My Heart Belongs to Daddy (1942)
A distinguished professor finds his well-ordered life tospy-turvy after he is forced to take in a pregnant widow.
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A Brilliant Conflict
If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
One of the best movies of the year! Incredible from the beginning to the end.
.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
I use that quote as my summary to describe the atmosphere of this screwball comedy that mixes knife thrown acidic barbs with a dramatic and sentimental set-up. Martha O'Driscoll plays a young pregnant widow fighting to prevent her in-laws from taking the child away from her. Stranded in Cecil Kellaway's cab during a snowstorm and ends up delivering her baby in the home of scientist professor Richard Carlson who has allowed his fiancée, Frances Gifford, to move in with her imperious mother, Florence Bates, and bratty sister, Velma Berg. The presence of feisty, no-nonsense nurse Mabel Paige, who insults everybody except O'Driscoll, Kellaway and Carlson.It's Paige who gets to utter the insult to the temperamental cook, and it is her who pretty much steals every scene, even from the lovable Kellaway and the deliriously funny Bates. Berg gets some good lines as well, getting over excited when the staff fights with the nurse who has no reluctance in grabbing her by the ears to prevent her from nosying in on the new mother. The household set-up is pretty surprising considering the production code, but the script makes it pretty clear that nothing is going on between Carlson and Gifford in spite of being engaged. It works better that that way so the intended romance between Carlson and O'Driscoll can take off without a nasty issue of divorce or infidelity from taking place.As for the use of the title of a popular Cole Porter song, that is never heard, and the meaning of daddy is quite different. The fact that the audience is supposed to believe that Berg is Bates' daughter is unbelievable but amusing. Gifford plays passive/aggressive very well, but it's very clear what her motives are, while Bates could have you laughing hysterically as she takes great pleasure in slamming the stereotypical shrewish mother. There's a twist involving O'Driscoll I did not see coming, making this an obscure gem that ends up being a delightful surprise.