Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 17-August-03
Spoiler Rating: Medium

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)

"The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" probably wasn't the best way to introduce myself to Shirley Temple, seeing as how she doesn't sing, she doesn't dance, and there's not a good ship or a lollipop in sight — but then again, maybe it was, since I don't go in for precocity and ringlets. Made when she was in her late teens, "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" teams Temple with older pros Cary Grant and Myrna Loy in a light, predictable, but enjoyable story about teenaged angst, middle aged love, and the American judicial system.

Loy plays Judge Margaret Turner, the latest in a long line of Turners to serve the bar and the unmarried guardian of sister Susan (Temple). (I submit that this doesn't make much sense, as Loy was 42 years old when this movie came out, and Margaret states that her parents courted for 14 years before marriage, which would mean that her mother was in her mid-50s when she had Susan. However, I'm sure it was improper to look up an actress' age on the Internet back then, so the fiction that Margaret and Susan came from the same womb may stand.) The sisters enjoy a peaceful coexistence until the fateful day when they both happen to meet Richard Nugent (Grant), a suave, single artist who appears before Margaret's bench in the morning and addresses Susan's school assembly in the afternoon. Whereas the older sister is somewhat put off by Richard's breezy attitude and reputation for disturbing the peace, the younger one sees in him, quite literally, a knight in shining armor. She therefore decides to jilt the nice jock who adores her (Johnny Sands) and win Richard at any cost.

Because "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" was made before our own depraved and lurid era, what happens next succeeds in being droll instead of appalling. Susan foists herself upon Richard and gets him arrested for potential corruption of a minor, at which time the county's court psychiatrist — who is, of course, the sisters' jovial old Uncle Matt (Ray Collins) — decides to kill two birds with one stone. Openly, he proposes that Richard agree to date Susan, so that she will recognize her folly and give up her "love" for him more quickly than if he were forbidden fruit; inwardly, Uncle Matt also hopes to throw Margaret and Richard together and let nature take its course. While this inspired bit of reverse psychology cum matchmaking doesn't go off exactly as planned, I leave it to you to guess who ends up with whom in the end.

"The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" has a lot going for it, but as with many old romances and almost all recent ones, the love story at its core doesn't receive enough attention. Why someone would be attracted to Cary Grant or Myrna Loy requires little explanation, but a bit more interaction between Margaret, the prim and self-reliant judge, and Richard, the easygoing romeo, would help to illuminate why these particular characters should abandon the single life for each other. Still, Grant and Loy are at their charming best, and Temple is suitably perky, petulant, and ridiculous as a lovelorn teen with a flair for melodrama. But the real star of the show is Sidney Sheldon's Oscar-winning script, a smart, jaunty, somehow grown-up piece of work that features several delectable scenes of rapid-fire dialogue. The characters speak like real (and really amusing) people: they say things that are clever, heartfelt, or funny, but never hollow; they address each other instead of the audience; and they appear to respond to conversation instead of reciting it. Therefore, while the premise may be a tad ludicrous and the romance feebly sketched, the movie always feels lively and more trenchant than its title would suggest. "The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer" may be the end of my Shirley Temple experience: I believe in the saying, "Quit while you're ahead."

Copyright © 2003 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.