Bells Are Ringing (Full Frame)

VHS, 126 minutes, WARNER

The get-up in New York's get-up-and-go comes from the switchboard operators of Susanswerphone. Need a wakeup call? Your appointments? Encouragement from "Mom?" A racetrack bet? It all comes from that dutiful nerve-or noive-center that keeps enterprises enterprising and, maybe, wedding bells ringing. Judy Holliday reprises her Tony-winning Broadway role of irrepressible switchboard girl Ella Peterson in a jubilant adaptation that, in addition to being Holliday's last screen role, marked the final collaboration of movie-musical titans Arthur Fred and Vincente Minnelli. Dean Martin so-stars as a struggling playwright in for a surprise when he finds out who "Mom" really is. The Jule Styne/Betty Comden/Adolph Green songs include Holliday's heartfelt "The Party's Over," the jolly Holliday/Martin duet "Just in Time" and bookie Eddie Foy Jr.'s "It's a Simple Little System. You've rung the right number, musical fans!.