1939 Ginger Rogers, David Niven, Charles Coburn, Frank Albertson 81 minutes
Polly Parrish (Rogers), employed at the toy department of John Merlin & Son department store, receives a pink slip right before Christmas. While job hunting on her lunch hour, she sees a woman leave a baby on the steps of a foundling home. Polly picks up the baby just as the doors open, giving the impression that the baby is hers. Polly explains what happens, but when the orphanage employees won't believe her, she leaves the baby and runs. The situation is brought to the attention of her boss, David Merlin (Niven), who gives her back her job so that she can care for her baby. Polly finally admits defeat and takes care of him. David tries to help on several occasions, leading to hilarious confusion. Soon, of course, David falls in love with Polly, but the baby he insisted was hers begins to stand in the way of his spending time with her.
David's father, John B. Merlin (Coburn), is given an anonymous note telling him he's a grandfather. He follows David to a park where he meets Polly and his "grandson." David tells his father the baby isn't his, but, like Polly, his protests aren't believed, either.
This movie is a delightful comedy of errors, with a wonderful cast. Remade as Debbie Reynolds/Eddie Fisher's lackluster "Bundle of Joy" (1956), "Bachelor Mother" is by far the better of the two.
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1944 Starring Dana Andrews, Farley Granger, Richard Conte, Sam Levene 99 minutes
"The Purple Heart" tells the story of eight downed U.S. bomber crew members captured by the Japanese in China after a bombing run over Japan in the early days of WWII. The Americans are given a mock trial, where they are wrongly accused, and found guilty, of bombing churches and schools and machine gunning children. The men are tortured, one by one, when they refuse to name where they launched their planes from. When they are given the chance of a lighter sentence if they talk, will the men who haven't yet been tortured be able to resist the temptation?
This movie is based on the real life exploits of eight members of Jimmy Doolittle's April 1942 raid on Japan, America's answer to the bombing of Pearl Harbor. "The Purple Heart" is almost entirely fictionalized, because the details of the raid were not made public until long after it took place. The last of an unofficial trilogy of movies about the Doolittle Raid, it follows, chronologically, "Destination Tokyo" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo." "The Purple Heart" is a very good movie, with usual amounts of war-time patriotism. Definitely worth watching.
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1995 Starring Ciaran Hinds, Amanda Root, and Sophie Thompson, 107 minutes
In 1806 England, Anne Eliot was persuaded, by family and friend, to break off her engagement to Frederick Wentworth, a naval officer with no fortune. Eight years later, Anne, at age 27 destined for spinsterhood, again encounters Wentworth, now a wealthy captain, when his sister and brother-in-law, Admiral & Mrs. Croft, lease the Eliot estate from Anne's father, Sir Walter. Captain Wentworth, still bitter about Anne's refusal, befriends her brother-in-law, Charles Musgrove, and is soon assumed to be contemplating marriage to one of Charles' sisters. The financial problems of Sir Walter; Mrs. Clay, Anne's sister Elizabeth's widowed friend, scheming to marry Sir Walter; and the arrival of Mr. Eliot, Sir Walter's estranged heir, make up the important subplots. Can Anne and Wentworth overcome the past, or is it too late?
Originally broadcast by the BBC before its theatrical release for the rest of the world, this is by far the best version of the three I've seen of Jane Austen's last finished novel. While it leaves out some important parts from the book, these characters are the most memorable.
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