The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Irving Reis
Written by	Sidney Sheldon
Produced by	Dore Schary
Starring	Cary Grant Myrna Loy Shirley Temple
Cinematography	Nicholas Musuraca Robert De Grasse
Edited by	Frederic Knudtson
Music by	Leigh Harline
Production company	Vanguard Films
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release dates	July 24, 1947 (1947-07-24) (Premiere-NYC) September 1, 1947 (1947-09-01) (USA)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$1,961,000
Box office	$5,550,000 (worldwide rentals)

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.

On 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

Tobin and Grant in a scene from The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

• 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

The movie premiered at Radio City Music Hall. 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 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

External links

• The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer at IMDb 
• The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer at the TCM Movie Database
• The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer at Letterboxd
• The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer at AllMovie
• The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer at the AFI Catalog of Feature Films
• 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)