Bachelor Mother

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Bachelor Mother

Directed by	Garson Kanin
Produced by	Buddy G. DeSylva
Written by	Felix Jackson (story) Norman Krasna
Starring	Ginger Rogers David Niven
Music by	Roy Webb
Cinematography	Robert De Grasse
Editing by	Henry Berman Robert Wise
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date(s)	30 June 1939
Running time	82 min.
Country	Template:1939
Language	English
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IMDb profile

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.

[edit] Plot

During her lunch break, Polly Parrish (Ginger Rogers), a salesgirl at Merlin's Department Store in New York City who has just been told that she is going to be dismissed, witnesses 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 owner, J.B. Merlin (Charles Coburn), is sympathetic to the "unwed mother" and arranges for her to get her job back. 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 in 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 Polly and assumes that David is the 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.

[edit] References

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