The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer | |
---|---|
Directed by | Irving Reis |
Written by | Sidney Sheldon |
Produced by | Dore Schary |
Starring | Cary Grant Myrna Loy Shirley Temple |
Cinematography | Nicholas Musuraca Robert De Grasse |
Edited by | Frederic Knudtson |
Music by | Leigh Harline |
Production company | Vanguard Films |
Distributed by | RKO Radio Pictures |
Release dates | |
Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $1,961,000 [2] [3] |
Box office | $5,550,000 (worldwide rentals) [2] [3] |
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (released as Bachelor Knight in the United Kingdom [4] ) is a 1947 American screwball romantic comedy-drama film directed by Irving Reis and written by Sidney Sheldon. The film stars Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Shirley Temple in a story about a teenager's crush on an older man.
Upon its release, The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer was well received by both audiences and critics. Sidney Sheldon won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for this film.
Margaret Turner (Myrna Loy) and Susan Turner (Shirley Temple) are sisters who live together. Susan is an intelligent 17-year-old high-school student with a habit of forming short-lived interests after hearing the regular guest lectures at school. Margaret is a judge, and Susan's guardian.
Richard Nugent (Cary Grant), a handsome and sophisticated artist, is a defendant in Margaret's courtroom, charged by ADA Tommy Chamberlain (Rudy Vallee) with starting a nightclub brawl. She releases him with a warning when it becomes clear that the fight was started by two women fighting over him.
He proceeds to Susan's school, where he is the guest lecturer for the day—and as he speaks, Susan becomes infatuated with him. After the talk she finds a reason to spend time with him and suggests she model for him; that evening, she puts on a sophisticated dress and sneaks away from home and into his apartment while he is out.
Richard has no sooner discovered Susan in his apartment than Tommy and Margaret arrive to rescue her from his presumed seduction. Richard assaults Tommy and is held in jail until Matt Beemish (Ray Collins), who is the court psychiatrist and also Margaret and Susan's uncle, intervenes and explains the true situation. He recommends allowing Susan to date Richard until the infatuation burns itself out; Tommy will drop the assault charge if Richard complies.
At a high-school basketball game, Richard tries unsuccessfully to boost Susan's image of Jerry White (Johnny Sands), the boyfriend she dumped for him. Later, at a school picnic, Susan persuades Richard to enter a series of novelty races (open to adult family members), where he loses repeatedly to Tommy. But in the main event, an obstacle course, she asks Jerry to help Richard win. Because he still loves her, Jerry complies, helping him directly at one point, then colliding with Tommy so that Richard does win the event.
Meanwhile, Richard and Margaret are becoming attracted to each other, to the discomfiture of Tommy, who sees Richard as a habitual troublemaker and wants Margaret for himself. Hoping Richard will stop seeing Margaret if he no longer has to date Susan, Tommy announces he is dropping the charge. But Richard and Margaret go out to a nightclub, where they are interrupted in succession by all the other main characters as well as a former girlfriend of Richard's. They all part angrily. Susan accuses Margaret of stealing her boyfriend from her. Matt gets Susan to see that she is only infatuated with Richard and that Richard is too old for her, and she returns to Jerry.
Afterwards, Matt finds out that Richard has decided to take a trip and is able to manipulate affairs so that Margaret will travel with him. Learning that Tommy is coming to arrest Richard on trumped-up charges, Matt forestalls him by telling police at the airport that Tommy is a mental patient with delusions of being an assistant district attorney. Richard and Margaret are happily surprised to meet each other as they approach the plane to board.
The New York Times thought the film "most agreeable" with high praise for the four principal performers, the direction and screenplay. [5]
The film's screenplay won an Academy Award (Best Original Screenplay) for Sidney Sheldon, who went on to create I Dream of Jeannie , Hart to Hart , and, as a novelist, Master of the Game (1982), The Other Side of Midnight (1973), and Rage of Angels (1980).
According to RKO records, the film earned $4,200,000 in theater rentals in the U.S. and Canada and $1,350,000 elsewhere, resulting in a profit of $700,000. [2] [3] [6]
In 2009, the film was available on videocassette and DVD.
It was dramatized as a half-hour radio play on the May 10, 1948 broadcast of The Screen Guild Theater with Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and Shirley Temple. It was also dramatized as a Lux Radio Theater adaptation starring Cary Grant and Shirley Temple that aired on June 13, 1949.
