Bundle Of Joy
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''Bundle of Joy'' is a 1956 American
Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...
musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serv ...
directed by
Norman Taurog Norman Rae Taurog (February 23, 1899 – April 7, 1981) was an American film director and screenwriter. From 1920 to 1968, Taurog directed 180 films. At the age of 32, he received the Academy Award for Best Director for ''Skippy (film), Skippy' ...
and starring Eddie Fisher,
Debbie Reynolds Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer and entrepreneur. Her acting career spanned almost 70 years. Reynolds performed on stage and television and in films into her 80s. She was nom ...
(who were married in real-life at the time) and Adolphe Menjou. It is a remake of the 1939 comedy film '' Bachelor Mother,'' which starred
Ginger Rogers Ginger Rogers (born Virginia Katherine McMath; July 16, 1911 – April 25, 1995) was an American actress, dancer and singer during the Classical Hollywood cinema, Golden Age of Hollywood. She won an Academy Award for Best Actress for her starri ...
and David Niven, and was itself an English remake of the 1935 Austrian-Hungarian comedy film '' Little Mother''. Produced by Edmund Grainger, it was distributed by
RKO Pictures RKO Radio Pictures Inc., commonly known as RKO Pictures or simply RKO, is an American film production and distribution company, historically one of the major film studios, "Big Five" film studios of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood's Clas ...
. An unmarried salesgirl at a department store finds and takes care of an abandoned baby. Much confusion results when her co-workers assume the child is hers and that the father is the son of the store owner.


Plot

Polly Parish works in the Millinery Department at J.B. Merlin & Son's department store on the
Upper East Side The Upper East Side, sometimes abbreviated UES, is a neighborhood in the boroughs of New York City, borough of Manhattan in New York City. It is bounded approximately by 96th Street (Manhattan), 96th Street to the north, the East River to the e ...
of
Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...
. She is summoned to the office of the store manager, who informs her that she is fired because she is overselling hats, which creates too many returns and too much work for the accounting department. After work, Polly walks home and wonders what she will do to make ends meet. On a step, she finds an abandoned baby in a blanket and instinctively picks it up to comfort it. As she bends over, the door behind the step opens and a woman ushers Polly and the baby inside. Polly has not noticed the sign that indicates the door belongs to an orphanage. When she denies the baby is hers inside, the staff disbelieve her, having experienced countless women reluctant to admit that they bore a child out of wedlock. Polly explains that she has just lost her job at J.B Merlin & Son's and insists there is no way that she will care for a baby that is not hers. After she leaves, the head of the orphanage decides to intervene on her behalf, knowing the Merlins to be charitable. He convinces the firm to hire Polly back, and she is summoned to a meeting with Dan Merlin, the son of the eponymous owner. Dan informs her that she will be hired back at $10 more per week and that a gift will be delivered to her apartment later that night. When the baby arrives, Polly is flabbergasted. She convinces a friend to help her deliver the baby back to Dan at his home on East 63rd Street. They leave the baby in the care of Dan's butler, whom Dan enlists to help him return the baby to Polly. They track her down to a dance hall where she is hoping to win a prize. Dan gets into a scuffle and gets thrown out. So he goes to Polly's apartment and waits for her there with the baby. Forced to care for the baby, Polly makes do and grows fond of him. She names the child John, and Dan checks in on her from time to time. On
New Year's Eve In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Eve refers to the evening, or commonly the entire day, of the last day of the year, 31 December, also known as Old Year's Day. In many countries, New Year's Eve is celebrated with dancing, eating, drinkin ...
, Dan is stood up by his date, because he had forgotten to call her earlier. He arranges for Polly's landlady to watch John while they go out together. He takes her to the department store to get an outfit for a night out on the town. When he drops her off back at home, he jokes that she is fired so that he can kiss her. Meanwhile, J.B. Merlin has been misinformed that he is a grandfather, mistaking John to be Dan's son. He begins to make arrangements for Dan to have full custody of the child. Polly panics at the thought of losing John. So she pretends that her landlady's nephew, who is visiting from Harvard, is John's real father. Dan produces a store employee to pretend he is the father. The ensuing confusion leads to a full confession of love from Dan and a happy union for the new family, and J.B. is convinced the boy is his grandson.


Cast

* Eddie Fisher as Dan Merlin *
Debbie Reynolds Mary Frances "Debbie" Reynolds (April 1, 1932 – December 28, 2016) was an American actress, singer and entrepreneur. Her acting career spanned almost 70 years. Reynolds performed on stage and television and in films into her 80s. She was nom ...
as Polly Parish * Adolphe Menjou as J. B. Merlin, Dan's father and Polly's ultimate boss * Tommy Noonan as Freddie Miller * Nita Talbot as Mary * Una Merkel as Mrs. Dugan * Melville Cooper as Adams * Gil Stratton as Mike Clancy *
Bill Goodwin William Nettles Goodwin (July 28, 1910 – May 9, 1958),Palm Spr ...
as Mr. Creely * Howard McNear as Mr. Appleby * Robert H. Harris as Mr. Hargraves * Mary Treen as Matron * Edward Brophy as Dance Contest Judge (as Edward S. Brophy) * Scott Douglas as Bill Rand


