Pretty Baby

I saw this movie on a channel that ran old movies all day many years ago. Something about it just stuck in my head. It is really sweet and funny. Using the doll to get a seat to and from work always struck me as enterprising. The poor girl gets in over her head when the well-meaning Cyrus starts encroaching on her life. I would love to see this movie again. I think it would be great as a remake set in today's society (although would a person give their seat up for a mother with a baby nowadays?).

All Patsy Douglas wanted was a seat on the subway. She dreamed of a better position at the advertising agency at which she worked; what she was doing was mimeographing all day long. She dreamily eyed the firm's leader, Sam Morley, & wrote trite jingles for ad campaigns in her spare time. When the Baxter Baby Food account went bad, she took the little doll from the display & carried it with her on the subway. Viola! Passengers, thinking they were helping a woman with a child, stood to let the young mother sit.

Except. One visit she happened to sit next to Cyrus Baxter himself, the crusty, hot-tempered, terminally unhappy curmudgeon who runs the baby food company. She happens to mention that the baby is named after him, Cyrus Baxter Douglas (the people at the firm named the doll "Cyrus," for obvious reasons), & the old man, not revealing his identity to her, is so flattered that she paid him that compliment that he begins to insinuate himself into her life, to help out the namesake he never knew he had.

As you may well imagine, the movie takes off from there. Morley & his partner find themselves having to promote the well-meaning, earnest Patsy to save the account. If you've seen any screwball comedies, you'll be able to anticipate when & where the plots & plans go awry. Betsy Drake, as Patsy, is a bit of a cipher - not terribly pretty, she has a sort of stagey, Laura Linney-esque way of acting. Neither Dennis Morgan or Zachary Scott as her two bosses have the stand-out traits of characters in a Preston Sturges film, though they do play off each other rather well. Edmund Gwenn as the volatile Cyrus Baxter is the movie's real treat - a sort of diminutive, flustered, uptight second cousin of Lionel Barrymore's Henry Potter. The scene between him & Betsy Drake involving Longfellow's "Hiawatha" is screamingly funny.

Most probably they couldn't make a film like this today, not without the tongue in the cheek as "The Hudsucker Proxy," & cameos in this film of soon-to-be-television-stars William Frawley & Barbara Billingsley reminded me how shows like "I Love Lucy" (where Frawley played neighbor Fred Mertz) made most screwball comedy misunderstandings & false leads into television cliche. But this movie, unrushed & quiet in its charm, unembarrassed about its lack of stars or its silliness, manages to entertain in precisely the way it was meant to. You get caught up beyond its corniness.

It's no "His Girl Friday," but probably wasn't meant to be. It has some good laughs & it's funnier than any modern comedy I've seen recently. Recommended for those who've seen all the Capra & Sturges flicks & can live with a fix that's a couple of shades below.

Delightfully absurd comedy in which Betsy Drake plays Patsy Douglas, a secretary working for an advertising agency. Their most important account is Baxter's Babyfoods, and since Patsy has noticed that women carrying babies get given seats on the subway, one night she steals the discarded doll that has been used in the advertising display, in order to get a seat on her way home. It just happens that Cyrus Baxter (Edmund Gwenn) owner of Baxter's Babyfoods, is travelling on the same train. This leads to unforeseen complications, and Patsy finds herself having to play the role of single parent to her 'baby'. Then thing start to get really complicated. The whole thing is very silly but great fun.

Six stars may be pushing it a bit in the rating of this film. "Pretty Baby" has a clever plot device - the use of the female lead, Patsy Douglas, of an actual doll wrapped in a blanket to give the impression she has a baby. This is to get her a seat on the subway system.

This is 1950, so women have been "liberated" and male chauvinism is a thing of the past. Where men formerly gave up their seats to women on buses and trollies, the liberated women now fend for seats with the men. Betsy Drake's Douglas is all for the progress that has been made, but she would have preferred that some of the old manners hadn't been thrown out with women's "liberation."

The scenes with Patsy's doll baby and a few others have some comedy. But there's nothing here to evince rollicking laughter. Edmund Gwenn is very good as the grumpy Cyrus Baxter. Some may think that Gwenn is out of his usual character (i.e., his Kris Kringle from "Miracle on 34th Street"), but Gwenn was an accomplished actor who played diverse roles - including some grouchy or distasteful characters.

The other leads, Zachary Scott as Barry Holmes and Dennis Morgan as Sam Morley, are okay up to a point. But Morley's falling for Patsy just isn't believable. There's nothing in the screenplay to even give a hint of romantic inclination on Morley's part - although there is on Patsy's part initially. All of his encounters have been with a fumbling, accident-prone Patsy. He has been upset with her and even though a plot twist leads to her keeping her job, there's nothing romantic until the very end when Morley just suddenly falls for Patsy. It actually came across as a dumb, poor ending as though the writers couldn't think of anything better.

And that gets to Betsy Drake. While she made a few comedies, she had a certain innocence yet intelligence about her persona. So, one tends to like the characters she plays. But she definitely is not a laugh-inducing comedienne. Nor does she have a personal that suggests or invites romance.

As I said, it's a stretch to give this six stars, but most people should enjoy the film and may find it somewhat amusing.

Sam Morley loses his secretary Peggy to marriage. Patsy Douglas (Betsy Drake) is a horribly clumsy replacement. The 22 year old gets sent back down. She takes a doll pretending to be her baby to get a seat on the subway. Her advertising agency's biggest client ruthless Cyrus Baxter (Edmund Gwenn) happens to be riding on the train next to her. Patsy claims to have named the baby Cyrus after Baxter while Baxter pretends to be nightwatchman Smith. Baxter is so taken with the story that upon learning it, Sam and Barry Holmes quickly give the recently-fired Patsy a raise. Confusion reigns.

Patsy is such a weird character. Betsy Drake doesn't seem like a comedian to pull it off but her natural sincerity really sets this off. She may have gotten the job due to her husband Cary Grant but she's actually weirdly funny in her unreal antics. The confusion is worthy of the craziest screwball comedies. The romance is a little stuck on. If only Cary Grant joined his wife. That part is a little clunky.