O Túnel do Amor

Viewers who saw this film in theaters when it opened must have needed sunglasses during the opening credits! While Day sings the corny title tune (augmented by a funny echo effect at an appropriate time) the camera closes in on her and Widmark's faces while driving. Day is bright enough already, but tan Widmark smiles and out comes a huge row of startling white teeth that smear the screen with light! Maybe it's just unusual to see this actor so happy as he's definitely out of his element here. The pair play a couple who are knee-deep in plans to adopt a baby, but don't find it so easy. Eventually, through some dumb plot contrivances, Widmark thinks he has fathered a baby outside his marriage and it causes even more plot contrivances and mayhem. Widmark does the best he can in this new genre for him and Day is always interesting, but they're affected by this subpar material. Young is a breath of amusement as a carousing next door neighbor who already has a few kids and whose wife (Fraser) is continually pregnant. Amusing as he is, his attitudes are not particularly admirable. Fraser clocks a lot of screen time but has little to work with and suffers from inconsistent pregnancy pillows. (She does get to wear one show-stopping gown at a party.) Lovely Scala appears as an adoption agent, but her role is mostly decorative and at times insulting (to her.) Tedium builds and several annoying and unreal situational comedy moments ensue with only a smattering of laughs nestled in. Fortunately, the underused and always welcome Wilson shows up as another adoption agent and puts a tad more life back into the picture. One surprising thing about this movie is the level of language, subject matter and entendre present for its time. A lot of the early dialogue is pretty frank and suggestive for 1958, but these sophisticated traits are undone by leering, unfunny gags and a lot of inane character choices. The whole thing (aside from the credits) is filmed inside on a stage and it shows. Kelly does not display any mastery of the camera (there's no one dancing in front of it to hold our attention this time, Gene), nor does the story hang together in terms of character development. One minute Widmark is lovingly devoted to Day, the next he's off with another woman. Nothing in this film is ever fully proved or discussed, either. It's all a bunch of drawn conclusions. Only people who want to see Widmark in a comedy or see him smile (which he doesn't really do again after the titles roll) and devout fans of Day or Young will want to sit through this.

The Tunnel of Love ran for 417 performances on Broadway for the 1957-1958 season and starred Tom Ewell and Nancy Olson. It was written by Joseph Fields and repeating their roles from the original production are Elizabeth Fraser and Elizabeth Wilson.

The play didn't survive the journey to Hollywood, mainly because of the horrible miscasting of Richard Widmark as the husband. He and wife Doris Day are trying to either have a child or adopt one whichever comes first. After a night's indiscretion with social worker Gia Scala, Widmark thinks he's the father of her kid and when she hits him up for a loan, that seems to clinch the deal.

Widmark was in a role that should either have gone to Dean Martin or Glenn Ford. In their screen roles I've seen aspects of Augie Poole's character that would have fit Dino or Glenn easily. But in Widmark's hands it drops like a lead bassinet.

Best in this film is Gig Young playing one of his male lead best friend types he started perfecting around this time. It seemed for a while like you couldn't make a domestic screen comedy that either he or Tony Randall weren't in playing the same kind of parts. He took over from Darren McGavin who did the part of the wolfish playboy neighbor on Broadway whose growing family doesn't slow him down in the hanky panky department a bit.

My guess is that Widmark was trying to expand his range a bit. The best comedy effort in his career was on the I Love Lucy Show and there he was just a foil for the movie star struck Lucy Ricardo.

Doris was all right in her part, but she certainly did much better work with Rock Hudson who also would have been good casting as the male lead.

Best thing about The Tunnel of Love. Doris sang and recorded the title song that's sung over the opening credits. If the rest of the film had been as good as the song.

Gene Kelly, who had the reputation of being a butthole, confirmed it by blaming Richard Widmark for the commercial failure of this, Kelly's first non musical as a director, when the culpability should have fallen squarely on the shoulders of the ol song and dance man for helming a movie with all the cinematic quality of a mid level episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show. Solid C.

PS...I'm noticing that this piece of mediocrity is starting to creep up the TCM Frequent Showing scale. Not quite at "Wait Until Dark" levels but getting there. Let's watch it, all you guys in the programming shop.

1958 was before Ross Hunter embarked Doris Day on the fabulous career she had in the '60s, in which she would become a top box office draw - in fact, THE box office drawer for years. In "The Tunnel of Love," she plays a sweet, vivacious woman who is desperate to have a baby and can't, so she and her husband, played by Richard Widmark, plan to adopt one. When the adopted baby bears a strong resemblance to Widmark, he becomes sure that the child is the result of an evening he can't remember with the investigative social worker (Gia Scala).

Based on a play, this kind of light, subtly sexual comedy became very popular on the dinner theater circuit in the '60s and '70s, joining the ranks of "Mary, Mary", "The Marriage Go Round," "Boeing Boeing," etc. It is not particularly well directed by Gene Kelly and sports the very strange casting of Richard Widmark as Day's confused husband. I can't agree with the comments here. Though an actor known for playing tough roles and cruel men, he does a credible job here mainly because he knows enough not to play for laughs. He creates a full character, that of a caring if foolish man who adores his wife but screws up occasionally. Gig Young plays the philandering husband next door. He's fine, but the character is very unlikable.

There's not really much to recommend here. I suppose at the time it was considered somewhat suggestive, but it doesn't play well today.

In the groundbreaking romantic drama, Doris Day and Richard Widmark can't have children, and not for lack of trying. Gene Kelly directs this drama that touches on some untouched topics in 1958. In the good ol' days, there was a blackout after a wedding scene and the next shot opened on a bassinet. Now, in the last years of the Hays Code, Doris and Dick openly discuss ovulation cycles, how to track them, and what to do when it's the right time. It was very scandalous at the time.

When the gorgeous couple get fed up with waiting for nature to give them a child, they decide to adopt-but how will they cope when the equally gorgeous Gia Scala enters their lives? While the second half of the movie gets a little silly, the first half is very fun to watch. Doris and Dick have great chemistry together, and it's always a treat to watch an old movie in which a married couple has realistic problems. It wasn't very often that classic movies mentioned adoption, surrogacy, and infertility, let alone made an entire movie about them. Plus, through a career playing bad guys and never getting the girl, it's nice that Richard Widmark is the hero of the story, and he starts out already having the girl!