Movies You Might Have Missed Monday

In his thirty-plus year career, Cary Grant made more than seventy films!

Even I, as a classic film lover, would be hard pressed to name a dozen of them off the top of my head. The Philadelphia Story, Arsenic and Old Lace, An Affair to Remember, North by Northwest… but he made many films that flew under the radar as well, many that are worth noticing.

One that I particularly enjoy is called The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. It also stars Myrna Loy (whom I love in The Thin Man series with William Powell), and a precocious teenaged Shirley Temple. Grant plays Richard Nugent, an artist known for getting into trouble, unintentionally of course. Myrna is Judge Margaret Turner, the over-protective guardian of her sister, Susan, played by Temple.

They’re all thrown together when Nugent gives an art lecture at Susan’s school. Susan immediately falls in love with him. An opportunistic teenager, she twists the conversation he tolerates with her and shows up to his apartment to sit as a model for him to paint. Judge/sister panics when she can’t find her and issues an all-out manhunt. Finding Susan in Nugent’s apartment, which surprises Nugent more so than anyone else, the Judge gets ready to throw the book at him. But Susan’s adolescent agenda is obvious enough. To help her get over the infatuation, the Judge ropes Nugent into posing as Susan’s suitor long enough for her obsession to cool. The other hand in the pot, though, namely Margaret and Susan’s uncle, has alternative motives. He’s been looking for a suitor of Margaret for years and thinks Richard fits the bill.

Cary Grant’s comedic talent shines in the light of this fluffy story. The situations they get into are silly, but entertaining nonetheless. And the romance that emerges is delightful.

Sure, there’s a reason The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer isn’t one of the more memorable films Grant starred in, but it’s worth a watch. A dose of good humor is always worth it.

Happy Movie Watching, Dry Ground Friends!

(photo by photobucket.com)