In the light of the sad demise of Debbie Reynolds, I was keen to see this film, since I had never seen anything with Debbie and her husband Eddie Fisher. It's a very silly film unfortunately and the suspension of disbelief is so drastic that I find it very difficult to deal with. We are supposed to believe that in the 1950s a woman can suddenly produce a 1 year-old child, having had a full-time job, no one noticed that she was pregnant, she wasn't off work, no one looks after the child, she doesn't know the name or gender of her own child, and her employer is happy for her. At the same time, she is denying that she is the mother of the child and no one believes her!Apparently everyone was very broadminded and didn't understand how human reproduction works. I was born in the 1960-s and my adopted brother in 1970, at which time there was still a huge stigma to single mothers. In the 50s it would have been worse. I assume that audiences for this film would have just bought it as pure fantasy.Apart from that, it was a fun film, apart from the songs which are not memorable. Debbie Reynolds is a legend. Eddie Fisher on the other hand, seemed rather underwhelming.

Directed by Norman Taurog, this Musical remake of Bachelor Mother (1939) by Felix Jackson, with a screenplay by Robert Carson, Norman Krasna, and Arthur Sheekman, doesn't come close to the charm or quality of the original. It was primarily made to capitalize on the Eddie Fisher-Debbie Reynolds marriage and her pregnancy, which would produce future actress and writer Carrie Fisher.But like their marriage, the film fails because of Eddie Fisher, who didn't really have an acting talent that was anywhere near as capable as his singing ability. Of course, Bachelor Mother (1939) had both Ginger Rogers and David Niven. At least the supporting cast in this one, which includes Adolphe Menjou, Tommy Noonan, Una Merkel, Melville Cooper, Mary Treen, and Edward Brophy (among others), was up to the challenge, helping the movie (combined with Reynolds's pluckiness) salvage an average (vs. below average) rating from this reviewer.Since I provided a full synopsis of the original for its review (find it on IMDb.com), I won't rehash it here. This remake doesn't stray very far from the source material except for the added (and rather uninspired) musical numbers, even the characters names were kept. Fisher plays Dan Merlin, son of store-owner J.B. 'John' Merlin (Menjou), who falls for Polly Parish (Reynolds) after she'd been mistakenly thought to be the single mother of a foundling she'd found on the steps of an agency (where Treen works). Noonan plays a co- worker of Polly's, Freddie Miller, who'd love to be her guy as much as he'd like to be promoted. Merkel plays Polly's understanding landlord Mrs. Dugan, Cooper plays the Merlin's butler named Adams, and Brophy plays one of the dance contest judges.

Glossy and tuneful, if terribly contrived, remake of a just-adequate Ginger Rogers comedy vehicle from 1939 ("Bachelor Mother", itself a reworking of "Little Mother" from 1935). Salesgirl, fired at Christmastime from her department store job for 'over-selling', finds an abandoned baby on the steps outside a foundlings home but can't get anyone to believe the child isn't really hers. The spotlight this time is equally on Debbie Reynolds (doing sprightly, decent work as the bachelor mother) and her then-husband Eddie Fisher (leering at the camera while playing a singing junior-executive). Supporting roles are colorfully filled, production and song numbers are decent, though the script lands us smack in the middle of 101 'risque' misunderstandings (she has a baby but not a husband?! And who's the father?). Worth-seeing for Debbie, who sings and dances--and rolls her eyes with expert exaggeration when it's time to change a diaper. **1/2 from ****

You've got to take this movie for what it is. A musical. What was interesting to me was seeing Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher together in the height of their relationship. It's a bit dated, but still has catchy tunes (I especially liked Fisher's "Someday Soon"...but I'm a bachelor so maybe I'm prejudiced). How ironic, though, to see these two who had so many possibilities playing a couple in love when they were in love themselves. Yes, there's chemistry, but they should show this movie to potential drug addicts and drunks to warn them about what Eddie Fisher could have been and what his self-admitted dependencies made him become. There was so much the two of them had and could have had, Eddie and Debbie,and so much they lost because of his weakness of character. Sad.A bittersweet story, not in the plot, but in the shadow of reality cast over it by their true life stories. Still worth seeing and hearing, though.