Pretty Baby

Thin little comedy that takes a clever premise and tries to stretch it to 90-minutes. Betsy Drake is a 40-hour a week drudge cranking out office mimeos, so we don't begrudge her a little trickery getting a seat on the crowded subway. But then, charmed by her fake baby and motherhood, mean old tycoon Edmund Gwenn decides to break character and befriend the simple working girl. Now she's stuck with keeping up the pretense lest she anger her powerful benefactor, leading to a number of semi-comedic predicaments.

Certainly, Drake and Gwenn don't lack for sparkle. The trouble is the humorous situations seldom get the comedic bounce they need. As a result, the set-ups tend to fade into the narrative itself. I suspect director Windust simply lacks the right touch for comedy, which I also suspect is harder to do than drama. Then too, the usually lively Dennis Morgan appears oddly distracted, while the usually villainous Zachary Scott shows he's not entirely out of place.

Anyway, the movie's a good glimpse into the coming consumer age through the medium of an advertising agency. And catch how sensitive the norms of the period are to unwed motherhood. In fact, take away the unwed part, and much of the story would collapse. From these standpoints, the movie's a good foreshadowing of the 1950's as a whole—though it's likely the charming Drake didn't fit the coming age of Marilyn's, Jayne's, and Mamie's. Too bad, because as the deserving working girl in this film she's darn near perfect.

Overall, the movie manages some clever set-ups, a few chuckles, but most of all, a good glimpse of its time period.