Tammy and the Bachelor

A fine film, Tammy and the Bachelor reveals that "B" films often give us more than their bigger, more glossy cousins. Notice what's good about Tammy and the Bachelor, and you will find that nearly everything about it is well-done. First, its script: almost fully visual, it develops three distinct, well-defined characters through set pieces in its first quarter hour, telling us everything we need to know about each -- including personal relationships, all of which are healthy though fully human. There's an absence of sinister intent, malice, self-loathing; Tammy has normal, natural human needs which she expresses with a degree of self-respect which would be disdained by a filmmaker today as naive. Setting is filmed beautifully, simply, naturally well-lit, visually interesting, full of the character which defines the personalities (Tammy the swamp child, Peter the affluent southern gentleman.) Acted superbly: there is no hamming, no larger-than-life glamor which would ring false. Withal, of course, there is little conflict in the film: only Tammy's adolescent coming-of-age in a modern world. But wait: what larger theme is there? All right -- this is not Scenes from a Marriage; Tammy cannot compete with Cabiria; the directing is not David Lean's, and the budget is not Cleopatra's. Reynolds is not Monroe and Nielsen is not Brando. But put them together with Walter Brennan and Fay Wray and a good script and a good cinematographer and the result is this film, which has its own light and sentimental rewards. And a great title song, one of the gems of 1950's screen musings.

Debbie Reynolds like so many of contract stars was being cut loose from MGM and she sure was fortunate enough to get this film which turned out to be one of her iconic roles. Debbie Reynolds is really something special as the back woods bayou girl with an uncommon amount of common sense.

In her memoirs she had a lot to say about Tammy. First off she had to watch that crafty old scene stealer Walter Brennan playing her grandfather whom she lives with on the bayou. That man did not win three Oscars for nothing, but fortunately he's only in the film in the first 15 minutes before the revenuers clap him in the pokey.

At that point Reynolds takes up an invitation to stay with Leslie Nielsen's family. She and Brennan had rescued Nielsen from a plane crash near their bayou home on the Mississippi. She had a lot of problems with Nielsen as Leslie at the time was not the lovable oaf Frank Drebbin that we later got to know. He was a rather serious Method actor from New York and he and Reynolds did not mesh well. She took some satisfaction in her memoirs at pointing that at the time she thought Nielsen had a great gift for comedy if he'd relax and forget the Stanislavsky. And by God later on he did.

Finally she notes that the film was initially a flop. But later on she recorded the title song and got a Gold record for it. In the movie The Ames Brothers sing it over the title credits and Reynolds sings it during the film. The popularity of the record caused Universal to re- release the film and it was a smash.

Despite Nielsen's serious demeanor and Brennan's irrepressible scene stealing, no doubt this film belongs to Debbie Reynolds. 56 years after it was first release, Debbie will charm the pants off you in this role. Sad she never did the other two films, but even in this she was pushing it to play a bayou teenager.

But she succeeded, oh how she succeeded.

It's hard to believe that Debbie Reynolds did this movie 5 years after Singin' In The Rain. It seems like she should have played Tammy 5 years before Singin'.

Reynolds infuses some complexity in the role - check out her sly grin when Leslie Nielsen picks her up in the barn. It's a role that could easily have been annoying to audiences but Reynolds never loses a viewers affections. In the two sequels Sandra Dee came very close to crossing that annoying line.

Besides Reynolds, the other treat is the great cast around her. It was fun to see a young Leslie Nielsen in a straight role as the leading man and Mildred Natwick does her usual excellent job (why did she never get more Oscar recognition). Fay Wray, Walter Brennan, Philip Ober & Sidney Blackmer also do a great job.

The director, Joseph Pevney, should get credit for keeping the story moving forward and not getting bogged down in the corny aspects of the movie. Had i been more than 1 years old when this movie came out, I'm sure it would have been a fun way to spend a Saturday afternoon.

Plot—a backwoods southern girl is invited into a plantation manor after her father is sent to jail for bootlegging. The invite comes after she's rescued the hunky son from a plane crash. Now she's caught up in a humorous conflict of cultures while trying to adjust. At the same time, she pines for the son's affections despite his snobbish girlfriend.

Okay, after 70-some years of breathing my brain is turning to mush—Reynolds is charming, the song's cute, and I even enjoyed the suds this time around. Sixty years ago I hated the movie, but then I preferred rubber space monsters and Elvis's shaking' up the world. So I guess Reynolds and her song didn't really register. Truth be told, I still like Roger Corman's quickies and, of course, Elvis forever.

Nonetheless, in my now geezer opinion, the movie's a charmer, with occasional brain teasing moments. Tammy's a role the spunky Reynolds was born to play. Her sparkly innocence is winning from the git-go. Pairing her with the hunky Nielsen, however, remains a stretch. He towers over her like Tarzan in a spiffy suit. Still, her down-home truth-telling contrasts engagingly with the uptown sophisticates. I can see Peter (Nielsen) succumbing to her natural charm. But she's not all innocence. Behind her lack of education, Tammy has a perceptive inner eye, or a kind of backwoods wisdom. That compensates a lot for her amusing goofs in polite company. And catch the many innuendos I missed first time around. For example, when Tammy comes up with "of a carnal nature" while fending off masher Ernie's eager advances, I had to rerun the passage to make sure I heard correctly.

What also catches my eye this time is the subtle romancing of the ante-bellum South. The Brents represent the gentile side of the Old South transposed to the 1950's. In that sense, there's something of a nostalgia for the earlier time though it's not rubbed in. Then too, a contrasting note is sounded when Osia (Beavers), the Black cook, explains to Tammy the onerous meaning of her red bandanna headgear. So we're reminded of the Old South's not so gentile other side. And catch those colorful battleship cars. 1957 was about the peak year for showy fender fins that seemingly stretch into the great beyond.

Anyway, sociology aside, my age may be showing, but this time around I found the movie charming and occasionally insightful. So maybe something can be said said for geezer-years, after all.

Recommended to me by a friend, this romantic comedy will enlighten and touch your heart. I thoroughly enjoyed the view of life through Tammy's eyes where we are all reminded of just how much we all take for granted. See it, you won't be disappointed!