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Test Tube Babies

  • 1948
  • 1h 10m
IMDb RATING
3.4/10
454
YOUR RATING
Dorothy Duke in Test Tube Babies (1948)
Drama

A happily-married couple having no luck with starting their family finally discover that the husband is sterile. Their family doctor suggests that they think about artificial insemination, w... Read allA happily-married couple having no luck with starting their family finally discover that the husband is sterile. Their family doctor suggests that they think about artificial insemination, which at the time was considered to be quite scandalous.A happily-married couple having no luck with starting their family finally discover that the husband is sterile. Their family doctor suggests that they think about artificial insemination, which at the time was considered to be quite scandalous.

  • Director
    • W. Merle Connell
  • Writer
    • Richard S. McMahan
  • Stars
    • Dorothy Duke
    • William Thomason
    • Timothy Farrell
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    3.4/10
    454
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • W. Merle Connell
    • Writer
      • Richard S. McMahan
    • Stars
      • Dorothy Duke
      • William Thomason
      • Timothy Farrell
    • 13User reviews
    • 12Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos12

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    Top cast16

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    Dorothy Duke
    • Cathy Bennett
    • (as Dorothy Dube)
    William Thomason
    • George Bennett
    Timothy Farrell
    • Dr. Wright
    John Michael
    • Frank
    Margaret Roach
    Margaret Roach
    • Mother
    • (as Peggy Roach)
    Stacey Alexander
    • Don Williams
    Georgie Barton
    • Betty Williams
    Mary Lou Reckow
    • Dolores La Fleur
    Bebe Berto
    • Jerry
    Guy Gordon
    • Phil
    Helen Cogan
    • Grace
    • (as Helene Cogan)
    Gine Franklin
    • Ralph
    Zona Siggins
    • Nurse
    Monica Davis
    • Nurse in Inserts
    • (uncredited)
    John Maitland
      Frank Spencer
      • Man on Operating Table in Inserts
      • (uncredited)
      • Director
        • W. Merle Connell
      • Writer
        • Richard S. McMahan
      • All cast & crew
      • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

      User reviews13

      3.4454
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      Featured reviews

      Dethcharm

      "George, I'm Sleepy. Let's Go To Bed!"...

      George and Cathy are a typical, young married couple. George is tired of their current social scene. The drinking parties are getting out of hand, and work is consuming the rest of George's time.

      One of the parties really "heats up" when a woman does a "striptease". Bizarrely, the only one ending up topless is some bald guy! Not-too surprisingly, a "catfight" ensues.

      Unfortunately for him, Cathy is bored and enjoys the male companionship she gets from their friend, Frank.

      George becomes extremely jealous, and decides that the answer is to immediately start producing children. Alas, the couple finds out that they can't produce any offspring.

      Fear not! Modern science can help!

      TEST TUBE BABIES is another absurd film that hides its -for the era- prurient subject matter behind a veneer of being an "educational" film. It's also pretty dull, having little in the way of intentional or unintentional laughs. So, this is no REEFER MADNESS, although George and Cathy's visit to their monotone doctor is almost humorous...
      4Leofwine_draca

      When exploitation masquerades as education...

      TEST TUBE BABIES is a low-rent B-movie designed as an educational film to educate the couples about the new-fangled process of artificial insemination. Clocking in at barely an hour long, this is on the outset similar to one of those 'public information' films that were so popular in the middle of the 20th century, but at heart it's an exploitation picture.

      Otherwise, how can you explain the film's attempts to titillate? A scene where a woman strips down in a doctor's office ready for her gynaecological examination is gratuitous enough, but things really get out of hand with a random cat-fight thrown into the mix where one woman is stripped topless. The nudity is brief indeed, but it still must have been strong stuff for the 1940s.

      As is the usual with these productions, the acting is extraordinarily wooden and stilted, the dialogue unintentionally hilarious (and scenes of the doctor smoking in his office are definitely a product of their era) and the message extremely heavy-handed. It makes for an amusing viewing experience for the modern viewer, that's for sure.
      3wbswetnam

      "You need to pull yourself together and have a cigarette."

