Twelve Hidden Yuletide Gems
There’s an interesting match-up in the romantic comedy Bachelor Mother, starring Ginger Rogers and David Niven. Rogers plays Polly, a hard-working and very single shopgirl who discovers a baby on a front step. Polly tries to explain, but no one will believe that the baby is not hers! (*) Niven, playing department store boss David, finds his heartstrings plucked, and attempts to help Polly and protect her reputation. Only his father – played by the gruff Charles Coburn – now believes that the child is his illicit grandson!
This delightful film is not only filled with gags and witty moments (including department store jokes that still have a punch to them), but the chemistry between Niven and Rogers is simply beautiful. Rogers often played gals with unfairly bad reputations, decent women who were viewed as “good-time girls”. Meanwhile, although we’re told that store manager David is a “playboy,” Niven had that same gentlemanly quality that Fred Astaire had in spades, adding an anxiousness and British propriety that was hilarious to watch. From the moment Rogers finds the child, the viewer knows the people around her will assume the worst; from the moment Niven finds out her predicament, it’s obvious his “greater angels” will take charge.
Rogers’ career had three distinct periods; starting as a hard-edged chorine in Busby Berkeley flicks like 42nd Street, reaching classy heights as Fred Astaire’s partner in classic, witty musicals like Top Hat, and then making herself known as a comedienne and capital A actress in fare like Stage Door and Kitty Foyle, in which Rogers played a bona fide single mother. Bachelor Mother is situated right at the end of her “Fred and Ginger” films and before her “Actress” period – she’s likable, knowing, without dominating the picture. By contrast, the British-born Niven’s U.S. film career was just starting in earnest, but this was one of his last pictures before returning home to England, in order to fight in WWII.
Bachelor Mother‘s fun culminates in a bright New Year’s Eve party, which sorts out all complications. A bubbly film to watch on New Year’s morning, before the Rose Parade floats start their march.
(* In modern society, this predicament may not seem so dire – but it’s important to note that Niven’s co-star in The Bishop’s Wife, Loretta Young, was compelled to hide the true parentage of her “adopted” child until her recent death. As most of Hollywood knew, Clark Gable was the father.)
Ginger Rogers had a reputation as a solid, hard-working actress, but the one actress most beloved by film crews and directors alike was Barbara Stanwyck, who starred in Christmas in Connecticut and the final gem…
