The Babymaker: The Dr. Cecil Jacobson Story

Not a very good "thriller" or "drama" but there is a strong and twisted storyline present. Very typical of "made for television" movies of this nature. Semi-strong performance from Melissa Gilbert leaves you wanting more. Not highly recommended from this viewer. Blah!

Melissa Gilbert is Mary Bennett, a housewife in Oak Ridge Virginia who becomes pregnant from the artificial insemination program of Dr Cecil Jacobson (George Dzundza). However Mary testifies in a fraud suit against Jacobson, accused on 46 counts of using his own sperm to impregnate patients.

Gilbert's Mary rides a motorbike and her hair is short in the second half of the movie when the narrative jumps 5 years. She has a camp appearance in blonde wig as `Mrs Jones' in disguised testimony, has a touching moment crying in the arms of her friend Sue Castellano (Shanna Reed), and supplies a sly smile when Jacobson yells at her `I am not the father of that woman's child!'

The teleplay by Phil Penningroth and Sharon Elizabeth Doyle, based on a true story, begins with Sue's story of Jacobson using the hormone HCG to create a false pregnancy, another fraud count. When Mary consults Jacobson, this sets up the expectation that she too will be duped, so when she gives birth it's a surprise. It is that her son Jesse (Michael Charles Roman) suffers from a lazy eye condition that other children of Jacobson's patients also suffer from that makes Mary question the identity of his donors. Although it is used to allow Mary a chance to talk about her experience, a talk back radio program's initial parody of Jacobson's behaviour scores a laugh.

Director Arlene Stanford uses a bad music score by James McVay, black and white replays of previous scenes as flashbacks, and allows Reed to make as strong an impression as Gilbert.

Enjoyed this film because of my interest in artificial insemination and this film portrayed a story that showed the good side of such a decision, but made the entire subject a bad thing, only because of a doctor who practiced sick ways of inseminating woman and I will not be able to go into great details, or I will reveal the facts of this story. Melissa Gilbert, (Mary Bennett) gave an outstanding performance as a woman who used the services of Dr. Cecil Jacobson, (George Dzundza), "Hack" TV Series and was able to conceive a nice baby boy. Shanna Reed,(Sue Castellano) gave a great supporting role and was able to tell Mary Bennett about the strange medical practices that Dr. Cecil Jacobson was doing to all his patients. There are always people who try to make money off of poor innocent people and who abuse their professional positions. Good Film for people interested in Artificial Insemination.

Your plot summery tells the WHOLE MOVIE! Way to go fellas! You ruined it for me after reading that summary! Movie was ok at best! Have to have 150 characters for a review!

What other reviewers forget is that it's based on a true story. You don't need to understand the doctor's motivation. You don't need to understand why Melissa Gilbert is a victim even though she got her long desired baby. The law is the law, the guy committed a crime, and people were taken and out of money. Speaking of money, I loved how back then $20 will get you sperm. I digress. I thought it was well done that the friend distance herself from the main character after conceiving. Totally true of women in that circumstance and you think it's jealousy, but in actuality it's because people normally distance themselves from people who are duped by charletons but come together again once the duped come around. Showed a great view of two sides of a story with regards to two very different victims of this real live narcissist, yet still maintains that both are indeed victims.