Bachelor Mother

Infobox Film
name = Bachelor Mother


image_size = 150px
caption =
director = Garson Kanin
producer = Buddy G. DeSylva
writer = Felix Jackson (story)
Norman Krasna
narrator =
starring = Ginger Rogers
David Niven
Charles Coburn
music = Roy Webb
cinematography = Robert De Grasse
editing = Henry Berman
Robert Wise
distributor = RKO Radio Pictures
released = 30 June 1939
runtime = 82 minutes
country = USA
language = English
budget =
preceded_by =
followed_by =
website =
amg_id = 1:3641
imdb_id = 0031067

"Bachelor Mother" (1939) is a American comedy film directed by Garson Kanin, and starring Ginger Rogers (in a non-dancing, non-singing role), David Niven, and Charles Coburn. The screenplay was written by Norman Krasna based on a story by Felix Jackson (aka Felix Joachimson). With a plot full of mistaken identities, "Bachelor Mother" is a light-hearted treatment of the otherwise serious issues of child abandonment.

It was remade in 1956 as "Bundle of Joy", starring Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher.

Plot

Polly Parrish (Ginger Rogers) is a salesgirl at Merlin's Department Store in New York City who has just been told that she is going to be dismissed. During her lunch break, she sees a stranger leaving her newborn baby on the steps of an orphanage. Unable to follow her in the busy street crowded with Christmas shoppers, Polly rings the bell of the orphanage to place the boy in their care, but she is mistakenly thought to be the mother.

David Merlin (David Niven), the playboy son of the store's owner, J.B. Merlin (Charles Coburn), is sympathetic to the "unwed mother" and arranges for her to get her job back. Mrs. Weiss (Ferike Boros), Polly's landlady, offers to take care of the boy when Polly is at work. Unable to convince anyone that she is not the mother, Polly gives up and starts raising the child.

David's involvement with Polly gradually turns into love, but he keeps the relationship a secret from his father, fearing his reaction. David gradually warms to the idea of having a son, and when, on New Year's Eve, he and Polly kiss among the crowd at Times Square, they seal their future as a family.

J.B. finally finds out about the child; he assumes that David is the father and no one can convince him otherwise, especially when, in a bit of bad timing, Polly and David each produce a man they claim is the real father. To his son's surprise, J.B. is delighted (he had been impatiently waiting for David to settle down and provide him with a grandson). In the end, the baby is adopted by Mr. and Mrs. David Merlin.

Cast

*Ginger Rogers as Polly Parrish
*David Niven as David Merlin
*Charles Coburn as J.B. Merlin
*Frank Albertson as Freddie Miller
*E. E. Clive as Butler
*Elbert Coplen Jr. as Johnnie
*Ferike Boros as Mrs. Weiss
*Ernest Truex as Investigator
*Leonard Penn as Jerome Weiss
*Paul Stanton as Hargraves
*Frank M. Thomas as Doctor

References

External links

*imdb title|id=0031067
*tcmdb title|id=1088