Soundtrack

Music by Josef Myrow and lyrics by Mack Gordon; * ''Bundle of Joy'' * ''All About Love'' * ''Some Day Soon'' * ''I Never Felt This Way Before'' * ''Worry About Tomorrow'' * ''Lullaby in Blue''


Production


Development

The original narrative of ''Bundle of Joy'' was produced by
Joe Pasternak Joseph Herman Pasternak (born József Paszternák; September 19, 1901 – September 13, 1991) was a Hungarian-American film producer in Cinema of the United States, Hollywood. Pasternak spent the Hollywood Musical film, "Golden Age" of musicals ...
who had developed a winning formula in Universal Picture's Berlin division. His second picture with
Henry Koster Henry Koster (born Hermann Kosterlitz, May 1, 1905 – September 21, 1988) was a German-born film director. He was the husband of actress Peggy Moran. Early life Koster was born to Jewish parents in Berlin, Germany. He was introduced to cin ...
(director), Felix Jackson (writer), and Franciska Gaal (actress) was ''Kleine Mutti'' ( Little Mother, 1935) about the orphan Marie who raises a foundling and ends up marrying a banker. The German-language film was remade in English as '' Bachelor Mother'' three years later. ''Bundle of Joy'' is a musical adaptation of ''Bachelor Mother'', and Jackson retains story credit on both pictures. RKO Studios had ceased production after Howard Hughes sold it. The new owners announced a program of 11 films costing $22,500,000; '' The First Travelling Saleslady'', ''
Back from Eternity ''Back from Eternity'' is a 1956 American Drama (film and television), drama film about a planeload of people stranded in the South American jungle and subsequently menaced by Headhunting, headhunters. The film stars Robert Ryan, Rod Steiger, An ...
'', '' Tension at Table Rock'', ''
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt Beyond (a) reasonable doubt is a legal standard of proof required to validate a criminal conviction in most adversarial legal systems. It is a higher standard of proof than the standard of balance of probabilities (US English: preponderance of t ...
'', ''Stage Struck'', ''Bundle of Joy'', '' A Farewell to Arms'', '' Cash McCall'', ''Misty'', ''The Syndicate'' and ''Is This Our Son?''. (Not all these films would be made by RKO and several were not made at all.)


Filming

Filming started in June 1956. It finished in August. "I know I"m not an actor but I haven't had too much to worry about," said Fisher.
Carrie Fisher Carrie Frances Fisher (October 21, 1956 – December 27, 2016) was an American actress and writer. She played Princess Leia in the Star Wars original trilogy, original ''Star Wars'' films (1977–1983) and reprised the role in'' Star Wars: The F ...
tells the story in her memoir and subsequent documentary film '' Wishful Drinking'' (2010) that Reynolds was pregnant with her during production of this film as well as '' Tammy and the Bachelor''. During production, director
Norman Taurog Norman Rae Taurog (February 23, 1899 – April 7, 1981) was an American film director and screenwriter. From 1920 to 1968, Taurog directed 180 films. At the age of 32, he received the Academy Award for Best Director for ''Skippy (film), Skippy' ...
was in the early stages of
Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...
. Very little was known about the illness at the time, so Debbie Reynolds and the rest of the cast and crew "just coped with" his unexplained memory losses and constant repeated instructions.


Release

The movie's premiere was given at the Capitol Theatre in New York on December 19, 1956. The event doubled as a fundraiser for refugees of the Hungarian Revolution, which had ended only a month earlier. George Jessel was the master of ceremonies. Archduke Leopold of Habsburg and his sister were notable guests along with other celebrities and executives of RKO pictures. The event raised $21,000 for
CARE Care may refer to: Organizations and projects * CARE (New Zealand), Citizens Association for Racial Equality, a former New Zealand organisation * CARE (England) West Midlands, Central Accident Resuscitation Emergency team, a team of doctors & ...
and First Aid for Hungary, which was formed on October 29, 1956, in order to "bring aid to the hundreds of Hungarian Freedom Fighters who had been forced to seek refuge in neighboring Austria and had thus cast an enormous burden upon that country". Eddie Fisher later wrote that he "tried my best to do a good job in" the film. "In fact, both Debbie and I worked so hard that we didn’t even go home during the last few weeks of shooting. We stayed in a bungalow on the lot." When he saw the final cut he said "As bad as I was, the picture was even worse, a bomb... ''Bundle of Joy'' laid a financial egg, the dishwater ordinary songs disappeared without a trace and Debbie’s was the only movie career that managed to survive". ''Kinematograph Weekly'' did say the film "did very well" at the British box office.


See also

* List of American films of 1956


References


External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bundle Of Joy 1956 films 1950s Christmas films 1950s Christmas comedy films 1956 musical comedy films 1956 romantic comedy films American Christmas comedy films American musical comedy films American romantic comedy films American romantic musical films Films directed by Norman Taurog Films set in department stores Films set in New York City Musical film remakes Remakes of American films Films set around New Year RKO Pictures films 1950s English-language films 1950s American films English-language Christmas comedy films English-language romantic comedy films English-language musical comedy films