The Bashful Bachelor
The Bashful Bachelor is a 1942 American film directed by Malcolm St. Clair. It is the second of seven films based on the Lum and Abner radio series created by and starring Chester Lauck and Norris Goff. Plot. Small town store owner Lum Edwards (Chester Lauck) in Pine Ridge has a thorn in his side because his partner in the Jot-em-Down general store, Abner Peabody (Norris Goff), has exchanged the store delivery car for a race track horse. And because Lum doesn't have the guts to grab the woman he is in love with , Geraldine (ZaSu Pitts), and propose to her once and for all, he lays a complex scheme to impress her in a fake "rescue" mission. He fails tremendously in this mission, and nearly gets everyone killed in doing so. However, he doesn't give up, but tries again, and finally succeeds in impressing her. His problems aren't over though, since his proposal, who was to be delivered to Geraldine by his partner Abner, ends up in the wrong hands when it is delivered to a very prone bachelorette, Widder Abernathy (Constance Purdy) instead. She jumps at the possibility of marrying  Lum, and the game is afoot. Lum doesn't get out of trouble until the town sheriff (Irving Bacon) finds widow Widder's disappeared husband.