their hands. In this shot, TWO ENTIRE PEOPLE (one on the left and one on the right side of the frame) are totally cut out of the shot! Plus, part of another man is cut out of the frame on the left! These "missing" people are all visible on the 1999 disc.
And check out Chapter 14! This scene is simply horrifying from a framing standpoint! Literally half of Rock Hudson's head is missing here! When we KNOW it should be in the frame (based on the 1999 disc, which is perfectly framed for the 2.35:1 aspect ratio of the movie). Yikes!
This is ridiculous carelessness on the part of Universal's quality control department! Many scenes are totally botched with this zoomed-in mis-framing of the print!
Looks like yet another case of a Universal product being mishandled in the DVD transfer department. A pity! For "Pillow Talk" is one of the best romantic comedies you're likely to see this year, or any other year. And it deserves better treatment than this. It's just plain stupid to let an obviously-botched DVD video transfer like this one get into any consumer's hands! Doesn't ANYONE check these framing issues before finalizing the product? Mind-boggling indeed!
This newer DVD version of the film contains the exact same Menu design and Special Features as the previous non-anamorphic variant (minus a text info page about Universal "Web Links"). The bonus features aren't very plentiful, being limited to the original theatrical trailer and some very extensive and informative text notes on the film and its cast members. (FYI -- These text-based items are verbatim to the older "Pillow Talk" DVD release; but definitely worth a read. Until reading these Production Notes, I never knew a sequel to the film was being planned in 1980. But, unfortunately, the project never got beyond the initial planning stages, and the film was never made. Too bad. I'd have liked to have seen that sequel.)
I'm severely disappointed with this DVD. I looked forward very much to having this film in an enhanced anamorphic state. But in this butchered, mis-framed version, it's nearly impossible to fully enjoy the film. Because the FULL film is not here!
If you've already got the older non-anamorphic DVD of "Pillow Talk", you'd be better advised to just hang onto it, and skip this version entirely. Upon looking over both versions side-by-side, the older one really isn't very much worse (fuzziness-wise) than this new one. And when factoring in the mis-framing problem of the new one, the old DVD displays the WHOLE picture; while this new one definitely does not.*
* EDIT/FOOTNOTE (OCTOBER 2005) -- Universal has supposedly fixed the mis-framing problem with this 2004 DVD release -- although I've ordered multiple copies of the "new" disc (from different e-tailers) and still haven't seen a properly-framed copy. I've had to return each one thus far (and they were ordered more than a year apart). Very discouraging. So, you're taking your chances when you order this '04 version of the film.
~throws hands in air in disgust~
Movie Review: Almost hopelessly dated, but has its moments
Summary: 2 Stars
The most wonderful thing about any Doris Day movie is Doris herself. I'm not one of these guys who is attracted to sleaze; give me a sweet, wholesome type anyday. A Sunday school teacher is far more appealing than a stripper.
Maybe the problem I have with watching "Pillow Talk" today is not with the film itself so much as its time machine qualities. While the innocence of that age is absolutely refreshing, this film was much more effectively entertaining in the '60s. Today the sophisticated viewer is constantly distracted by an amazing number of annoying intrusions: Voiceovers by characters telling what they think, even though it's written all over their faces; alcoholism and attempted date rape were seen as humorous; soft filters on Miss Day's face that would render her face nothing but a blur if they were any softer; bright colors to the point of garishness; the gay Mr. Hudson summoning up his considerable acting skill to appear interested in women; about half of the plot "twists" are so blatantly telegraphed that we see them coming for several minutes; we know people are seeing the sights because an unchanging shot of them endlessly walking is superimposed over various changing scenes of NYC; quite a few of the gags are obvious and/or have been copied to death in the years since; and when an African-American shows up on screen it's only because they're in a jazz club and the singer is black, because, well, that's what those people are best at, after all. Many of these things are distracting simply due to today's more sophisticated (generally) movie viewer.
Fortunately there is the dazzling Miss Day and there is the late Tony Randall, who steals every scene he's in. I almost feel guilty giving only two stars to a film with as many funny lines, but seriously, there's so much offensive and awfully dated stuff going on, nearly a half-century later, that I also almost feel guilty for having not shut the thing off after the first half-hour or so. Sorry, "Pillow Talk" fans, I am not among your number.
Movie Review: Dated Froth
Summary: 2 Stars
A predictable pile of doo doo. I can appreciate good acting but the acting has to have a story attached to it. This movie is nothing more then a bunch of stupid scenes with Miss Day at the centre. The story line is so thin it's barely visible. The acting while good really doesn't jell together and one is left wondering just what they are talking about. I guess it's a favorite for fans of old films like my partner is but oh God I had to fight to stay awake to get through it. A flimsy forgettable pile of fluff which sends social progress back to the dark ages. Just plain stupid in my opinion. I can't believe it was that successful when it first was released.Movie Review: Terrible DVD - Shame on Universal!
Summary: 1 Stars
Ditto to Mr. Von Pein's review. This misframing is unacceptable. I was resigned to the fact that the dirt and scratches weren't cleaned up for this new edition, but the mis-framing really put this over-the-top into being a botched release. Universal should really pull this edition. We all work way too hard for our money to to be given this poor a product. A much lesser, non-Academy Award winning film, Don Knott's "The Ghost And Mr. Chicken" looks great on DVD: sharp, clear, blemish-free, and nicely framed, so Universal CAN take care on their budget line DVDs, they just chose not to in "Pillow Talk"'s case. Shame on Universal!I should point out though that the sound and colors on this version are a big improvement over the prior DVD, but don't waste your money if you have that version. The mis-framing really makes this the inferior of the two versions. Universal should redo this with the proper framing.