User Reviews

I rarely write reviews but this was such a delightful gem of a romantic comedy that I had to support it.

I cannot even explain why it was so great. It's a simple little movie, low-key, 100% predictable, with an absurd premise, and moves kind of slow, with no extravagant sets. The script is linear and the dialog is adequate but hardly a work of genius.

Yet I enjoyed this more than any other film I've seen in a very long time. It was totally fun and, although there are much funnier comedies, ( Bringing Up Baby (1938), The In-Laws (1979), Simon (1980), Young Frankenstein (1974) come to mind), this one had me laughing out loud over and over, which I never do, because the comedy was so light hearted and due to the acting rather than the concept.

The film has, as you know, a terrific cast. Ginger Rogers has everything. She is beautiful, she is intelligent, she can sing (no singing though in this film), dance (some nice dancing), be depressed or do comedy. I actually like the chemistry with David Niven better than with Fred Astaire, they make a terrific couple. Niven is funny as hell, and all the supporting cast chimes right in with perfect comic timing. As soon as Charles Coburn showed up on screen I was smiling. The film is full of tiny bits of physical comedy and small gags by actors with only a few seconds of screen time, who all perform like seasoned pros turning simple bits into remarkable, funny-bone tickling scenes.

The comic acting is not stunning, as in the films I mentioned above; it is stylized, theatrical, a bit stiff. It's the style of the film which is not at all realistic, and somehow it works great. Rogers and Niven go through their comic facial expressions slowly and exaggeratedly, so everyone gets it, as if they were telling a story instead of acting it, and it adds to the effect of light heartedness.

The portrayal of the romance, from the initial attraction, through the growing awareness of feelings, is nicely observant and free of cliché. Both the script and the performance capture some of the real moments that happen as two people are drawn together.

The ending is, of course, a completely unbelievable high speed wind-up, fitting the conventions of the time, but I was wishing to follow the relationship along a more extended and realistic track. It would no longer have been a screwball comedy. And there is some absurd stop-motion animation of a mechanical duck where they don't even bother to move the feet properly. This is so blatantly faked that perhaps it is a signal from the director that he has been forced into a trite ending he disowns; or maybe just that the ending is forced by convention and not be taken seriously. It is as if it is Donald Duck who has dictated the final corny scene. It didn't bother me, though, because it is clear that the film would have had to end eventually like that even if it were worked out more believably.

Also someone complained that the landlady should have known the truth about Rogers' character, not recalling that Rogers' had only been her tenant three weeks- short enough to make the plot work out. And I think it is just fine to call a baby it- plus it shows the awkward relationship the single, childless characters have with the baby that suddenly shows up in their life.

If I had to say what it was that was so great about this film, other than seeing Ginger Rogers and David Niven, those two remarkable warm and generous personalities, playing off each other, it would be that the film seems to be filled with love and kindness. Released the year after Kristallnacht shocked the world, it features a saintly very Jewish landlady who comes to the rescue a number of times. There is a six month old baby, who does great work, and Rogers has some lovely scenes with the baby where she seems, briefly, to be genuine. Everyone wrongly thinks Rogers' character is an unwed mother, and there is not the slightest tinge of stigma associated with it throughout the film by any of the many characters that deal with her with kindness, love, acceptance and total respect (if not understanding), and there is also sympathy for the working class pain during the depression. The film totally avoids p retention, it wants to make us laugh and feel good, not to impress us, and it does.

So I give this an 8, but really in terms of the heart it is priceless gem of a film, without a single wrong note, for anyone who loves screwball comedy and the great actors of yesteryear whose like, I am afraid, the business is not likely to produce again.

You might expect something different from a synopsis. A baby is left on shop girl Ginger Rogers' doorstep. Everyone assumes she is the mother, including her wealthy boss, David Niven. Rogers and Niven are at odds with each other but shortly the inevitable happens. In addition to everyone's mistaken assumption that Rogers has had a (gulp) illegitimate child, there are various schemes to align her status as mother with her actual pristine character.

I had plenty of handkerchiefs handy for when the plot slowed down for the drama and sentiment -- the cute little baby doing cute things, Rogers sobbing over her undeserved shame, everyone hugging the tot and weeping with love. Actually, I don't own any handkerchiefs, so I had paper towels at the ready. I didn't need them anyway. It's pretty funny.

There are amusing incidents (a disguised Niven trying to exchange a faulty toy duck at the store he owns)and comic plot twists that end up with several men claiming to be the father.

But it's a quiet comedy -- the screenplay is by Norman Krasna and the direction by Garsin Kanin -- no pratfalls and very little shrieking. It's done in a lower key than, say, the Doris Day/ Rock Hudson comedies but it travels on the same track. Instead of an obvious wise crack, we get someone muttering an ironic, "Ha ha." Ginger Rogers is really an attractive woman. She has oversized blue eyes and she can get an emotion across with a muted moue or a flick of her gaze. Niven is good, better at comic roles than dramatic. The supporting cast is at par, with Ferike Boros great as a stereotypical cheerful and loving grandmother, nurse, or housekeeper.

If you get into it, you'll probably enjoy it.

While I never particularly liked David Niven, I never disliked him either. Here, however, he turns in a very entertaining portrayal of a socially dense department store heir. Through all his density, he eventually becomes rather likable.

