By Violet LeVoit
Father Is a Bachelor
Brief Synopsis
Five orphans 'adopt' a loner and set out to find him a wife.
Cast & Crew
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Norman Foster
Director
William Holden
Johnny Rutledge
Coleen Gray
Prudence Millett
Mary Jane Saunders
May Chalotte
Charles Winninger
Professor Mordecai Ford
Stuart Erwin
Pudge Barnham
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Drama
Musical
Release Date
Feb
1950
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Columbia Pictures Corp.
Distribution Company
Columbia Pictures Corp.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 24m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7,582ft
Synopsis
After Professor Mordecai Ford, the manager of a minstrel and medicine show, is arrested in a small Southern town, singer Johnny Rutledge waits for his release. In the meantime, Johnny meets May Chalotte, a little girl, and her brothers, January, February, and twin sisters, March and April. He quickly learns that the children's parents are dead. Jan explains that only he and Feb, the two oldest, know the truth and that they have not told anyone else for fear of being sent to an orphanage. Although Jan invites Johnny to stay with them, Johnny has no intention of being tied down. The next day, however, Johnny runs into Jan in town and ends up helping the boy cut wood. After Johnny accidentally burns May's only dress, he promises to make her another but, as he does not know how to sew, the dress is a failure. He then wakes the storekeeper and buys May a new dress with a gold watch that is his only remaining possession from his days running a paper mill. Later, Johnny returns to the cabin with food supplies, a shotgun for Jan and a new harmonica for Feb. Soon, however, the townspeople grow concerned about the children, and Prudence Millett visits to ask why the children have not been to school. Claiming to be the children's uncle, Johnny buys them new shoes and sends them to school. Then, after Jeffrey Gilland, a wealthy tobacco plantation owner, insults the twins, Johnny brawls with him and knocks him into the river. Gilland swears out a complaint against Johnny, which will be tried before Prudence's father, the judge. After the professor is released from jail, he offers to defend Johnny, but the judge disqualifies himself and the trial is postponed until the traveling judge arrives. In the meantime, Prudence posts Johnny's bond. Impressed by Feb's harmonica playing, Prudence offers Johnny a job working on her farm and gives the family a cow. Then Johnny is offered another job singing and waiting tables on Sunday at Jericho Schlosser's café. Plato Cassin, Gilland's lawyer, who is in love with Prudence, tells Johnny that he knows that the children's parents are dead and then suggests that he marry one of his elderly sisters, Genevieve and Adelaide, and rear the children in their house. Plato threatens to turn the children in if Johnny refuses, then tells Prudence the truth about the children's parents and implies that Johnny is taking care of the children in order to catch a rich wife. To save the children, Johnny agrees to Plato's scheme, and the following day, Prudence announces her engagement to Plato. A disillusioned Johnny tells the professor that he will leave town with him, but May overhears and arranges a going-away party for him. Meanwhile, Johnny dissuades Gilland's young son from running away. At the party, a grateful Gilland drops his charges against Johnny, and Prudence suggests that Johnny marry her, instead of Plato's sister Adelaide. Johnny tells Adelaide that he loves Prudence, and the two women flip a coin for him, using what Johnny believes is his two-headed coin. Prudence wins the toss, and Johnny later learns that she did not use the special coin, but won him honestly.
Cast
William Holden
Johnny Rutledge
Coleen Gray
Prudence Millett
Mary Jane Saunders
May Chalotte
Charles Winninger
Professor Mordecai Ford
Stuart Erwin
Pudge Barnham
Clinton Sundberg
Plato Cassin
Gary Gray
Jan Chalotte
Sig Ruman
Jericho Schlosser
Billy Gray
Feb Chalotte
Lloyd Corrigan
Judge Millett
Frederic Tozere
Jeffrey Gilland, Sr.
Peggy Converse
Genevieve Cassin
Lillian Bronson
Adelaide Cassin
Arthur Space
Lucius Staley
Warren Farlow
March Chalotte
Wayne Farlow
April Chalotte
Tommy Ivo
Jeffery Gilland, Jr.
Hank Worden
Finnegan
Dooley Wilson
Blue
William Tannen
Willis
Ruby Dandridge
Maid
Eddy Waller
White
Al Thompson
Court clerk
Thomas Kingston
Crew
Carl Anderson
Art Director
G. Clifton Bingham
Composer
Clay Campbell
Makeup
George Cooper
Sound Engineer
James Edward Grant
Screenwriter
James Edward Grant
Story
Burnett Guffey
Director of Photography
Annie Fortesque Harrison
Composer
Helen Hunt
Hair Styles
Aleen Leslie
Screenwriter
Jean Louis
Gowns
James Lyman Molloy
Composer
Arthur Morton
Music Score
James Nicholson
Assistant Director
Shamus O'connor
Composer
Meta Orred
Composer
S. Sylvan Simon
Company
John J. Stamford
Composer
Andrew B. Sterling
Composer
Morris Stoloff
Music Director
Jerome Thoms
Film Editor
Harry Von Tilzer
Composer
Frank [a.] Tuttle
Set Decoration
Videos
Movie Clip
Film Details
Genre
Comedy
Drama
Musical
Release Date
Feb
1950
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Columbia Pictures Corp.
Distribution Company
Columbia Pictures Corp.
Country
United States
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 24m
Sound
Mono
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
7,582ft
Articles
Father Is A Bachelor
By 1950, a bitter William Holden described his career as "one static blur". Even though his bosses at both Paramount and Columbia (his contract was half-owned by each studio) made good use of his versatility by mixing up his roles, from westerns like Streets Of Laredo (1949) to comedies like Dear Wife (1948) to moody noirs like The Dark Past (1948), that same versatility worked against him, never allowing his screen persona to cement in audience's imaginations. Made during that same period of Holden's professional frustration (and heavy drinking), Father Is A Bachelor cast Holden as a traveling singer who finds himself accidental guardian for five needy orphans. While Holden carries the role gamely (helped out by performing songs dubbed by the recently deceased Buddy Clark), the critics weren't kind. Luckily for Holden, director Billy Wilder recognized how the actor "photographed like [he] could possibly have a brain in his head." and cast him in Sunset Blvd. (1950), a starmaking turn fueled and informed by all the drunken cynicism Holden had accumulated as a pawn of the Hollywood machine.
By Violet LeVoit
By Violet LeVoit
Father Is A Bachelor
By 1950, a bitter William Holden described his career as "one static blur". Even though his bosses at both Paramount and Columbia (his contract was half-owned by each studio) made good use of his versatility by mixing up his roles, from westerns like Streets Of Laredo (1949) to comedies like Dear Wife (1948) to moody noirs like The Dark Past (1948), that same versatility worked against him, never allowing his screen persona to cement in audience's imaginations. Made during that same period of Holden's professional frustration (and heavy drinking), Father Is A Bachelor cast Holden as a traveling singer who finds himself accidental guardian for five needy orphans. While Holden carries the role gamely (helped out by performing songs dubbed by the recently deceased Buddy Clark), the critics weren't kind. Luckily for Holden, director Billy Wilder recognized how the actor "photographed like [he] could possibly have a brain in his head." and cast him in Sunset Blvd. (1950), a starmaking turn fueled and informed by all the drunken cynicism Holden had accumulated as a pawn of the Hollywood machine.
By Violet LeVoit
