bachelor mother

the year: 1939

the genre: comedy


the cast: Ginger Rogers (Polly Parish); David Niven (David Merlin); Charles Coburn (J.B. Merlin)


plot: Leaving work after she has been dismissed from her job at Merlin's department store, salesgirl Polly Parrish happens upon a woman leaving an infant on a foundling's home doorstep and is pounced on by the attendants as its mother. After furiously protesting that she is not the baby's mother, Polly leaves the orphanage, but the officials from the home track her down at work. Feeling sorry for the "unwed mother," the boss's playboy son, David Merlin, intercedes to get her a better position in the toy department. When Polly still refuses to keep the infant, however, David threatens to fire her, and she reluctantly accepts motherhood. Polly quickly develops a maternal love for the boy, whom she names Johnnie, and David's compassion for mother and child ripens into love.


count: the Donald Duck wind-up toys.


don't miss: Charles Coburn as J.B. Merlin. He began acting in film at the age of 60.


listen for: "I don't care who the father is, I'm the grandfather!"


also listen for: "Of course he talks! Why, he can recite the first line of Gunga Din!"


watch for: the unveiling of the "real" father.