For years I avoided Ginger Rogers, thinking of her as "that dancer". In recent years I've discovered she was quite a good actress, and she shines here as the woman with the foundling...which doesn't really belong to her. Of course, she works for David Niven's department store.

The big disappointment here is Charles Coburn's role. As one of the finest character actors of that era, he was terribly wasted here as the father/owner of the department store. He could have been so good had the role been fleshed out a bit more.

I'm not sure Frank Albertson was up to the role of the sorta-protagonist here.

The plot line is entertaining. Polly (Ginger Rogers) is walking along the street one day and sees an older lady leave a baby on the steps of an orphanage. Fearing for the baby's safety, Polly picks up the baby and is assumed to be the baby's mother. Although she has just lost her job as a clerk at a department store, the store's owner's son (David Niven) is brought into the situation, and also assumes Polly is the mother. He gives her her job back, but Polly has to start raising the child (BTW, this part of the story -- what ultimately happens to the baby -- is never resolved in the film). Of course, Ginger and Niven fall in love, although it is a bit of a rocky road for a while. Niven's father (Charles Coburn) wants a grandson, even if it was born out of wedlock, and in a screwball finale all live happily ever after...presumably the baby, too.

It's light, but charming and funny. Recommended.

Ginger Rogers gets one of her best roles in this absolutely charming, goofy and heartwarming comedy. She's the plucky shopgirl who has just been fired, and has just been landed with a baby in a severe case of misunderstanding! David Niven is the rich shop-owner's son who both foists a child on Ginger that's not hers, and then falls in love with her and it, the adorable little "Johnny". And the always-great Charles Coburn is just marvellous as the "grandfather" who thinks that Niven and Rogers have produced his longed-for grandson.

This is pretty much a perfect romantic comedy, with Rogers giving a terrific performance. Niven gets one of his more unusual roles, it;s sort of a role you imagine Cary Grant in, but he's delightful in it and has unexpectedly great chemistry with Ginger. Garson Kanin directs and Norman Krasna provides a sparkling comic script, that has you both laughing and getting a tear in the eye as a loving, makeshift family is created around a cute tot. When a film contains a major plot gag involving Donald Duck, has Ginger pretending to be Swedish and David Niven trying to rub oatmeal into a baby's stomach, you really can't go wrong!

Ginger Rogers almost made the mistake of her career, when she flatly refused to appear in "Bachelor Mother". Pandro S. Berman forced her to do it and when released she was at last recognised as one of Hollywood's top comediennes. I love this film!!!!!

Polly Parrish (Ginger Rogers) has just been given a pink slip from Merlin's Department Store. After being forced to listen to quacking toy Donald Ducks all day the last thing she needs is a baby!!!! While on lunch she finds a woman abandoning a baby at a foundling home. When Polly is caught holding the baby she can convince no-one that the baby isn't hers. The foundling officers contact her boss David Merlin (David Niven) and she is given her job back plus a bonus. She still can't convince anybody that the baby isn't hers.

One of the funniest sequences is when she and Freddie (Frank Albertson) enter a dance competition and David comes to the night club with the baby in tow. Another funny sequence is when Niven tries to return a faulty Donald Duck (ha!ha!) incognito and finds the staff less than helpful. Then there is the part where he takes Polly out to party with his rich friends and she impersonates a Swedish girl who can't speak English.

When "a friend" sends a note to David's father (Charles Coburn) implying that David is the father then the shoe is on the other foot.

Charles Coburn is wonderful as the grandfather (he thinks!!!) "I don't care who the father is - I'm the Grandfather!!!" It is a very funny film and at the end a few men stand up to claim paternity.

Ginger was never better than in these type of working girl roles.

"Bachelor Mother" is a very good, light comedy-romance. The setting is a familiar one for comedies and dramas of the early to mid-20th century. Working people in department stores try to keep their heads above water, while hoping for a break or something better down the line. The store owners are of the upper crust and live in a whole world away from these folks. But, dreams are fulfilled in the Hollywood versions where working girl meets boy – usually the son of the owner.

Such is the case in this movie. But this one has a different and uncommon twist. It brings another social issue into play – the raising of children given up by single mothers or poor, who drop their babies off at children's homes or public places (police, fire stations, libraries, etc.). It provides for a different, warm-hearted, gentle comedy that leads to romance. But in this film, the working girl heroine, Polly Parrish, is not a mother who drops off her baby, but someone who comes across another woman leaving a baby. Much of the humor is in the foundling home people "knowing" that she is the mother, because all other deny that the baby is theirs as well.

All of this leads to much fun as the department store keeps Polly on after the Christmas holiday rush for which she had been hired, and then one things lead to another. It's a nice story with a good cast. David Niven is department store owner's son, David Merlin. Charles Coburn is the patriarch who wants his son to settle down and start a family. That, translated, means giving him a grandchild or more for heirs.

One of the funniest segments is David Merlin's visit to Polly at home when she's feeding the baby. He has bought the latest expert advice book for her – on raising children, and insists that she pay attention to the proper way to feed a baby. The dialog, with his reading from the book, is so dumb that it's funny. See the IMDb Quotes section on the film Web page here for that dialog.

The plot is different enough to keep one's interest. The screenplay is simple. It's a nice story with some funny segments.