User reviews

For some reason that completely baffles me, TCM rarely broadcasts this wonderful, romantic comedy of errors, but frequently shows the lame musical remake, Bundle of Joy. Which cast would you rather watch - Debbie Reynolds, Eddie Fisher and Adolphe Menjou, or Ginger Rogers, David Niven and Charles Coburn? For me, every member of the cast in this original version is far better than his/her counterpart in the remake. The original cast delivers a film with risqué overtones (with a wink to the Hays Office), while Reynolds and (especially) Fisher turn the remake into 1950's milk and cookies.

In Bachelor Mother a beautiful, young Ginger Rogers is at her peak. She portrays a wonderfully sympathetic character. She is strong and feminine; exasperated yet determined. David Niven delivers perfectly as a somewhat spoiled, sophisticated and yet befuddled scion of a wealthy department store magnate. And I always love to see Charles Coburn - in top form here as the blustery, but good-hearted department store magnate who desperately wants a grandson.

I like Debbie Reynolds fine, but Debbie doesn't deliver as nuanced a performance as Ginger Rogers. Eddie Fisher as an actor - No Way! The only time he is not completely painful to watch is in Butterfield 8 - where, incidentally, he doesn't sing. Adolphe Menjou is okay.

I get angry at TCM for showing the remake more frequently than this delightful original. I get angrier still that some Hollywood boob thought it would be a good idea to remake Bachelor Mother, filling it with some lame songs that only serve to interrupt the flow of the story.

For a terrific romantic comedy, accept no substitutes: check out Bachelor Mother. And tell TCM which film you prefer. Maybe it will start showing this film more often.

Bachelor Mother finds Ginger Rogers as a shopgirl working for the large department store that Charles Coburn owns. When she's let go at Christmas time she's going to have to worry where the next meal for her is coming. No position to be taking on dependents.

Which is why when she finds a baby left on her doorstep she takes it to a foundling home where everyone assumes it's her's. When she tells her story about being let go, they're moved to do something about it. She gets her job back with a raise, but Ginger's a most unwilling mother.

Of course the speculation gets going as to who the dad is and the playboy son of Charles Coburn seems a real likely possibility. Especially when you've got David Niven as the playboy.

Garson Kanin directed the Felix Jackson original story in the film that became Bachelor Mother. The original screenplay was nominated for an Oscar in that category, but lost to Mr. Smith Goes To Washington.

I saw the musical remake that RKO did 17 years later with Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds and it was clear just how superior this film is to that one. Eddie was playing David Niven's part and while the man could sing, he hadn't a tenth of Niven's charm. To be perfectly fair though, there were few men as charming as David Niven, he carried more films on the strength of that charm than anyone else I can think of.

Ginger Rogers was doing a great variety of dramatic roles now at RKO in between her films with Fred Astaire. She was really kicking her career into high gear at this point and would win an Oscar next year for Kitty Foyle. Hard as she struggles in this film to convince everyone she's not the mother it gets easier to just go with the flow. When you see where the film is flowing you'll agree.

Bachelor Mother is a bright and witty comedy, not quite of the screwball variety, but still holding up quite well after more than 70 years.

Ginger Rogers is young, single, and unemployed when, as the result of doing a good deed, she gets stuck with a baby in "Bachelor Mother," a 1939 film also starring David Niven and Charles Coburn.

Rogers plays Polly Parrish, who on her way home from her last day at the department store she worked for over Christmas, sees an old woman leaving a baby on the steps of an orphanage. Fearful the child will fall down the steps, she is kneeling over him when someone from the orphanage opens the door and mistakes Rogers for the baby's mother. Polly gives the place her name and place of employment before she realizes they think she's the mother. When she runs away and leaves the baby, the orphanage gets busy contacting her employer. She gets the baby and her job back, plus a raise. No one will listen to her, so she gives in and makes up a story. Complications arise with a date who wants to move up in the store to floorwalker and believes the son of the owner (David Niven) is the baby's father. Eventually the store's irascible owner (Coburn) thinks Polly has given birth to his grandchild and insists that his son marry her.

This is a charming little film with wonderful performances. Niven in that stuffed shirt way of his is very elegant and likable, Coburn is great as his demanding father who breaks down and cries as he holds the baby. "I'd know that chin anywhere," he sobs. Rogers is fantastic. She looks gorgeous and even has a chance to dance without Fred around.

