It's hard to imagine what anyone was thinking when they made "The Tunnel of Love". After all, the film is supposed to be a comedy but it's rarely even remotely funny. It's also amazingly sleazy...but must have rubbed audiences wrong back in 1958...especially with America's sweetheart, Doris Day, in the lead! According to biographies, Day's husband at the time frankly pushed her into a lot of terrible projects and all he cared about was her money....and after his death she learned he'd pretty much spent her vast fortune.
Isolde (Doris Day...Isolde?!) and Augie (Richard Widmark) have been married for a few years but are childless. She wants to adopt a child and he, somewhat reluctantly, agrees. But they seem like an ill- suited couple for adoption, as he seems to have a drinking problem and his best friend is a pig who seems willing to sleep with anyone other than his wife. When the worker from an adoption agency comes to their house to talk with Augie, he's a bit drunk and behaves in a very boorish manner. He spends the interview in his boxers, drinking and making suggestive comments to her. Not surprisingly, she stomps off...as any sane woman would have done that. Oddly, however, she soon comes back and then she goes with Augie out to drink some more. He wakes up in a hotel room later and thinks they slept together. Then, when the agency offers them a child about 9 months later, he thinks maybe it's HIS baby he fathered with this nutty social worker! Hilarity is meant to ensue...but doesn't. And, oddly, by the end, Isolde is apologizing to Augie and all is forgiven.
There is nothing funny about this nor is there anything romantic. Adultery is really NOT comedy gold nor is bad parenting...and you honestly wonder how the writing could have been worse! The actors try their best (Widmark tries a bit TOO hard) but it's all a mess of a film...something no one should have agreed to make in the first place.
Isolde (Doris Day...Isolde?!) and Augie (Richard Widmark) have been married for a few years but are childless. She wants to adopt a child and he, somewhat reluctantly, agrees. But they seem like an ill- suited couple for adoption, as he seems to have a drinking problem and his best friend is a pig who seems willing to sleep with anyone other than his wife. When the worker from an adoption agency comes to their house to talk with Augie, he's a bit drunk and behaves in a very boorish manner. He spends the interview in his boxers, drinking and making suggestive comments to her. Not surprisingly, she stomps off...as any sane woman would have done that. Oddly, however, she soon comes back and then she goes with Augie out to drink some more. He wakes up in a hotel room later and thinks they slept together. Then, when the agency offers them a child about 9 months later, he thinks maybe it's HIS baby he fathered with this nutty social worker! Hilarity is meant to ensue...but doesn't. And, oddly, by the end, Isolde is apologizing to Augie and all is forgiven.
There is nothing funny about this nor is there anything romantic. Adultery is really NOT comedy gold nor is bad parenting...and you honestly wonder how the writing could have been worse! The actors try their best (Widmark tries a bit TOO hard) but it's all a mess of a film...something no one should have agreed to make in the first place.