      Test Tube Babies is a late 1940s exploitation flick about a boring couple who are unable to conceive. In spite of their wholesomeness they have a wild party at their house with lecherous men, silly drunks, and strippers! The couple seek a doctor's advice on their options for having a child.

      This movie is hilarious for its unintended humor. In one scene the couple are in the doctor's office, and after being told that her husband is sterile and cannot father a child for her, the wife misunderstands the doctor and thinks that he is offering to do the deed! The scene with the wild stag party is unforgettable, especially the cat fight featuring two women wrestling around on the floor clawing at each other's clothes. My favorite scene has to be the one where the doctor comes out to speak to the nervous husband and advises him, "Pull yourself together and have a cigarette", then asks the husband to go buy some smokes for him, too! My how times have changed.

      One star for the terrible wooden acting, one star for the cat fight and one star for hilarious medical advice = 3 stars from me.
      2Tera-Jones

      Not Much Of An Educational Film - It's Exploitation Instead

      Oh man what a terrible film! But it can be funny as all get outs! This is the type of film they passed as education on adult topics like this one about being sterile and artificial insemination. I found the part with the doctor being blunt with the man really funny... especially after he was being blunt then told the man (husband) "let me be blunt... dead" -- I fell out laughing!! He was already about as blunt as he could get by actually saying the word "sperm" and then suddenly wanted to be blunt about the sperm being "dead". That was too funny!! If you haven't seen this film, then you'd have to see it to understand why it was so funny... and if you have seen the film then you know what I mean already!! Haha! OH It took about 30 minutes before the husband to find out the he was sterile... before that it was all about a swingers party and it even had a stripper insulting the "nice ladies". One of the "nice ladies" and the stripper ended up in a cat-fight and get got a chance to see a the top nude half of the blonde stripper - just for a few seconds! LOL.

      Really the film was NOT very educational about sterility and artificial insemination - it was an exploitation film of some kind and you really can't tell what - maybe just swinging adults?!! OH and the camera man wanted a peek at a couple of women's breasts so they made sure we, the viewers, got a quick glimpse of them too. ONE MORE THING: This movie really has zero to do with test tube babies, really it doesn't.

      It's a 1/10 film -- but I got some giggles out of this one so it gets an extra point for making me laugh!!

      2/10
      7rnc55

      A Hilarious Movie

      Test Tube Babies may be as bad as Plan 9, but it is also just as funny. It features a sickeningly wholesome couple whose friends are all drunks, lechers and strippers. Likewise, the scenes in the doctor's office come straight out of the kind of cautionary films they used to show in high school 'health' class, but the party scenes are vintage soft-core porn filler. It's like two different movies crashed into each other, and Test Tube Babies is the wreckage they left behind.

      The actors are nearly as good as the barely-animated characters in the Clutch Cargo cartoons, except for the drunk. His humor is intentional, and some of it actually works. And the girl-fight is sensational! Especially the yells the women let out as they roll around on the floor. I'm just trying to figure out where to place this on my list of ten greatest bad movies of all time.

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      Related interests

      Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
      Drama

      Storyline

      Edit

      Did you know

      Edit
      • Trivia
        Margaret Roach and Dorothy Duke, who play mother and daughter, were about the same age.
      • Quotes

        George: Isn't there a treatment I can take?

        Dr. Wright: No, Mr. Bennett. According to this report, your sperm is completely inactive. Or to put it bluntly, dead.

        George: Oh; I see.

      • Alternate versions
        Reissued in 1967, with new footage, and re-titled, The Pill.
      • Connections
        Featured in Sleazemania III: The Good, the Bad and the Sleazy (1986)

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      FAQ11

      • How long is Test Tube Babies?Powered by Alexa

      Details

      Edit
      • Release date
        • June 5, 1950 (Denmark)
      • Country of origin
        • United States
      • Language
        • English
      • Also known as
        • Blessed Are They
      • Production company
        • Screen Classics (II)
      • See more company credits at IMDbPro

      Tech specs

      Edit
      • Runtime
        • 1h 10m(70 min)
      • Color
        • Black and White
      • Sound mix
        • Mono
      • Aspect ratio
        • 1.37 : 1

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