Pretty Baby

Some big minor names in this... dennis morgan, betsy drake. When patsy is promoted to work with the big boss, she tries to keep up. But he talks and dictates so fast, she can't keep up. Can her wits help her keep her job? She is clever, but is she clever enough? A chance encounter helps her get ahead! A running gag where every time morley starts spelling a name or address, he gets interrupted. About an hour in, it just gets silly and absurd, almost a three stooges scene. Some fun minor roles.. bill frawley as the detective (lucy!) and barbara billingsly (leave it to beaver!). Also frank cady as the landlord (from green acres!). It's silly but fun. Directed by bretaigne windust. Zachary scott was so good at playing the bad guy...he died young at 51. He had done a couple things with joan crawford. Check out the trivia sections on this film and for betsy drake; she and cary grant eloped at the very start of filming this movie. Another interesting connection: billingsly has a small role here, but goes on to star in leave it to beaver; windust actually directed one episode of beaver, but also died young at 54.

A thoroughly enjoyable piece of fluff. Nothing to deep just a well cast, well acted hour and thirty two minutes of entertainment. I just stumbled across this film and hand't checked to see what it was about or who was in it. I'm glad I didn't though; based on the description I might have skipped this little gem. Dennis Morgan and Zachary Scott were both great, as was Betsy Drake. But as usual Edmund Gwenn stole the show. I'm surprised they could find stars to work with him; he always effortlessly stole the show in anything he was in. I recently saw him in" Them"; a low budget sci-fi film and he added weight that part as well. This story starts out with a simple inadvertent dissection by young women that just wants a seat on the subway. That simple act winds up complicating her life, like she never anticipated. And others wind up draw in by their own assumptions. This is a prime example of late forties, early fifties comedy. And is a dramatic demonstration of how much the world has changed in just fifty years. People watching this film from the viewpoint of someone born after 1960 won't recognize the morals or values in this film. But this really is the way most people were like back then; for the most part. So it's a humorous character study, and another glimpse of time gone by.

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.

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.

I really loved Betsy Drake. During her marriage to Cary Grant, I had always wondered if she couldn't have brought off a mad-cap comedy something like the many that Cary Grant had made over his career.This movie fits the bill PERFECTLY!!

Like Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? (1957) it is about the advertising industry. But, this one seems more natural--not as forced. Also, we get to see Dennis Morgan, Zachary Scott, and Edmund Gwenn in funny situations such as we have never seen them in before. Here, Dennis Morgan is more than just a singer in for light comedy (he actually gets mad and frustrated here). Zachary Scott proves he can be funny too, and Edmund Gwenn shows how angry and totally confused he can be in this zany situation.

The story: Sam Morley (Dennis Morgan) heads up an advertising firm, and Barry Holmes (Zachary Scott) is his right-hand man. Patsy Douglas (Betsy Drake) works at the firm as a lowly mimeograph operator, but is infatuated with her boss, Morley. One day, Morley's secretary quits her job to get married, and Patsy is chosen to temporarily take her place. She is a failure as a secretary and is soon to be replaced.

However, at the same time, she wins over the firm's chief advertiser, Cyrus Baxter (Edmund Gwenn), owner of Baxter Baby Food—the largest company to advertise with Morley's firm.

How does she win him over?

She does it as the mother with a baby named after Cyrus Baxter while the two happen to be riding in a subway together. However, the baby (covered by a blanket) is not real; it is a doll from the hallway display that Patsy had taken from the advertising agency in order to get a seat in the subway. After being flattered that Pasty would name a baby after him, the normally grouchy Baxter insists that she work on the Baxter account--or he would take his million-dollar account elsewhere. But, what should Morley and Holmes have the untalented Patsy do? Copywriting, i,e, making up advertising jingles for Baxter Baby Food.

The story is zany and fun. It also shows us how to break up a fit of anger: by just start reciting Longfellow's poem, The Song of Hiawatha. If you can say "On the shores of Gitche Gumee..." and still stay angry, you are hopeless.