The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947)

I took me many years to watch this movie because its title, or rather one word of its title, has always perturbed me: Soxer. Much like I used to get confused about the pronunciation of a friend's last name -- was is Mar · koe` or Mark`· oe? -- I continue to stumble over the word "soxer." How can soxer sound like soccer? Does that X just dissolve? Alternatively, what is a sockser? Resigned to confusion, I turned on the flick and allowed myself to swoon for Cary and Myrna.

This movie was good, not great. It's a screwball comedy that lacked some wit. The plot, in fact, is a bit disturbing: Myrna Loy's baby sister falls in love with Cary Grant [duh]. Cary Grant has legal charges brought against him, but Judge Myrna Loy gives him the chance to shake the charges by dating her lovesick sister. Apparently, by dating her, Cary Grant will help Shirley to get over him. Question mark there, as Cary is a fox. Anyway, Shirley Temple is 17 in the movie [underage, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the law], and Cary Grant is 35. A little icky, right?

Nevertheless, Cary Grant is just as charming as usual, and Shirley Temple is just as bothersome, especially as her twenty-year-old self. Myrna Loy is not in the film as much as she deserves to be, but her character is slammin: She is a judge, people. A judge. Just like Sotomayor -- ever heard of her? I'd say that's pretty noteworthy for 1947.

Other characters include these guys who are way too obsessed with double-breasted suits. Faux pas, fellas.

3/5 pizzas