Bachelor Daddy (1941) User Reviews

Insufferable.

[planktonrules · 3/10 · 10 December 2023]

When seen today, the appeal of Baby Sandy back in the day is quite confusing. After all, the child is just a child and her talents are underwhelming at best. Still, back in the late 30s and into the 40s, she had a brief and successful career. One of the child's last films was "Bachelor Daddy"...an insufferable film which is hard to like.

The story doesn't make a lot of sense....but here goes. Sandy's mother is in legal trouble and instead of telling the judge she has a baby at home, she gets the bright idea of sending a note to Mr. Smith at a bachelor's apartment asking him to take care of the child. But there are three Smiths and the trio don't call the police but care for the child. A bit later, the mother arranges for her release and moves in to the bachelor apartment with these three bachelors and becomes the nanny to her own child.

During the course of the film, you have lots of yelling and scenes with Baby Sandy pulling levers, pushing buttons, stealing candy and the like...but no real acting. This combined with some VERY annoying scenes (such as the movie theater and the elevator) make for a film which has little plot or acting and just a lot of adults running about trying to catch the brat. Not a fun film in any way despite the presence of some fine character actors such as Edward Everett Horton and Franklin Pangborn.

By the way, this film seems to be the inspiration for the 80s hit "Three Men and a Baby".

Sometimes I Watch Them So You Don't Have To

[boblipton · 1/10 · 8 December 2023]

Kathryn Adams is jailed for selling candy without a license. She is paroled on the grounds that she has to take care of her daughter, Baby Sandy. But Sandy is in the hands of Edward Everett Horton, Donald Woods, and Raymond Walburn, three brothers who are candy manufacturers. They hire Miss Adams to tend to Sandy.

Sigh.

There is a wealth of comic talent in this movie, including Franklin Pangborn, Jed Prouty, Hardie Albright, Mantan Moreland, and Bert Roach, most of whom are wasted because every once in a while there is the matter of the plot, which somehow involves Evelyn Ankers, to deal with, or Baby Sandy, who is the star of this movie, has to giggle and pull a lever. Baby Sandy's pictures were, apparently, successful, or perhaps they were produced so cheaply that theaters threw them on the screen as second features or even chasers. A chaser was a movie you put on the screen when you wanted the audience to leave so you could charge new people admission.

I am willing to concede that there were, and possibly still are, people who enjoy the syrupy glop that is Baby Sandy and her vehicles. But they were not that numerous or long-lasting. Time was running out on her when this was made. Despite the supporting cast, she only made two more movies. By the time she was four, she was a washed-up has-been. Only four years too late.

I am not fond of William Goldman's exhortation that no one knows anything. I believe there are people who have ideas which have some relevance to the subject of how to make a motion picture. But this movie is a powerful piece of evidence to support Goldman's statement.

Baby Sandy takes the wheel. Everybody else needs to hold on!

[mark.waltz · 7/10 · 23 February 2019]

One of the few moments in film history to see those two beloved fussbudgets, Edward Everett Horton and Franklin Pangborn on screen together, this is a completely delightful B comedy that introduced to the screen for at least a brief time anyway that little charmer, Baby Sandy. She may not be the greatest child star ever, not for that matter is she really a good actress, but she takes direction nicely, isn't purposely cute, and is a prankster in the most delightful sense of the word. A plethora of Hollywood's most popular character actors team together and are all but sidelined because of her presence, something that early 1940's movie audiences found a delightful distraction in a time of pending war.

Sent to jail on a ridiculous charge of selling candy without a license, Katherine Adams needs a place to have her baby watched. Little Sandy ends up in the all-male club with Edward Everett Horton, Raymond Walburn and Donald Woods, all brothers and as different as night and day. Woods is engaged to the snooty Evelyn Ankers, the daughter of wealthy Jed Prouty who has effectively taken over the brother's business. it is obvious that he is not in love with her, but to prevent the brothers from fully losing any part of their business, Woods is doing what he thinks he must do. When Adams gets an early release, she manipulates her way into the brothers home as Sandy's nurse, and more outlandish situations occur. Women are not allowed in the snooty men's club, Pangborn keeps reminding them as the head desk clerk, but by the time Sandy is through, even the persnickety Pangborn might change his mind.

This B feature seems like a great idea for a little series, but unfortunately that did not occur. It is a series of farcical moments and hysterical slapstick, starting off with Sandy waking up to find mom not there and dealing with the day in a way she believes her mother too. Once in the custody of the brothers, she visits the movies with Horton and ends up causing quite a disturbance. Former Child Star Juanita Quigley has a historical moment, constantly accusing Horton of pulling her pigtails, unaware that it is the diminutive Sandy who was actually doing it. Horton, with a teeny tiny plunger on his forehead and a toy gun stuck on his hand, ends up unintentionally being accused of all sorts of misconduct, all caused by the delightful toddler.

More revelry continues throughout and concludes with Sandy manning an elevator, sending it up and down just for the fun of it, with Walburn holding on underneath and Woods on top. This is a type of farce that had audiences in stitches and it holds up pretty well. Baby Sandy will never be confused with either Shirley Temple or Jane Withers or Margaret O'Brien, but if her other rare films are any indication based on my viewing of this, she was on screen for too far short of time.