As usual, Charles Coburn-or "Piggy", as he's lovingly referred to in my house-is the most adorable part of the movie. He just has one of those faces, and one of those voices; he improves the scenes he's in, no matter how bad the rest of the movie is. In Yes Sir, That's My Baby, it's a slapstick battle of the sexes between Donald O'Connor and the rest of his college's football team versus their wives. The wives, also in college, unite because of their professor's feminist lectures, and forbid their husbands from being on the football team. The husbands, bolstered by their professor's manly lectures, maintain they can't be kept away from their greatest passion. It turns out the only reason the feud exists is because the professors, Charles Coburn and Barbara Brown, used to be engaged and now hate each other!
So, when Piggy is making the audience laugh with jokes about how important it is to be the man of the house while simultaneously falling to pieces at the sight of a newborn baby, the movie is pretty cute. And to be honest, the first few times the husbands boast about their babies' accomplishments like wives usually do-Donald O'Connor says his son was born with a tooth-and struggle with the laundry and walk down the street with a pack of strollers are funny. There are definitely some sequences that get too silly, or too dated, for this movie to be a treasure I'll want to watch over and over again. Overall, it was enjoyable, especially when compared to some really stinky battle-of-the-sexes movies from that era, but mostly because of Charles Coburn's class and comedic timing. Donald O'Connor gets to show off his dancing skills with a memorable routine in the laundromat. With all those backflips and acrobatic moves, it's no wonder he was cast to play Buster Keaton in the following decade!
