Product Details

• Actors: Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Shirley Temple, Rudy Vallee, Ray Collins
• Directors: Irving Reis, Tex Avery
• Writers: Sidney Sheldon
• Producers: Dore Schary, Fred Quimby
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Turner Home Ent
• DVD Release Date: June 1, 2004
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (87 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0001WTWRY
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #70,853 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"You remind me of a man." "What man?" "The man with the power...." Ah, so you remember the lovely nonsense of The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. This lighter-than-air comedy puts playboy writer Cary Grant in company with 17-year-old schoolgirl Shirley Temple, although he's more interested in older sister Myrna Loy. (She's as sober as a judge, and indeed is one.) The Oscar®- winning script by future bestselling novelist Sidney Sheldon boasts fun '40s slang, but the main draw is Grant's willingness to play the fool. His gift for slapstick shines when his aging bachelor decides to act like an inane teenager in an effort to burst Shirley's fanciful image of him. As usual, Grant seems to conspire with the audience (watch his double takes in the background) in making a somewhat standard movie into a giddy experience. Toss in deadpan Rudy Vallee as a sappy third wheel, and you've got a near-classic. --Robert Horton

Product Description

Through no fault of his own, artist and lady's man Richard Nugent finds a love-besotted teenage girl curled on his sofa. Through no fault of his own, the teen's sister is a judge who "sentences" thunderstruck Richard to date the girl until her schoolgirl crush wanes. Circumstances aren't kind to Richard. But they certainly are hilarious when Cary Grant plays Richard, Myrna Loy is the judge and Shirley Temple is the teen.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars 1940's Revealed November 28, 2003

By Douglas Doepke

Format:VHS Tape

Want some insight into what titillated movie-goers in the post-war 1940's? This 1947 RKO production is a good place to start. There's the marquee value of a seductively handsome Cary Grant coupled with that spunky symbol of all-American innocence Shirley Temple, enough at the time to draw in ticket-buying throngs with its naughty innuendo of daring departure and forbidden pleasure. In fact, the underage subtext lingers beneath much of the movie's plot and humorous settings, but in a totally innocent manner, proving that this is not yet the more permissive 1960's. One slip, however, and this light-hearted souffle could easily have become burnt-toast of the most tasteless variety. Fortunately, there are no slips.

Once the pace picks up, this comedy sparkles as brightly as any other Cary Grant madcap, which is to say, about as good as comedy gets. The night club scene is an absolute triumph of timing, staging, and scripting. The laughs build as the party table becomes more and more chaotic, interrupted by one petty annoyance after another, finally reducing the worldly Grant to speechless exasperation. This is the type of soaring comedic architecture that requires real artistry, but has been sadly replaced in contemporary film by a dumbed- down world of bathroom jokes, insult gags, and other cheap forms of humor that appeal mainly to juveniles. The movie itself, directed by an unheralded Irving Reis, is literally brimful of bounce and charm, leaving no one in doubt that the big war is over and America is ready for the future even if its libido is showing. With: a slyly endearing Ray Collins, a bemusedly prim Myrna Loy, a pompously befuddled Rudy Vallee, and a well-deserved Oscar for writer Sidney Sheldon, along with a final scene that could not be more apt. Despite the shift in public mores, audiences now as then should find this a highly entertaining ninety minutes of expert movie-making.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "The Power of Whoo-doo!" August 27, 2001

By Linda McDonnell

Format:VHS Tape

I rented this movie and watched it last night--hadn't seen it in close to thirty years since I was a little girl--and nearly freaked from the deja-vous experience of hearing the "You remind of a man/what man?/the man with the power/what power?/ the power of whoo-doo". And my older sister knowingly said, "Yes, TutorGal, this is where that comes from." I used to chant and chant that as a kid! So much for memory lane; now down to business about "The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer." The movie has a bit of a slow start, with pretty static direction, up until the point when high school student Shirley Temple sees ladykiller artist Cary Grant at high school assembly delivering a lecture. Pow! she sees him as a knight in shining armor and is off to corral him. She doesn't know of course that big sis judge Myrna Loy has just had him in her courtroom and has formed a low opinion of his reputed womanizing. Shirley even finds a way to gain access to the unknowing Cary's apartment, where he then unjustly gets slammed with a jailbait charge. Hey, where's this going? Well, Myrna and her assistant DA beau Rudy Vallee decide that the only way for Shirley to get over Cary is for him to date her and probably bore her with his adult ways. And of course, nothing works out like anyone has planned, least of all smug Myrna. As I wrote above, the movie really picks up after about 15-20 minutes and then becomes quite hilarious, with Rudy Vallee particularly good as an eccentric WASP, the sort of thing he does so well . Cary appears to be genuinely enjoying himself, and Shirley has certainly grown to be a real cutie. Myrna's okay, but nothing spectacular this time around. Make a date to watch "The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer" and see the whoo-doo first hand!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars "Susan's growing pains are rapidly becoming a major disease. April 18, 2005

By Bomojaz

Format:DVD

Shirley Temple is Susan, the 17-year-old sister of the rather stuffy Judge (Myrna Loy), who develops an infatuation for artist Cary Grant. Grant is "asked" to date Temple until the infatuation wears off; meanwhile, he and Loy fall in love. There are a couple of terrific scenes, like the one in the restaurant where all the characters converge in grand confusion and misunderstanding. There is also a very appealing breeziness in all the proceedings (helped along mostly by Rudy Valee as Loy's longtime beau and Roy Collins as a psychiatrist). Worth a watch.