Bundle of Joy (1956)

Director:

Norman Taurog

Writers:

Robert Carson (writer)
Felix Jackson (story)

Release Date:

12 December 1956 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Musical

Plot:

Kitschy musical remake of "Bachelor Mother". Debbie Reynolds plays an over-eager clerk in a large department...

Plot Keywords:

Remake | Wife And Husband Lead Actors

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe.

Cast

Eddie Fisher	...	Dan Merlin
Debbie Reynolds	...	Polly Parish
Adolphe Menjou	...	J. B. Merlin
Tommy Noonan	...	Freddie Miller
Nita Talbot	...	Mary
Una Merkel	...	Mrs. Dugan
Melville Cooper	...	Adams, the Butler
Bill Goodwin	...	Mr. Creely
Howard McNear	...	Mr. Appleby
Robert H. Harris	...	Mr. Hargraves
Mary Treen	...	Matron
Edward Brophy	...	Dance Contest Judge (as Edward S. Brophy)
Gil Stratton	...	Mike Clancy
Scott Douglas	...	Bill Rand

Runtime:

98 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #18147) | Finland:S

Company:

RKO Radio Pictures

Trivia:

Around 1956, singer Eddie Fisher and his agent Lew Wasserman were discussing roles for Fisher's acting debut. A project being discussed at the time was "What Makes Sammy Run?" by Budd Schulberg and Stuart Schulberg. Fisher wanted to play aggressive producer Sammy Glick, "the ultimate Jewish hustler. I knew a lot of real Sammy Glicks and I felt confident that was a character I could play." Lew Wasserman decided that the character was too much of a classic negative Jewish stereotype and that it would be bad for Fisher to play it. So Fisher went in the complete opposite direction (in retrospect, perhaps too far) with then-wife Debbie Reynolds in this squeaky clean comedy that Fisher hated, made to capitalize on the birth of their daughter, future Star Wars (1977) "Princess Leia" Carrie Fisher. The Schulberg project was eventually produced in 2 parts as "Sunday Showcase (1959)" {What Makes Sammy Run?: Part 1 (#1.2)} and "Sunday Showcase (1959)" {What Makes Sammy Run?: Part 2 (#1.3)} with Larry Blyden in the role.

Movie Connections:

Remake of Kleine Mutti (1935)

A Bundle of Possibilities

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.