David Bowie's song "Magic Dance", which appears in the 1986 film Labyrinth, includes lyrics that refer to Cary Grant and Shirley Temple's call and reply dialogue heard in the film: "You remind me of a man." "What man?" "The man with the power." "What power?" "The power of hoodoo." "Who do?" "You do!". In "Magic Dance", "man" is replaced with "babe" and "hoodoo" with "voodoo". [7]
Suspicion is a 1941 romantic psychological thriller film noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine as a married couple. It also features Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Nigel Bruce, Dame May Whitty, Isabel Jeans, Heather Angel, and Leo G. Carroll. Suspicion is based on Francis Iles's novel Before the Fact (1932).
Myrna Loy was an American film, television and stage actress. As a performer, she was known for her ability to adapt to her screen partner's acting style.
The year 1946 in film involved some significant events.
The following is an overview of 1934 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Isadore "Dore" Schary was an American playwright, director, and producer for the stage and a prolific screenwriter and producer of motion pictures. He directed one feature film, Act One, the film biography of his friend, playwright and theater director Moss Hart. He became head of production at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and replaced Louis B. Mayer as president of the studio in 1951.
Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is a 1948 American comedy film directed by H. C. Potter and starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy, and Melvyn Douglas. Written and produced by the team of Melvin Frank and Norman Panama, it was an adaptation of Eric Hodgins's popular 1946 novel illustrated by Shrek! author William Steig.
Gunga Din is a 1939 American adventure film from RKO Radio Pictures directed by George Stevens and starring Cary Grant, Victor McLaglen, and Douglas Fairbanks Jr., loosely based on the 1890 poem of the same name by Rudyard Kipling combined with elements of his 1888 short story collection Soldiers Three. The film is about three British sergeants and Gunga Din, their native bhisti, who fight the Thuggee, an Indian murder cult, in colonial British India.
Constantin Romanovich Bakaleinikov was a Russian-born composer who worked in Hollywood, California.
I Love You Again is an MGM comedy released in 1940. It was directed by W.S. Van Dyke and starred William Powell and Myrna Loy, all three of whom were prominently involved in the Thin Man film series.
Without Reservations is a 1946 RKO Radio Pictures American comedy film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Claudette Colbert, John Wayne and Don DeFore. The film was adapted by Andrew Solt from the novel Thanks, God! I'll Take It From Here by Jane Allen and Mae Livingston.
Every Girl Should Be Married is a 1948 American romantic comedy film directed by Don Hartman and starring Cary Grant, Betsy Drake and Franchot Tone. Grant and Drake married a year after the film's release.
Forever, Darling is a 1956 American fantasy romantic comedy film directed by Alexander Hall, written by Helen Deutsch, and starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and James Mason. In the film, Ball stars as a wife who tries to save her struggling marriage to a chemical engineer (Arnaz) with the help of her guardian angel (Mason). Louis Calhern and Natalie Schafer co-star in major supporting roles.
Stowaway is a 1936 American musical drama film directed by William A. Seiter. The screenplay by William M. Conselman, Nat Perrin, and Arthur Sheekman is based on a story by Samuel G. Engel. The film is about a young orphan called "Ching Ching" who meets wealthy playboy Tommy Randall in Shanghai and then accidentally stows away on the ocean liner he is travelling on. The film was hugely successful, and is available on videocassette and DVD.
Man-Proof is a 1938 American romantic comedy film directed by Richard Thorpe. The film is based on the 1937 novel The Four Marys written by Fannie Heaslip Lea.
Wings in the Dark is a 1935 film directed by James Flood and starring Myrna Loy and Cary Grant and focusing on a daring woman aviator and an inventor thrust into a desperate situation. Wings in the Dark was produced by Arthur Hornblow, Jr. The film was the first that Loy and Grant made together, although Loy's biographer Emily Leider says that Wings in the Dark "wastes their talents and prompts an unintentional laugh fest." The film remains notable as a rare movie depiction of a blind protagonist during the 1930s, and is also known for its accomplished aerial photography directed by Dewey Wrigley.
Johnny Sands was an American film and television actor. He worked in over a dozen films, and on television, before he retired from show business in 1971. He then worked as a real estate agent in Hawaii, until retiring in 1991.
From This Day Forward is a 1946 American drama film directed by John Berry, starring Joan Fontaine and Mark Stevens.
The Marines Fly High is a 1940 action film, starring Richard Dix, Chester Morris and Lucille Ball and directed by George Nicholls, Jr. and Benjamin Stoloff from a story by A.C. Edington.
Miranda Bonansea was an Italian actress and voice actress.