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Bachelor Mother
Bachelor Mother
	Poster
Directed by	Garson Kanin
Screenplay by	Norman Krasna
Story by	Felix Jackson
Produced by	Buddy G. DeSylva
Starring	Ginger Rogers; David Niven; Charles Coburn
Cinematography	Robert De Grasse
Edited by	Henry Berman; Robert Wise
Music by	Roy Webb
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date	June 30, 1939;
Running time	82 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$509,000
Box office	$1,975,000

Bachelor Mother (1939) is an American romantic comedy film directed by Garson Kanin, and starring Ginger Rogers, David Niven, and Charles Coburn. The screenplay was written by Norman Krasna from an Academy Award-nominated story^[2] by Felix Jackson (a.k.a. Felix Joachimson) written for the 1935 Austrian-Hungarian film Little Mother. 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, and inspired the Bollywood film Kunwara Baap.

Plot

Polly Parrish works as temporary help at a New York City department store. She receives her dismissal notice at the end of the Christmas season. Returning home, she sees a stranger leaving a baby on the steps of an orphanage. To protect the baby from the cold, Polly takes it inside. The orphanage staff believe that Polly is the mother and insist that she can continue to care for her child with their help. She, however, leaves the baby.

The orphanage director searches out David, the playboy son of the store's owner J.B. Merlin, and requests that he re-hire Polly, who supposedly abandoned her child after being fired. David arranges for Polly to have a permanent position and a raise. Orphanage attendants later deliver the baby to her.

Polly made arrangements with Freddie, a stockboy at the store, to enter a dance competition, so she takes the baby to David's home and leaves the child with his butler. After being thrown out of the competition with the baby, an enraged David is forced to wait for Polly's return. When she does, he threatens that she must take care of the child properly, or find herself fired, denied a recommendation, and blacklisted by every employer in the city.

Mrs. Weiss, Polly's landlady, provides baby equipment and offers to take care of the boy when Polly is working. Unable to convince anyone that she is not the mother, and threatened by David with loss of her job if she does not assume that role, Polly gives up, names the baby "John", and starts raising him.

David increasingly finds himself reaching out to interact with Polly, bringing her and John gifts, stopping for visits, and talking together. Freddie's misconception of the situation between David and Polly is worsened when his own seniority warrants his promotion, which he mistakenly credits to Polly putting in a good word for him with David.

New Year's Eve arrives, and David has no date. To save face, David turns to Polly. He orders clothes to be sent from the store and takes Polly to a party, playing a prank on the other guests that she cannot speak English and David must act as her interpreter. The pair later leave and have a romantic evening, dampened only by the recollection of John, whose existence makes David hesitate. David does not feel ready to commit to a woman with a baby.

Embittered, Freddie attempts to blackmail David by sending an anonymous note to J.B., saying that David has a secret child. J.B. is delighted with this news. He wants David to settle down and provide him with a grandson. J.B. stalks David and sees him meet up with Polly and John.

David ends up in the same position Polly was: J.B. thinks that John is David's baby and will not believe any protests to the contrary. J.B. demands that David marry Polly. If David refuses, J.B. threatens to seize John's custody through legal means. David rushes to warn Polly about the threat and insist that she produce John's real father (of whom he is jealous) so J.B. can understand what is going on. David ends up hurting and insulting Polly when he derides J.B.'s demand that he marry her as ridiculous. He regrets his words, but Polly makes him leave.

Polly is anxious over J.B.'s threat to bring in lawyers and investigate, since she has grown to love John and this will expose that she is not the mother. She decides to flee, but the landlady proposes an alternative solution. Polly visits J.B. with Mrs. Weiss's adult son posing as her husband. Crushed, J.B. is about to accept that he misunderstood the situation, when David appears, dragging Freddie. David has bribed Freddie into saying that the latter is John's father.

Freddie breaks and declares David the father, David attacking Mrs. Weiss's son in jealousy, and J.B. now convinced that David is the father, Polly disappears and tries to flee with John. David becomes terrified that he lost Polly and John forever. When he finds her, David confesses his love and declares to J.B. that he is John's father, and intends to marry Polly.^[3]

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
Dennie Moore as Mary
June Wilkins as Louise King
Barbara Pepper as Dance-Hall Hostess (uncredited)
Charlie Hall as Dance-Hall Bouncer (uncredited)

Production

The film was a remake of the 1935 Hungarian film Little Mother from Joe Pasternak and Henry Koster which was never screened in the US.^[4]

In November 1938 RKO announced Little Mother would star Ginger Rogers. It would be the first film produced at the studio by Buddy de Sylva. The film replaced Perfect Honeymoon and She Married for Money in Rogers' schedule at RKO.^[5]

Louis Hayward was originally announced as the male lead.^[6] Then RKO announced Cary Grant would play the role.^[7] A few days later RKO announced Grant was replaced by James Ellison.^[8] In January 1939 RKO announced Garson Kanin, who had impressed with A Man to Remember, would direct and Norman Krasna was writing the script.^[9] A few days later the studio said the male lead was played by Douglas Fairbanks Jr.^[10] In March RKO said Fairbanks Jr would make The Sun Never Sets at Universal instead and his role would be played by David Niven who had been borrowed from Sam Goldwyn.^[11]

The film had a number of titles. RKO disliked Little Mother and the Hays Office had objections to alternatives they proposed, Bachelor Mother and Baby Trouble. Garson Kanin wanted to call it Baby Makes Three but producer Buddy De Sylva overruled him.^[4]

Reception

Box office

The film was a big hit and earned RKO a profit of $827,000.^[1]

Adaptations to other media

Bachelor Mother was adapted as a radio play on several occasions, including five broadcasts of The Screen Guild Theater: the first starred Laraine Day, Henry Fonda and Charles Coburn (February 1, 1942); the second starred Ann Sothern and Fred MacMurray (November 23, 1942); the third starred Ginger Rogers, Francis X. Bushman and David Niven (May 6, 1946); the fourth starred Lucille Ball, Joseph Cotten and Charles Coburn (April 28, 1949); the fifth starred Ann Sothern and Robert Stack (April 20, 1952). It was also adapted as an hour-long play on Lux Radio Theater with Ginger Rogers and Fredric March (January 22, 1940) and on Screen Director's Playhouse with Lucille Ball and Robert Cummings (March 8, 1951).

References

^ ^a ^b ^c Richard Jewel, 'RKO Film Grosses: 1931–1951', Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Vol 14 No 1, 1994, p. 55.
^ "Classic Film Guide". Archived from the original on 2011-05-16. Retrieved 2011-03-28.
^ "Bachelor Mother 1939: Movie and film review from Answers.com". Archived from the original on 2008-12-10. Retrieved 2009-05-10.
^ ^a ^b TRANSFORMATIONS IN HOLLYWOOD New York Times 26 Mar 1939: 137.
^ NEWS OF THE SCREEN: Ginger Rogers Will Star in 'Little Mother' at RKO. New York Times 3 Nov 1938: 28.
^ American Will Play Opposite Anna Neagle: Williams Wins Lead Metro Seeks Musical Air Series Scheduled Build-up for Hayward Schallert, Edwin. Los Angeles Times November 22, 1938, p. A10.
^ SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD New York Times 25 Nov 1938: 18.
^ SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD New York Times 29 Nov 1938: 27.
^ SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD New York Times 21 Jan 1939: 19.
^ SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD New York Times 27 Jan 1939: 17.
^ SCREEN NEWS HERE AND IN HOLLYWOOD New York Times 2 Mar 1939: 19.