Movies I've Missed Until Now: The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)

I’ve been a big fan of Cary Grant’s movies for a long time, but there are some I’ve just never gotten around to watching. I’m not sure how I missed THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER, from 1947, since it ran endlessly on TV when I was a kid, but I’ve seen it now. Probably most of you have, too, so bear with me.

Grant plays Richard Nugent, a famous painter who’s also something of a ladies’ man. After a nightclub brawl, he comes up in front of Judge Margaret Turner (Myrna Loy, who will always be Nora Charles to me), who lets all the participants go with a warning not to get into any more trouble, especially Nugent. Later, he gives a lecture on art at the high school where Judge Turner’s younger sister Susan (Shirley Temple, no longer a child star but a cute 19-year-old in real life) is a student. Susan falls in love with Nugent, sneaks into his apartment, and is caught there with him the next morning by her sister and the assistant district attorney (Rudy Vallee, of all people). Nothing happened, but the impropriety of the situation lands Nugent in trouble, as does the punch he lands on the ADA’s jaw. After that, the court psychiatrist, who happens to be the uncle of the Turner sisters and is played by Ray Collins, who will always be Lt. Tragg from PERRY MASON as far as I’m concerned, hatches the crazy scheme of having Nugent pretend to date Susan so that she’ll grow tired of him naturally and realize he’s much too old for her.

If you’ve followed all that convoluted set-up so far, you’ll know that it’s all just a flimsy excuse for Grant to act like a teenager, spouting slang and driving a jalopy and being his usual charming but flustered self. It’s a well-worn bit, but let’s face it, nobody was ever better at it than Cary Grant. And there are no bonus points for anticipating that a real romance will develop between Grant and Loy, who admittedly have some pretty darned good screen chemistry together.

The cast is top-notch, no doubt about that. I think the director, Irving Reis, could have kept things moving at a bit faster pace at times. This movie was written by Sidney Sheldon, long before he created I DREAM OF JEANNIE and became a best-selling novelist, and it won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. I didn’t think this was my idea of an award-winning script at all. It’s consistently pleasant, mildly amusing now and then, but not all that funny and the cast has to work hard to achieve the laughs they do. Don’t get me wrong. THE BACHELOR AND THE BOBBY-SOXER is not a bad film. I enjoyed it and am glad I finally watched it. But I don’t think it lives up to its reputation.