Highly recommended. Wonderful entertainment.

How many of us can sympathize with this? Your job is hanging precariously, your social life is not what it could be, and customer service won't let you return a malfunctioning Donald Duck toy without a receipt in triplicate.

This is the irresistible comic situation for the forgotten classic "Bachelor Mother". A young, urbane department store worker happens to run across a baby left on a social office's doorstep. Under the circumstances she is confused as the mother of the baby. She flatly denies this but no one will believe her including her boss, a wealthy, prim David Niven. Following a comedy of errors reminiscent of a Shakespeare play these two are thrown together and Niven is then assumed to be the baby's father by his own father, the inimitable Charles Coburn. The movies dances dizzyingly from one comic scenario to another, including a scene where Niven misdirects Rodgers to rub baby food into the baby's navel, and the cathartic comic moment where Niven, the store manager disguised a customer, demands to have his Donald Duck toy returned, to no avail.

Niven: "What is wrong with our Sales Return desk?"

Rodgers: "They don't return anything!"

Filled with scintillating wit, bubbling chemistry and a feel-good plot it is the perfect comedy to enjoy over and over again.

One of the best Ginger Rogers' movies....She proves to be a complete actress indeed, not only just a dancer (even if she was so talented!). The story and the script are witty and they work, not a bit of boredom, counting on the fact that certain things weren't quite disputable then. A "solo" mother was rather to blame....the movie brings in to question a tabù and it's done with class. It keeps a particular far-sighted way of seeing things they had in the late 30s....on my opinion of course. But they lost it after the war. Anyway about Rogers...well, she's great! Niven is one of my favourite actors and together they make a very fine couple....unusual but fine. Must see it! I highly recommend it

Ginger Rogers, David Niven and Charles Coburn achieve intense comic chemistry under the direction of Garson Kanin. Hardly a dull moment in this stylish and breezy 1940's "department store" romance. The film is constantly funny, often hilarious and always engaging. Rogers and Niven are so stellar they transcend their era, their characters are as contemporary as they are classic. Overall, a brilliant effort by all concerned!

This is a romantic comedy in the fullest sense of both terms. it is both hilariously funny and touchingly romantic (in the old-fashion boy sweeps girl off her feet even though she can give as good as she gets kind of way).

I totally loved the New Year Party scene, and the complications with the other boyfriend were great fun. And Donald Duck has a small but key role to play in this story.

Obviously some of the social attitudes are a bit hackneyed today, but the character personalities certainly shine through brilliantly still.

Department store clerk Polly (Ginger Rogers) is mistakenly believed to be the mother of an abandoned baby. She has to go along with it to keep her job. David Merlin (David Niven), the son of department store owner J.B. Merlin (Charles Coburn) takes a special interest in Polly's situation. Gradually the two fall in love but things are further complicated when J.B. is led to believe David is the father of Polly's baby.

Delightful romantic comedy with wonderful performances from Ginger Rogers, David Niven, and Charles Coburn. Special mention for Frank Albertson in one of his better roles outside of playing Sam "Hee Haw" Wainwright in It's a Wonderful Life. Donald Duck also figures into things in an amusing way. I actually heard the radio version of this before I saw the movie. I heard it on satellite radio several years ago. It featured Ginger and David reprising their film roles. This is a fun, nicely-paced movie with an immensely likable cast that seems to be having a great time. Ginger fans certainly won't want to miss it as it's one of her best.

This is a comedy of errors that escalates to the point of ridiculousness, and I love it. I have never seen David Niven play a comedy role as well as this. The way he plays it is very reminiscent of Cary Grant... His body movements, his tone of voice, and that makes me wonder if the part of Merlin was written with Cary Grant in mind. But Niven does not disappoint... And it is a refreshing change from his Wuthering Heights type serious, pole stuck up his rear acting in other films. Niven' crack about the baby being able to recite the first line of Gunga Din may be a direct jab (or reference) to Cary Grant.

Ginger is not dancing, well, we get to see her dance for a couple of minutes in this... But this film shows us that she is an actress of superb quality, she can play dramatic as well as comedic roles.

Of course the cast included Charles Coburn who was just about everywhere you looked in the 30's.

Little chunks of one-liner humour spread throughout the picture spice it up. I wonder if Disney had to grant special permission so that Niven could break the head off of a Donald Duck toy? Also, there is a part in the flick where Donald Duck (or at least a Donald Duck Toy) plays a very important role. I wonder if it was because RKO also distributed Disney or something like that?

