The Tunnel of Love

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The Tunnel of Love

Released Nov 7, 1958

1h 38m

Comedy

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4 Reviews

24%

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100+ Ratings

Isolde (Doris Day) and Augie Poole (Richard Widmark) have been unsuccessful at having a baby, so they hire an adoption agency to find them a child. When Estelle Novick (Gia Scala), a representative from the agency, comes to check them out, a sequence of mishaps leads to an unsavory portrait of the Pooles' family life. After an accidental drugging, Augie is led to believe he has impregnated Estelle and must try to clear everything up before he loses his wife and his chance at a family.

Isabel Quigly

The Spectator

Of The Tunnel of Love's sniggery and facetious efforts to make comedy out of childlessness, illegitimacy, frustration and other on the whole un-funny topics this column mercifully leaves me little room to write.

Jul 18, 2018

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David Cornelius

DVDTalk.com

Full of missteps as the cast tries its darnedest to get around a limp screenplay and its unlikable characters.

Rated: 2.5/5

Apr 20, 2009

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John J. Puccio

Movie Metropolis

...harmless and inconsequential, never outright funny but occasionally amusing in a low-key manner.

Rated: 5/10

Apr 4, 2009

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Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

The actors are game, but the film was flat and not a bit funny.

Rated: C+

Aug 13, 2007

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steve d

Cute but you have seen it all before.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/30/23

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John M

What this movie needs is Gig's laugh, you know the laugh from Slaughter Trail, a movie that got him caught for holding up a stage coach and started an Indian war! Make's me wonder, how many Indians had to die for them to obtain Indian Justice?

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/06/20

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Audience Member

Gene Kelly directed this likable thought lightweight Doris Day comedy. Day and husband Richard Widmark are a couple wanting to adopt a child and have lost of misadventures as they try to cut through all the adoption red tape. Gig Young is Widmark's likable neighbor and Gia Scala is the attractive adoption caseworker. It's nothing wildly original, but the bright cast and the amiable script carry the day.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/31/23

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Audience Member

Offbeat comedy about a couple wanting to adopt a baby, but encountering obstacles along the way. Widmark is unusually cast in a comedic role, as a husband who is always on edge. Through a huge misunderstanding, he thinks he's been unfaithful with the investigator from the baby agency. This has been been done a billions times since the movie premiered in 1958, so it'll come as no shock to today's audiences. His best friend and married neighbor, played by Gig Young, is so openly free about his dalliances he's sort of hard to like. Doris Day plays the hopeful wife wanting to adopt the first baby that comes along, but Widmark's behavior leads to the possibility that the adopted baby may actually be his for real. The coincidences that would have to occur for this to happen make the story rather silly, but the cast tries hard to make it funny. Sometimes it is, but ultimately it's merely a curiosity from first-time solo-director Gene Kelly.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/29/23

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Audience Member

I actually liked most parts of this movie. It did have strange characters and a lousy script but it really does have funny parts and Doris Day makes this movie worth watching!

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

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Audience Member

This movie is pretty hilarious for the most part, but it's sometimes kind of annoying and silly too. Overall it's a pretty good romantic comedy, it's fun.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/22/23

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Gene Kelly

Director

Doris Day

Isolde Poole

Richard Widmark

August "Augie" Poole

Gig Young

Dick Pepper

Gia Scala

Estelle Novick

Elizabeth Fraser

Alice Pepper

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Synopsis

Isolde (Doris Day) and Augie Poole (Richard Widmark) have been unsuccessful at having a baby, so they hire an adoption agency to find them a child. When Estelle Novick (Gia Scala), a representative from the agency, comes to check them out, a sequence of mishaps leads to an unsavory portrait of the Pooles' family life. After an accidental drugging, Augie is led to believe he has impregnated Estelle and must try to clear everything up before he loses his wife and his chance at a family.

Director: Gene Kelly
Producer: Joseph Fields, Martin Melcher
Production Co: Arwin Productions, Fields Productions
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 7, 1958, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 7, 2018
Runtime: 1h 38m

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