Customer Reviews

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer [VHS]

5 star:		(37)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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!

Although this movie is not one of Cary Grant's best comedies, it is pretty harmless and quite amusing. By the time The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer was made, screwball comedy was winding down. Since screwball comedies were Grant's main area of expertise, he then had difficulty finding good scripts to do and was often forced to settle with somewhat inferior romantic comedies like this one (he still did make some other excellent films afterwards).

But, as I said earlier, although this lacks the originality and sparkle of some of his earlier films, it is not bad. By today's standards it is excellent - and as an added bonus it contains no obscene language or inappropriate scenes. Like all Grant's films it is tasteful, innocent and good entertainment for the whole family.

Essentially, this movie is a lighthearted romantic comedy that describes what happens when a debonair artist (Cary Grant) is stuck with a teenage girl chasing him (Shirley Temple). As an added bonus, the teenage girl's older sister (Myrna Loy) is also around. This movie has many funny situations, especially one where Grant is forced to participate in a childish series of races at a local fair.

The acting is quite good, and, all in all, this is an amusing, cute movie.

Target of a school girl's weekly crush and victim of circumstance, Richard Nugent (Cary Grant), is jailed for seducing a minor, Susan (Shirley Temple). Though innocence is evident, he has angered the female Judge Margaret Turner (Myrna Loy), who happens to be the minor's sister. In a plea bargain, Grant must "date" Susan until her crush wains. Attempting to wriggle free of his sentence, Grant eschews the mature demeanor that transformed him into the bobby soxer's knight in shining armor. Seeing this other side of Grant draws Loy to judge him worthy of her own affection. Untangling and redirecting emotions results in some hilarious moments.

Movie quote: "Now there's a guy who never goes out of a girl's mind. He just stays there... like a heavy meal."

Far from Grant's worst (THE PRIDE AND THE PASSION) and definitely not his best (THE AWFUL TRUTH) THE BACHELOR & THE BOBBY-SOXER just kinda sits somewhere in the middle, well, maybe just a little higher than the middle. The cast is strong, the script a little forced, but the direction by Irving Reis is flat and uninspired. If Howard Hawks, Preston Sturges or Leo McCarey had directed this same movie it would be a masterpiece.

After a brief encounter, teenager Shirley Temple has fallen deeply in love with the older but dashing Cary Grant. So deep in fact that she sneaks into his apartment while he's gone. Grant returns a few minutes before the law does and next thing you know Grant is ordered by the court to hang out with Temple until she falls out of love with him! See what I mean by the script being forced.

Anyway, that's a long and confusing set-up just to see Grant in a difficult situation, but it's almost worth it cause some really funny stuff happens next. What most people seem to remember is when Grant turns the tables and actually acts like a crazy talking teenager "Hi. Mello greeting, yookie dookie!" But my favorite scene is when Grant takes Judge Myrna Loy to dinner at a fancy club and before long everybody in the cast is sitting at their table arguing. Rudy Vallee even has his chair stolen at one point!

Woman: "Now there's a guy who never goes out of a girl's mind. He just stays there...like a heavy meal."
Man: "Oh yea. Then what am I like?"
Woman: "Orange juice."

THE BACHELOR & THE BOBBY-SOXER is worth watching (a few times) and has some good screwball scenes, but it just never reaches that lunatic pace that made THE MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK, BRINGING UP BABY and LOVE CRAZY such timeless classics.

Dick - Cary Grant (THE AWFUL TRUTH, BRINGING UP BABY)
Margaret - Myrna Loy (THE THIN MAN, LOVE CRAZY)
Susan - Shirley Temple (FORT APACHE, SINCE YOU WENT AWAY)
Tommy - Rudy Valee (THE PALM BEACH STORY, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS)
Beemish - Ray Collins (TOUCH OF EVIL, CITIZEN KANE)
Thaddeus - Harry Davenport (GONE WITH THE WIND, THE OX-BOW INCIDENT)

"The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer is from 1947, a year that left behind some pretty good films, "Gentlemen's Agreement," "A Double Life," "Great Expectations," "Body and Soul," "Black Narcissus," "The Farmer's Daughter," "Mother Wore Tights," "Green Dolphin street," "The Bishop's Wife" and "Miracle on 34th Street." All in all, not a bad year, although it does seem strange to me that with all those choices, it was this amusing but innocuous little comedy that won the Oscar for the best original screenplay.

This is one of the movies in which Shirley Temple attempted to make the transition from adorable moppet to young woman--well, to teenager, at least. Shirley is not bad, she has a couple of good scenes, as a matter of fact, but it is easy to see why she never made it as an adult movie star. The moppet mannerisms were too ingrained in her acting technique and persona. Every so often, she looks like a seven year-old somehow trapped in a sixteen year-old body. (She was nineteen at the time.)

The movie is one of the later successes of the screwball comedy era (I suppose 1952's "Monkey Business" also with Grant was the last), but it is slowed and softened by the home, mom and apple pie mind-set of the post-War era. Nevertheless, a cast that included Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, Rudy Vallee (surprisingly good in a part that would normally have been assigned to Ralph Bellamy), solid, stolid, familiar Ray Collins and what appears to be about half of the dear, nameless but familiar faces of the Hollywood repertory company, would have been able to spin far less promising material into finest gold.

Archie Leech had honed his Cary Grant creation to perfection and hauled him out in memorable vehicles twice in 1947: here in this film and in even more glistening form in "The Bishop's Wife." As one memorable passage from "The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer" that swept over the school halls of the day had it:

You remind me of a man.
What man?
The man with the power.
What power?
The power of the hoodoo.
Who do?
You do.
I do what?
You remind me of a man.

Five stars for the man with the power of the hoo-doo.

I laughed out loud a few times at this movie. Cary Grant is his usual "no good yet funny" self, and Shirley Temple is a very cute teenager. Simple, amusing, and 40's clean. This is a very good "popcorn" movie. Enjoy it--they don't make 'em like this anymore!!

This is one of my all-time favorite movies. It's fun to see a "mature" Shirley Temple; Cary Grant is charming as always, and the lovely Myrna Loy, as Shirley's elder sister, inadvertently gets caught in the middle of these two with great comedy as the result. The architecture of the home Shirley and Myrna live in is also quite lovely, as is the neighborhood in which the home sits. This film is just great escapism that will leave you smiling. Oh I wish, I wish, I wish, they still made films like this! It's "clean" and happy. If only......

First off, I love everything I've ever seen Cary Grant in during his humorous movies. His "Bringing Up Baby" is my all time favorite, but this is my second best choice. Myrna Loy is better in her "Thin Man" films, but she's just perfect in this too. Shirley Temple as a teenager is fun to see after all her small child star movies and plays this part to a "T". My favorite bit is the whole "You remind me of a man" dialogue...as a kid I spent time memorizing this because it was so funny and I was glad to see it still stirred the chuckles all these years later. The competition at the county fair was classic and the fun was fast paced and hilarious at the night club, at the end. If you like Cary Grant in comedy, this is a must have.