The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (released as Bachelor Knight in the United Kingdom) 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 received positively by audiences and critics. Sidney Sheldon won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the script.
Plot
Margaret and Susan Turner are sisters who live together. Susan is an intelligent 17-year-old high-school student with a habit of forming short-lived enthusiasms after hearing the regular guest lectures at school. Margaret, who is a judge, is Susan's guardian.
Richard Nugent, a handsome and sophisticated artist, is a defendant in Margaret's courtroom, charged by assistant district attorney Tommy Chamberlain with starting a nightclub brawl. Margaret releases him with a warning when it becomes clear that the fight was started by two women fighting over him.
Richard proceeds to Susan's school, where he is the guest lecturer for the day. Listening to his speech, Susan becomes infatuated with him. After the talk, she finds a reason to spend time with him and suggests that she model for him. That evening, she wears a sophisticated dress and sneaks away from home and into his apartment while he is out.
Soon after Richard returns and discovers Susan in his apartment, Tommy and Margaret arrive frantically beating on the door. Richard assaults Tommy and is held in jail until Matt Beemish, the court psychiatrist and also Margaret and Susan's uncle, intervenes and explains the situation. He recommends allowing Susan to date the 35-year-old Richard until the infatuation dissipates, and Tommy promises to drop the assault charge if Richard complies.
At a high-school basketball game, Richard tries unsuccessfully to boost Susan's image of her ex-boyfriend Jerry White. At a school picnic, Susan persuades Richard to enter a series of novelty races, but he loses repeatedly to Tommy. In the main event, an obstacle course, Susan asks Jerry to help Richard win. Because he still loves her, Jerry complies, getting his friends to obstruct the other competitors and colliding with Tommy so that Richard wins the event.
Richard and Margaret are attracted to each other, but Tommy considers Richard a habitual troublemaker and wants Margaret for himself. Hoping that Richard will stop seeing Margaret if he no longer must date Susan, Tommy announces that he is dropping the charge. When Richard and Margaret get away and visit a nightclub, they are continuously interrupted. Susan dramatically accuses Margaret of stealing her boyfriend. Uncle Matt takes Susan in hand and makes her realise that she is only infatuated with Richard and he is too old for her so she returns to Jerry, who is being drafted into uniform.
Matt learns that Richard is planning a trip away so he convinces Margaret she also needs a break and books her on the same flight. Hearing that Tommy is coming to arrest Richard on exaggerated charges, Matt stalls Tommy 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 and head off together.
Cast
Cary Grant as Richard Nugent, a sophisticated bachelor
Myrna Loy as Margaret Turner, a judge
Shirley Temple as Susan Turner, her teenage sister
Rudy Vallée as Tommy Chamberlain, an assistant district attorney
Ray Collins as Dr. Matt Beemish, a psychiatrist and Margaret and Susan's uncle
Harry Davenport as Judge Thaddeus Turner, Margaret and Susan's great uncle
Johnny Sands as Jerry White, Susan's teenage boyfriend
Don Beddoe as Joey
Lillian Randolph as Bessie
Veda Ann Borg as Agnes Prescott
Dan Tobin as Walters
Ransom M. Sherman as Judge Treadwell
William Bakewell as Winters
Irving Bacon as Melvin
Ian Bernard as Perry
Carol Hughes as Florence
William Hall as Anthony Herman
Gregory Gaye as Maitre d'Hotel (credited as Gregory Gay)
Pat Flaherty as Sunset High Coach (uncredited)
Reception
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther called the film "most agreeable" and praised the four principal performers, the direction and screenplay. The movie also premiered at the Radio City Music Hall.
The film's screenplay won an Academy Award (Best Original Screenplay) for Sidney Sheldon, who later created the television shows I Dream of Jeannie and Hart to Hart and wrote novels such as 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.
Home media
In 2009, the film was available on videocassette and DVD.
Radio adaptation
The script 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 Grant and Temple that aired on June 13, 1949.
See also
Shirley Temple filmography
References
External links
The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer Review at The Ultimate Cary Grant Pages
Radio adaptation of The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer June 13, 1949 on Lux Radio Theater; 60 minutes, with Cary Grant and Shirley Temple (MP3)
1940s American films
1940s screwball comedy films
1947 films
1947 romantic comedy films
American black-and-white films
American screwball comedy films
American romantic comedy films
Fictional couples
Films about lawyers
Films directed by Irving Reis
Films scored by Leigh Harline
Films whose writer won the Best Original Screenplay Academy Award
Films with screenplays by Sidney Sheldon
RKO Pictures films
1940s English-language films