Rock-A-Bye Baby (film)

Infobox Film
name = Rock-A-Bye Baby


image_size = 195px
caption = theatrical poster
director = Frank Tashlin
producer = Jerry Lewis
Ernest D. Glucksman "(associate)"
writer = Preston Sturges
"(previous screenplay)"
Frank Tashlin
narrator =
starring = Jerry Lewis
music = Harry Warren
"(songs - music)"
Sammy Cahn
"(songs - lyrics)"
Walter Scharf "(score)"
cinematography = Haskell B. Boggs
editing = Alma Macrorie
distributor = Paramount Pictures
released = 16 July fy|1958 "(L.A.)"
23 July "(NYC)"
runtime = 103 minutes
country = FilmUS
language = English
budget =
gross =
imdb_id = 0052141

"Rock-A-Bye Baby" is a fy|1958 comedy film with songs, starring Jerry Lewis. A loose remake of Preston Sturges' fy|1944 film "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek", the film was directed and written by Frank Tashlin, and features Marilyn Maxwell, Connie Stevens and Reginald Gardiner.

Plot

Clayton Poole (Jerry Lewis) is a small-town TV repairman whose former sweetheart, Carla Naples (Marilyn Maxwell), is now a famous movie star. When Carla marries a Mexican bullfigther, who dies the day after the wedding, she becomes pregnant. Her agent, Harold Herman (Reginald Gardiner) tries to avoid a scandal and damage to her career by sending Carla back to the town she grew up in, telling the world that she is going into seclusion to prepare for her next role, the lead in a religious epic called "The White Virgin on the Nile." Carla turns to Clayton for help, and he agrees to care for the child once it is born.

But Carla gives birth to "triplets", and Clayton finds out that he has to be married before he can adopt them, so he marries Carla's younger sister, Sandy (Connie Stevens), who is in love with him. The press finds out about the triplets, and Carla tells them that she and Clayton are secretly married. Now suspected of bigamy, Clayton goes into hiding with the triplets until everything is cleared up.

Nine months later, Sandy gives birth to quintuplets, and soon a statue of Clayton and his five babies is erected in front of the town courthouse. [Adams, Les [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052141/plotsummary Plot summary (IMDB)] ] [TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=4095&category=Full%20Synopsis Full synopsis] ] [Brennan, Sandra [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:108197~T0 Plot synopsis (Allmovie)] ]

Cast

Cast notes:
*Two of the original Keystone Kops, Hank Mann and Chester Conklin have bit parts.
*Jerry Lewis' son Gary Lewis plays "Clayton Poole" as a boy in a fantasy sequence.
*A picture of comedian Jack Benny was used as a photograph of "Carlos", the Mexican bullfighter that Carla married, and the father of her triplets.
*George Sanders is listed in some cast lists for the film, [Allmovie [http://www.allmovie.com/cg/avg.dll?p=avg&sql=1:108197~T2 Cast] ] , but his part was cut out before the movie was released, as was a small part played by Jerry Lewis' father, Danny.

ongs and music

The songs in "Rock-A-Bye Baby" were written by Harry Warren (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics): [IMDB [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052141/soundtrack Soundtracks] ] [TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=4095&category=Music Music] ]

*"Rock-a-Bye Baby" - sung by Jerry Lewis [This is not the song "Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody" by Jean Schwartz (music) and Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young (lyrics), dating from 1918, with which Jerry Lewis had a Top Ten hit in the 1950s.]
*"The Land of La-La-La" - sung by Jerry Lewis
*"Love Is a Lonely Thing" - sung by Jerry Lewis
*"Dormi, Dormi, Dormi (Sleep-Sleep-Sleep)" - sung by Salvatore Baccaloni and Jerry Lewis
*"Why Can't He Care for Me?" - sung by Connie Stevens
*"The White Virgin of the Nile" - sung by Marilyn Maxwell

Songs and music notes:
*Another song by Warren and Cahn, "Me and My Baby", was written for the film but not used.TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=4095&category=Notes Notes] ]
*The musical numbers in the film were staged by Nick Castle. [TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=4095&category=Full%20Credits Full credits] ]
*Because of a musician's strike, Walter Scharf's score had to be recorded in Mexico City in March fy|1958, and causing union musicians to picket a preview of the film in Los Angeles on 3 June fy|1958. Some reports maintain that Lewis himself conducted the 100-piece orchestra.

Production

"Rock-A-Bye Baby" was loosely based on Preston Sturges' fy|1944 film "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek", which starred Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, and because of this Sturges received a writer's credit on the film, although he did not actually work on the project.

"Rock-a-Bye Baby" was filmed from 18 November fy|1957 through 8 January fy|1958, [IMDB [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0052141/business Business data] ] and opened in Los Angeles on 16 July 1958, followed by a premiere in New York City on 23 July. It went in general release shortly afterwords. [TCM [http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=4095&category=Overview Overview] ] The film was re-released in fy|1962 on a double bill with another Jerry Lewis film, "Don't Give Up The Ship".

Notes

External links

*imdb title|0052141|Rock-A-Bye Baby
*tcmdb title|4095|Rock-A-Bye Baby
*amg movie|1:108197|Rock-A-Bye Baby