Film Review of The Bachelor and The Bobby-Soxer: Shirley Temple in 1947 Comedy With Cary Grant

Love brings together The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer by writer Sidney Sheldon, producer Dore Schary, and director Irving Reis. Robert DeGrasse and Nicholas Musuraca; Frederic Knudtson; and Leigh Harline handle cinematography, editing, and music. Filming showcases California's:

• Beverly Hills High School;

• Long Beach Airport.

The 95-minute film was distributed by RKO Radio Pictures. It was NYC-premiered and USA-released on July 24 and September 1, 1947. It won the 20th Academy Awards' Best Original Screenplay on March 20, 1948.

The movie begins with Bessie (Lillian Randolph) awakening Susan (Shirley Temple) and Margaret (Myrna Loy) Turner around 8 a.m. Bessie chides Margaret's sentencing to 3, not 10, years, an old man corrupting a 16-year-old. Susan emotes over geometry teachers Mittwick (Charles Halton) and Roberts (Charles Marsh).

At 9 a.m. Margaret hears defense witness/singer Agnes Prescott (Veda Ann Borg). Painter Richard Nugent(Cary Grant) is charged with slapping bouncer Anthony Herman (William Hall) for slapping model Florence (Carol Hughes). Margaret warns Dickie about this Vampire Club disturbance #3.

Dickie guest-lectures at Sunset High School. Susan introduces herself as:

• An orphan who dislikes following in guardian/judge/sister Margaret's footsteps;

• School newspaper editor-in-chief.

Dickie, son of a flag decorator and piano teacher who married three days after meeting, invents:

• Parental suicides;

• Orphanages;

• Reformatories.

Susan breaks her 7:15 p.m. date with beau/basketballer #7 Jerry White (Johnny Sands). She claims to the concierge to be Dickie's 17-year-old model. Dickie finds Susan dozing on the sofa. Margaret and beau/Assistant District Attorney Tommy Chamberlain (Rudy Vallee) have Dickie jailed.

Dickie confers with attorney/friend Chester Walters (Dan Tobin). Court-appointed psychiatrist Matt Beemish(Ray Collins) interviews Dickie. He persuades Judge Treadwell (Ransom Sherman), niece Margaret, and Tommy to drop charges if Dickie dates Susan.

Dickie accompanies Susan to:

• A Sunset-Peebe High School basketball game;

• A soda parlor;

• Tommy's six-year-old niece's birthday party.

Races are held. Tommy wins all but one. Dickie wins the obstacle race through Jerry's and Susan's sabotage and $4.50 in $0.75-cent bribes.

Dickie accepts Margaret's invitation to the Tick Tock Club. Dancing and dining are darkened by accusations of:

• Birthday-bashing per Agnes and beau Joey (Don Beddoe);

• Boyfriend-stealing per Susan;

• Immorality per Tommy;

• Indifference to draft notification, per Jerry.

Matt gets Jerry and Susan reconciled even though reconciliation endangers his queen with chess-playing brother/Judge Thaddeus (Harry Davenport).

The movie ends with Matt:

• Having security remove Tommy as delusionally mental;

• Obstructing bench warrants against Dickie;

• Uniting Dickie and Margaret, who board TWA's Constellation Super Sky Chief flight 60 round-robining “Hey, you remind me of a man...!”

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Synergy Detroit Feb. 12, 2008; Detroit Historical Museum, midtown Detroit, southeastern Michigan: Dave Hogg, CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/davehogg/2268288116/

Daniel Paikov. "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer." YouTube, Feb. 6, 2007, @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBmeOzSzKoY