As Ella, the Manhattan telephone operator, Judy Holliday lights up this film, which was to be her last before her death in 1965. As always, her comedy mixes poignancy with hilarity, so that a story of boy-meets-girl becomes a study of frustrated communication in the bustling metropolis, with Ella (as in Cinderella) the lone pursuer of love. Ella's vast feeling for humankind has propelled her to quit her position at the Bonjour Tristesse Brassiere Factory and take a job as an answering service operator. Cloaked in anonymity, with her voice disguised as an elderly woman, she advises, cajoles and consoles her telephone clients, who know her only as "Mom." But Ella's private life is a disaster of blind dates and crushed confidence until she takes on the case of the dashing playwright-playboy Jeffrey Moss (Dean Martin). Their evasive romance is transformed into an urban fairy tale by director Vincente Minnelli, who takes the plight of his would-be lovers entirely seriously in his graceful approach to this enchanting musical, written by Comden and Green and produced by Arthur Freed.