Movie #1912 "Father is a Bachelor" was on TCM tonight, and I had never watched it --- I thought I saw most of Bill Holden's films, since he was my favorite actor growing up, but this one I didn't see --- It looks to be the precursor of Cary Grant's "Father Goose" which was going to come much later. A story of a loner guy a grifter who surprisingly sings in black face in the opening ; it's the reason I watched it because I was checking on this station and saw him performing like this and sat with my mouth opened and wondered why TCM would show such an inappropriate movie --- and then when I looked closely under the black cork on his face, I recognized Bill Holden....and from then on, I wanted to see where this film was going. Well, he's a drifter who falls into a family of 5 kids and no folks (parents had died) who are trying to not go to an orphanage, and they latch on to him as their Uncle Johnny ,and he starts to take care of them, gets them to school, gets them clothes and shoes, gets a job.....but things aren't as simple as they seem --- he's always been a drifter and singer (actually it isn't Holden singing --- didn't think it would be but rechecked on line and he wasn't). so it's hard for him to get an ordinary job and be there for the kids when they need him. It's obvious he could use help --- a possible wife? The conflict of who he was going to marry is taken so lightly that it becomes kind of silly that the winner depends on a toss of a coin. In IMDB this is billed as the worst Holden film ---- hmmmm. I find that hard to believe, but I do know he didn't like to play roles like this --- "Smiling Jim" he would call it --- a character who just smiles when he gets cornered ---- After this movie, though, Holden was soon cast in "Sunset Boulevard" which opened unlimited doors to him to play more complex characters. So maybe this character wasn't much of a challenge for him, but the kids were cute, the music was fun, and I always find it fun to watch Holden..........and pretending to sing rather convincingly helped make this film more likable to me. (but without the blackface) I'd give it a 3 out of 5.
"FATHER IS A BACHELOR" 1950 1 hour and 23 minutes
William Holden plays a drifter who comes to a small town and discovers a cabin in the forest where five kids: January, February, March, April, and May are living without parents. Their parents died a whole ago, and they want to keep that a secret from the townspeople, especially the young school teacher (Coleen Gray) because they don't want to end up in a children's home and then eventually separated. William's character moves in with the kids and poses as their uncle to take care of them while romancing the school teacher. In order to keep the children, however, he has to get married.
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