Bachelor Mother (1939)

Bachelor Mother - 1939

Next on our list of films is "Bachelor Mother".  Released in 1939, this comedy stars David Niven, Ginger Rogers, and Charles Coburn.  Ginger Rogers plays Merlin's department store employee Polly Parrish.  Polly gets fired from her job right before Christmas.  At lunch on her last day, Polly picks up a baby abandoned on the steps of a foundling home, and the laughs begin rolling from there.  The foundling home workers think its actually Polly's baby she is trying to give up!  They arrange it with her boss (David Niven) to have her keep her job so that she can keep her baby.  No matter what Polly does or says, no one believes that she is not the mother.  Things get even more complicated when Niven's father (Charles Coburn) believes his son to be the father of Polly's baby and plans to take action!

Others in the cast include Frank Albertson, Ferike Boros, Leonard Penn, Dennie Moore, June Wilkins, Irving Bacon, and Barbara Pepper (of TV's Green Acres Doris Ziffel fame).

Charles Coburn as John B. Merlin

For me, the film is completely owned by Charles Coburn as David Niven's meddling father who desperately wants to become a grandfather.  At the film's start he lectures his son, who has just spent the night in jail, "David, you can't keep up at the pace you're going.  You'll crack up.  Out every night with women and things."  David answers surprised, "And things?!"  Coburn continues, "You take me.  I was young once.  Lived like you, looked like you.  Then, suddenly, overnight, I look like this."  Later in the film, David tries to convince Coburn that he isn't the father of Polly's baby boy.  "I don't care who the father is," he says.  "I'm the grandfather!"

New Year's Party

Another funny scene is when David takes Polly to a New Year's Party.  He doesn't want any of the other gents to steal her away from him, so he tells everybody she is the daughter of a Swedish manufacturer and doesn't speak a word of English.  It's hilarious to watch as David and Polly speak "Swedish" and fool the other members of the party.

David Niven tries to exchange a duck

Of course, a hilarious scene is when David tries to exchange a faulty duck by going undercover at his own store.  He's literally jumped on by the management when it's thought he is a shoplifter.  Note all those vintage Donald Duck toys on the counter.

 A great scene occurs at the Pink Slipper Dance Palace.  This being a Ginger Rogers film, there, naturally, has to be dancing. 

The inside is crammed with people who have entered a dance contest.  (Be on the lookout for Barbara Pepper [Green Acres' Doris Ziffel] as a Dance Hostess.)

Ginger Rogers is there dancing with her partner Frank Albertson.

David follows her there, baby and butler in tow.  He sees her dancing and exclaims, "So that's the modern generation for you.  Twentieth Century motherhood.  Throws her baby in somebody else's house and runs out to do that!"

Cast rundown:

   Ginger Rogers.......................................Polly Parrish

   David Niven..........................................David Merlin

   Charles Coburn......................................John B. Merlin

   Frank Albertson.....................................Freddie Miller

   Ferike Boros..........................................Mrs. Weiss

   Leonard Penn.........................................Jerome Weiss

   Dennie Moore........................................Mary

   June Wilkins..........................................Louise King

   Barbara Pepper.......................................Dance Hall Hostess

   Irving Bacon..........................................Exchange Window Clerk

Just a little FYI, Bachelor Mother was nominated by the American Film Institute for the Top 100 Funniest American Movies.  It didn't make the cut, but it is indeed, very funny.

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