If you have time to burn and they are showing this on TCM it is worthwhile to watch, once, twice maybe even three times. And why not, anyone should watch a few movies directed by Garson Kanin, who also directed "My Favourite Wife" with Grant and Dunne in 1940.

Ginger Rogers is adorable, and she has a ton of chemistry with David Niven in this comedy about a woman who's mistaken for the mother of an abandoned baby and for various reasons plays along with the ruse.

The film is pretty racy stuff for its time, frankly acknowledging illegitimate children, not to mention the fact that Niven's character falls in love with Rogers and willingly begins a relationship with her all the while believing that she is the true mother of the child. There's little in the film that's outright hilarious but much that induces humorous chuckles, and much worse could be said for many a movie.

One of my favorite character actors, Charles Coburn, is on hand to play the child's "grandfather" who goes on a crusade to take custody of it.

Grade: A-

This started off pretty well with a good first half hour, but once the romance kicked in between store clerk "Polly Parrish" (Ginger Rogers) and store owner's son "David Merlin" (David Nivens), it bogged down. Despite the romance, there was just too much disagreement between the two on how to take care of this baby.

"This baby" was an abandoned one left at a Foundling doorstep, but everyone thought it was Polly's child. That joke was fine to begin with, but got overplayed something fierce. They kept calling the baby "it," too, which is insulting and annoying.

Too bad, because the beginning showed great promise, especially when we got to see Ginger dance. That's always a treat.

I recently caught this movie on TV one Saturday morning, and was it ever a delight! The story is based on a series of comedic errors, but unlike more recent films, the top-notch acting leads you to believe that yes, it could really happen that way! (I'm used to films veering way too far into the slapstick so that I'm just rolling my eyes and suspending my belief -- here I was just chuckling away.)

Ginger Rodgers and David Niven give fabulous performances, and the head of the Foundling Home plays his part without flaw. I finished the film with a warm, happy glow that I carried into the day. I will enjoy revisiting it in the future.

Polly Parrish (Ginger Rogers), a clerk at Merlin's Department Store, is mistakenly presumed to be the mother of a foundling. Outraged at Polly's unmotherly conduct, David Merlin (David Niven) becomes determined to keep the single woman and "her" baby together.

Is this what they call a comedy of errors? It certainly is funny, as a woman is stuck trying to get rid of a baby who obviously isn't hers, even though her boss and everyone else seems to think it is. Strangely, the child's well-being is a background concern, and it is interesting that the foundling center claims it receives over 500 babies each year -- what was going on? Or was that just how adoption was done in those days? Ginger Rogers is great, and David Niven is excellent. I just love his debonair demeanor. He is always great, but the younger Niven is a special treat.

I wish so hard it was available on Netflix. I just tried to put it in my queue and it isn't listed.

Great film...I watch it every time it is listed on any channel at any hour. Wish I had it on DVD.

David Niven is one of my favorites of all time, and Ginger Rogers is just so adorable. The duologue is smart and funny and the confusion is so frustrating and gratifying.

I wish they still made movies like this. I wish these actors/writers/directors were still around to make them. Wholesome without being sickeningly sweet.

Ginger Rogers plays a young woman named Polly who "inherits" a baby. No one, including her boss, believes how she acquired the baby. Ginger Rogers (Polly) is adorable when paired with the ever humorous David Niven as her boss (David). There's wonderful chemistry between Ginger Rogers and David Niven in this movie. While the original movie was in black and white and written in 1939, it's still a cute, witty movie for today's viewing. Polly's a modern woman who doesn't back down to her boss or to any man in general. I especially enjoyed the New Year's Eve scene, where David realizes the shallow company he's been keeping before he met Polly.

"Bachelor Mother" is a wonderful family movie, with the incurable romantic in mind.

GINGER ROGERS had a flair for light comedy that is evident here as a department store clerk who is mistakenly believed to be the mother of a foundling baby. David NIVEN is the philandering son of rich man CHARLES COBURN and both of them think Rogers is the baby's mother.

That about sums up the plot, out of which Norman Krasna makes the most out of a situation which could easily have been explained if someone just told the truth. Apparently, RKO thought the story was so cute that it deserved a remake and in '57 it was remade as BUNDLE OF JOY with Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher. Unfortunately, it lacked the sparkle of the original and included some forgettable songs.

