Bachelor Mother (1939)

Director:

Garson Kanin

Writers:

Norman Krasna (screenplay)
Felix Jackson (story)

Release Date:

4 August 1939 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Just ten baby fingers and ten baby toes--Troubles? Scandal?--Gosh--Nobody Knows

Plot:

Polly Parrish, a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is mistakenly presumed to be the mother of a foundling...

Plot Keywords:

Clerk | Department Store | Foundling | Remake Of Austrian Film | Abandoned Baby

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Ginger Rogers	...	Polly Parrish
David Niven	...	David Merlin
Charles Coburn	...	J. B. Merlin
Frank Albertson	...	Freddie Miller
E.E. Clive	...	Butler
Elbert Coplen Jr.	...	Johnnie
Ferike Boros	...	Mrs. Weiss
Ernest Truex	...	Investigator from Foundling Home
Leonard Penn	...	Jerome Weiss
Paul Stanton	...	Hargraves
Frank M. Thomas	...	Doctor
Edna Holland	...	Matron at Foundling Home
Dennie Moore	...	Mary
June Wilkins	...	Louise King
Donald Duck	...	Himself - Mechanical Toy (as Donald the Duck)

Also Known As:

Little Mother (USA) (working title)
Nobody's Wife (USA) (working title)
She Said I Do (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

82 min (Turner library print)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Victor System)

Certification:

UK:U | USA:TV-G (TV rating) | Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #5189)

Filming Locations:

Central Park, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

Hal K. Dawson (Judge), Renie Riano (Amy Mellish) and Charles Halton (Doctor) are in studio records/casting call lists (with their character names) for this movie, but they did not appear or were not identifiable.

Quotes:

Freddie: [referring to the baby] Where did it come from?
Polly: I got it for Christmas!
[beat]
Freddie: This Christmas or last Christmas?

Movie Connections:

References Love Affair (1939)

Soundtrack:

Happy Days Are Here Again

The angst of Donald Duck?

How many of us can sympathize with this? Your job is hanging precariously, your social life is not what it could be, and customer service won't let you return a malfunctioning Donald Duck toy without a receipt in triplicate.

This is the irresistible comic situation for the forgotten classic "Bachelor Mother". A young, urbane department store worker happens to run across a baby left on a social office's doorstep. Under the circumstances she is confused as the mother of the baby. She flatly denies this but no one will believe her including her boss, a wealthy, prim David Niven. Following a comedy of errors reminiscent of a Shakespeare play these two are thrown together and Niven is then assumed to be the baby's father by his own father, the inimitable Charles Coburn. The movies dances dizzyingly from one comic scenario to another, including a scene where Niven misdirects Rodgers to rub baby food into the baby's navel, and the cathartic comic moment where Niven, the store manager disguised a customer, demands to have his Donald Duck toy returned, to no avail.

Niven: "What is wrong with our Sales Return desk?"

Rodgers: "They don't return anything!"

Filled with scintillating wit, bubbling chemistry and a feel-good plot it is the perfect comedy to enjoy over and over again.