The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer

The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) is a screwball romantic comedy you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Irving Reis and starring Cary Grant, Myrna Loy and a teenage Shirley Temple.

High-schooler Susan develops a fierce crush on Richard Nugent, a charming playboy painter, and slips into his studio hoping to pose for him. Her older sister Margaret happens to be the local judge — and she catches them. Facing a jail sentence over the mess, Nugent agrees to keep dating the girl until her infatuation simply burns itself out. It backfires almost immediately, and the bachelor's neat little plan unravels date by date.

Sidney Sheldon won an Oscar for this script, and it shows in the timing: the laughs come from words and reactions, not pratfalls. Grant is a joy as a man undone by his own appeal, squirming through every chaperoned outing. A warm, sharp slice of postwar Hollywood for anyone who likes their comedy clever rather than crude. Stream The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947) online on iFILM.