The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer

Through no fault of his own, artist and lady's man Richard Nugent finds a love-besotted teenage girl curled on his sofa. Through no fault of his own, the teen's sister is a judge who "sentences" thunderstruck Richard to date the girl until her schoolgirl crush wanes. Circumstances aren't kind to Richard. But they certainly are hilarious when Cary Grant plays Richard, Myrna Loy is the judge and Shirley Temple is the teen.

"You remind me of a man." "What man?" "The man with the power...." Ah, so you remember the lovely nonsense of The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer. This lighter-than-air comedy puts playboy writer Cary Grant in company with 17-year-old schoolgirl Shirley Temple, although he's more interested in older sister Myrna Loy. (She's as sober as a judge, and indeed is one.) The Oscar®- winning script by future bestselling novelist Sidney Sheldon boasts fun '40s slang, but the main draw is Grant's willingness to play the fool. His gift for slapstick shines when his aging bachelor decides to act like an inane teenager in an effort to burst Shirley's fanciful image of him. As usual, Grant seems to conspire with the audience (watch his double takes in the background) in making a somewhat standard movie into a giddy experience. Toss in deadpan Rudy Vallee as a sappy third wheel, and you've got a near-classic. --Robert Horton