David NIVEN is every bit as charming as Ginger in the sort of role you might expect CARY GRANT to fill and CHARLES COBURN, FRANK ALBERTSON and ERNEST TRUEX add to the fun. The New Year's Eve party scene is a standout among a series of amusing capers.

Summing up: Nothing special, but passes the time pleasantly.

Apart from its originality (the somewhat risqué story, involving the various misunderstandings which arise over an abandoned baby, was even nominated for an Oscar) and reputation as a comedy classic (from an era crammed with them), this film is notable as a touchstone in the careers of all three protagonists – Ginger Rogers (her musical partnership with Fred Astaire now firmly behind her), David Niven (tackling his first starring role) and Charles Coburn (who practically spent the rest of his life playing wealthy and big-hearted eccentrics) – as well as marking perhaps director Kanin's most satisfying effort in this capacity (he is still best-known as a scriptwriter); incidentally, Rogers and Kanin would soon be re-united for the almost-as-good TOM, DICK AND HARRY (1941; http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0034299/usercomments-11). Given the Christmas back-drop, BACHELOR MOTHER makes for ideal festive fare – adding to the already warm glow (but thankfully eschewing sentimentality) of its subject matter. The two leads exude a wonderful chemistry (they would be reteamed two more times over the course of almost 20 years) which lends conviction to their budding romance and, likewise, a greater sense of involvement to their wacky antics (particularly Niven's attempt to exchange a defective toy in his own establishment incognito, during a marathon dance contest and a New Year's Eve dinner in which department-store clerk Rogers is passed off before Niven's high-society peers as a Swedish heiress). When Coburn, playing Niven's tycoon dad, gets wind of his son's supposed parenthood (via an anonymous note, actually from vindictive employee and romantic rival Frank Albertson), he is overjoyed at the prospect of finally having a grandson – even after both Rogers and Niven produce alternative fathers (including Albertson himself)!; the ending, then, with the leads getting hitched with a ready-made child in tow (a common occurrence today but not back then I suppose), is pure Hollywood. For the record, the film was remade – in color and widescreen – as BUNDLE OF JOY in 1956...which, given the casting of Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher (then a real-life couple), not to mention the addition of musical numbers, provided a distinctly unappetizing 'alternative' scenario for this viewer.

A Ginger Rogers screwball comedy from 1939. Rogers works at a Macy's like concern diligently selling toys (of the Donald Duck quacking kind) around the holidays. What does the company do to reward its employees; pink-slips to some w/Rogers being one of the recipients. Things seem to be looking up when a co-worker invites her to a dance contest (w/cash prizes) later the same night but on the way home she sees a woman leaving a baby on the doorstep of an orphanage which causes her to intervene but when the establishment browbeats her on why she's leaving the babe behind, she protests telling them the truth & hurrying away. The powers that be track her down to her place of employment & speak to her supervisor who decides to take advantage of the free PR by letting Rogers keep her job & raining gifts on her for the toddler (which to be fair, Rogers has an immediate rapport with) w/full approval by the store's owner's, played by Charles Coburn, & his son, played by David Niven, but since Rogers still wants to hit the dancefloor that night, she decides to drop the baby off at her bosses w/Niven getting an armful of baby for his troubles. What follows is a typically, joyous comedy romp (w/some romance thrown in) as Rogers & Niven soon fall in love w/each other (at a New Year's Eve party Niven takes Rogers to, he runs into a jilted ex & pretends Rogers is Swedish so she can avoid dealing w/his empty friends) w/a last dash effort of various suitors stepping up to claim the baby (Coburn thinks Niven is the father & will have none of it until Niven confesses ownership). Delightful, short & tempered w/comic performances that had me laughing from frame 1, this is one Rogers' best.

Ginger Rogers happens on a baby being left at a foundling home. She tries to intervene and before we know everyone thinks its hers. I'm not sure why she's called a bachelor in the title but the point is: She not married. This was after the Code and the ensuing plot turns were doubtless risky.

But it's predictable and not especially entraining. David Niven is OK as the philandering son of Charles Coburn, who owns the store where Rogers works. Ginger is OK but I would say just OK, apart from the cat fight she gets into with a minor character.

Coburn is given very little to do and few lines. More's the pity. And the ducks that keep popping up! Yes, she works in the toy department but wasn't "Joy of Living" enough to convince RKO that they are not only not charming but also, in adult fare, highly annoying?