Black & White World

Bachelor Mother (1939)

Preposterous plot is balanced by the unlikely screen chemistry between leads Ginger Rogers and David Niven.  I have reviewed this movie a couple of times here before, but quick plot outline:  Ginger is a shopgirl who finds a baby on the steps of a foundling home; they immediately presume that it’s her baby and strong-arm her into taking him back home, even going so far as appealing to her boss (Niven) to give her job back, and a raise, so she can care for the baby.  It’s a weak premise that depends on the audience believing one thing, that Ginger has to keep the baby.  It’s rickety support.

Fortunately, it’s got the strength of the Niven/Rogers romance to shore it up.  They are complete opposites in type, and yet their relationship was perfectly believable all the way along. I don’t know if that’s just good acting from both of them, but they really seem to enjoy each other’s company.  Her brassiness deflates his stuffiness, and in fact Niven does some delightful comic work here.  Also, it has to be said, Rogers had a pretty good rapport with the baby as well—if anything could make me buy that main premise, it’s that she doesn’t want to give the baby back because she’s become too attached to it.

I’m going to get into something here which may reveal spoilers, so usual warnings about that, don’t read on, blah blah blah.  If this movie were made today, the entire third act of the film would be centered around the birth mother showing up and wanting to get custody back, and the long courtroom struggle, etc.  It’s actually kind of refreshing not to see that in this movie.  The first time I watched it I remember thinking, “Really—she keeps the baby in the end?  But… it’s not hers!  What if the real mother comes back for it??” I don’t think times were simpler then, but the movies sure were.  It would have ruined a perfectly good comedy, but I just know Hollywood today would be completely unable to avoid it.