Bundle Of Joy was a musical remake of one of RKO Studio's brightest comedy hits from it's hey day, Bachelor Mother. Taking the roles that Ginger Rogers and David Niven had back in 1939 are the Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston of 1956, Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds.
Reynolds was an established musical star who was loaned out from MGM to RKO in the studio's waning days for this film. Someone decided that putting Reynolds together with her husband, pop singing star Eddie Fisher was a natural.
If musicals were still in vogue, this could have for Eddie Fisher been something like Higher and Higher was for Frank Sinatra which incidentally was also an RKO film. Bundle of Joy alas was not given any songs as good as what Sinatra had in Higher and Higher.
Frank's role there did not call for any great acting and neither does Fisher's here. Eddie's a likable enough fellow, the son of the head of a department store who has the idea that Reynolds is an unwed mother.
How he got that idea? Like in Bachelor Mother where Ginger Rogers did the same thing, Reynolds is on her lunch break and sees an abandoned baby on the steps of a foundling home. Taking such pity on it, she takes it with her. Probably this being Christmas time definitely helped in the sentiment department.
Before long everyone just assumes it's her kid, no matter what she says and does so she has to go with the flow.
RKO did give Eddie and Debbie a nice supporting cast that includes Adolphe Menjou as his father and Una Merkel as her landlady. Tommy Noonan almost steals the film as Debbie's officious co-worker.
Bundle Of Joy is a good enough film to spend some time during the holiday season watching. Which I did and am not sorrier for the experience.
