The Tunnel of Love

The Tunnel of Love (1958)

From the Bold Blushing Stage Hit of Sex in the Suburbs!

A series of misunderstandings leaves a married man believing he has impregnated the owner of an adoption agency, and that she will be his and his wife's surrogate.

Date of release
1958-11-21
TMDB
5.9 / 10 (24)
Runtime
1h 38m
Genres
Comedy, Romance
Director
Gene Kelly

Casting

Interesting facts

The Tunnel of Love is a 1958 American romantic comedy film directed by Gene Kelly and starring Doris Day and Richard Widmark. The film follows a married suburban couple who want a child but are unable to conceive. After adopting a child, they find the baby looks suspiciously like the adoptive father (Widmark). It is based on the 1957 hit Broadway play by Peter De Vries and Joseph Fields, which in turn was based on De Vries' 1954 novel. The Tunnel of Love is the first film directed by Kelly in which he did not also appear. Day received a nomination for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy for her performance.

Production

The only major change made by Fields in his screenplay adaptation was an explanation that "Augie Poole" is not the father of "Estelle's" child. In the play, Estelle seduces Augie intentionally in order to get pregnant so that she might experience firsthand the plight of unwed mothers, the topic of her PhD thesis, which, as in the film, she reveals she is working on part-time.

Strangely enough, the movie includes a puzzling scene between Richard Widmark and Gia Scala (Miss Novick) during their drive to a restaurant. Miss Scala snuggles up to Widmark, smiles seductively, and lays her head on his shoulder.

Although this is consistent with her character in the play because she does in fact have sex with Augie Poole, it is not consistent with her "married version" in the movie, who has a baby with her own husband and does not have sex with Widmark.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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