"I got it for Christmas!"

A Very Vintage Christmas post #9

3 days until Christmas

We wish you a merry Christmas! With only a few days left until Christmas, it is time for our last classic Christmas movie post for this season.

Bachelor Mother

1939 film

Starring Ginger Rogers, David Niven, and Charles Coburn

A single woman by the name of Polly Parrish (Rogers) is living in New York City and working for a large department store. She was only hired to help out during the pre-season Christmas rush, and as the holidays approach, she is informed that they will be letting her go after the beginning of the New Year.

Polly is outside the store on a break when she sees a woman leaving her baby on the top step of an orphanage across the way. Polly knows that this affair is none of her business, and does not want to interfere, but just after the mother leaves, she notices that the bundled baby is about to roll off the steps and out into the street. No matter how dispirited she is feeling towards her fellow men, Polly can't let the baby

come to any harm, so she runs and picks it up. Just as she does so, the orphanage door is opened and the woman who runs it assumes that Polly is the baby's mother. Polly tries to assure her that she is just an innocent bystander and that she is not the boy's mother, but the woman does not believe her. As she is standing there and arguing with the woman from the orphanage, the wealthy, playboy son of the department store's owner, David Merlin (Niven), is passing by. He notices that there seems to be some trouble and tries to help. Polly insists to both of them that she could not keep this baby even if she was it's mother because she is soon to be out of work and would not be able to support it.

David sincerely feels for the supposedly delusional single mother. After learning that Polly works for his father's store, he goes directly to his father, J.B. Merlin (Coburn), and convinces him to let the young lady keep her job. Before Polly even knows what is happening, she is told that she may keep her job, is given a pay raise, and is sent home with her son. Her landlady is also sympathetic and agrees to provide childcare for the baby while Polly goes to work each day. Nobody will believe her when she says that she is not the biological mother of the child, so she finally gives in and decides to take care of him, knowing that he would be stuck in the orphanage without her.

David checks in regularly to make sure that Polly and the baby are getting along alright, and to make sure that they have everything they could possibly need. The two become friends quickly, but after a while, David begins to develop feelings for Polly and her infant son. Feeling that his father would be furious about the match, however, he tries to keep their blossoming relationship a secret.

On New Year's Eve, David finds himself without a date for a grand party that he is expected to attend, so he asks Polly to go with him, dressing her up in the finest clothes that money can buy and pretending to the other guests that she is from a foreign country.

They are later spotted in public together with the baby, and the news instantly travels to his father, who automatically assumes that David is the child's real father, and refuses to hear anything to the contrary. What comes as quite a shock to everyone is that old Mr. Merlin is not angry at all, but rather delighted that his son has finally chosen a beautiful girl, is going to settle down, and has given him a grandson.

Finding himself in an ironically similar situation as Polly was earlier on, David realizes that there is no reasoning with his father. He already loves both Polly and the child, so he goes along with it, saying that he is the father. David and Polly get married and raise the baby, who they name John, together.

Bachelor Mother is a delightful holiday romantic comedy, that is appropriate for both Christmas and New Year's.

If you are interested in pricing or buying for yourself or somebody else, click on the following links:

Amazon

Turner Classic Gift Shop

Barnes and Noble Online

Thank you for joining us this holiday season. It means so much to us!

There are 2 posts left, and they are very special, so please come back Tuesday, December 24th, for a Christmas Eve post, and then Wednesday, December 25th, for a special photo montage of Christmases past.

Until then, we hope that you have a very merry, and A Very Vintage Christmas!