My Heart Belongs to Daddy
Cast & Crew
Robert Siodmak
Richard Carlson
Martha O'driscoll
Cecil Kellaway
Florence Bates
Mabel Paige
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
On a snowy night, Alfred, a taxi driver and jack-of-all-trades, gets stuck in a snowdrift with his pregnant passenger, Joyce Carey Whitman. They take refuge nearby in R.I.C. "Rick" Kay's house, and when Joyce goes into labor, Alfred helps deliver the baby. Rick, a respected Nobel-prize winning astrophysicist and widower, is so stupefied by the turn of events that he gets drunk with Alfred and then is hard-pressed to explain to his returning mother- and sisters-in-law, Mrs. Saunders, Grace and Babs, who live with him, how Joyce and her baby got into their bedroom. The next day, Alfred is questioned at the cab company by Joyce's in-laws, a wealthy couple who claim custody of the newborn. Alfred, aware that Joyce wants to keep her child, sends them on a wild goose chase. He then learns that Joyce, a widow, is a former burlesque dancer and that the Whitmans are snobs who think Joyce is too low-class to rear their grandchild. Joyce uses a pseudonym and remains at Rick's house under the premise that she is too ill to be moved. When Rick's housekeeper quits because of the wet nurse's demands, Rick hires Alfred to be his house man. Although their relationship is purely innocent, Rick and Joyce soon fall in love and Grace, who has hopes of marrying Rick, becomes jealous. One night Rick and Joyce slip out of the house and go dancing, and their photograph appears in the newspaper the next day. The conservative university deans are shocked that Rick would appear in public with a "bubble" dancer and try to force him to resign until Alfred intervenes and outwits the deans using their own logic. Joyce, concerned for Rick's career, leaves with her baby, and Grace deviously alters her farewell note. Rick is hurt by the tone of the altered note and soon becomes engaged to the solicitous Grace. On Rick and Grace's wedding day, Joyce, who has returned to burlesque theater, bends to the will of her in-laws and agrees to sign the custody agreement. Alfred visits Rick before the ceremony and exposes Grace's treachery. Rick arrives backstage at the theater in time to propose to Joyce and prevent her from signing over her child. The Whitmans give up their case, seeing that Joyce will be well-married and their child will be provided for, and the lovers are reunited.
Director
Robert Siodmak
Cast
Richard Carlson
Martha O'driscoll
Cecil Kellaway
Florence Bates
Mabel Paige
Frances Gifford
Velma Berg
Francis Pierlot
Maurice Cass
Paul Stanton
Cecil Cunningham
Charles Wilson
Fern Emmett
Mary Currier
Edward Gargan
Isabel Withers
Chick Chandler
Mary Treen
Dorothy Grainger
Georgia Backus
Phyllis Ruth
Lora Lee
Katharine Booth
Frances Morris
Lawrence Grant
Arthur Hoyt
Alfred Hall
Betty Farrington
Milton Kibbee
Billy Wayne
Peter Caldwell
James C. Morton
Ralph Dunn
Lester Dorr
Jimmy Lucas
Gladden James
Joe Whitehead
Dickie Love
Ray Walker
Eddie Bruce
Judith Anne Ballard
Crew
Harriet Altland
Ralph Axness
Art Camp
Harvey Clermont
Kenneth Deland
Haldane Douglas
Hans Dreier
Daniel Fapp
Lee Fredericks
Doris Harris
Ed Henderson
F. Hugh Herbert
Don Johnson
Emanuel D. Leshin
Sam Levine
Harold Lierly
Alma Macrorie
Gene Merritt
Edward Salven
Cullen Tate
Jim Vincent
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working titles of the film were Washington Escapade and Special Delivery. Although copyright records credit the infant son of actor Richard Carlson with portraying the baby in the film, CBCS lists Judith Anne Ballard in that role. Pre-production Hollywood Reporter news items indicate that Mary Martin was initially considered for the lead role, and that Anthony Veiller was slated to be the associate producer. Although the title was inspired by the Cole Porter song "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," made famous by Mary Martin, the song is not heard in this film.
