| Rock-A-Bye Baby | |
| Director: | Frank Tashlin |
| Producer: | Jerry Lewis |
| Starring: |
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| Music: |
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| Cinematography: | Haskell B. Boggs |
| Editing: | Alma Macrorie |
| Distributor: | Paramount Pictures |
| Runtime: | 103 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $1.2 million[1] |
| Gross: | $3.1 million (US and Canada rentals)[2] [3] 1,608,274 admissions (France)[4] |
Rock-A-Bye Baby is a 1958 American musical comedy film starring Jerry Lewis. A loose remake of Preston Sturges' film The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), the film was directed and written by Frank Tashlin, and features Marilyn Maxwell, Connie Stevens and Reginald Gardiner.
Clayton Poole is a small-town TV repairman whose former sweetheart, Carla Naples, is now a famous movie star. Carla has cultivated a reputation as a virgin who does not have affairs or carouse with men in typical Hollywood fashion. On a romantic fling, she secretly marries Carlos, a famous Mexican bullfighter; the next morning the couple agree it was unwise and plan to have it annulled, but her husband dies that day in a bull-fight. Distraught, Carla tore up her marriage license, not realizing she was pregnant; there's no legal documentation to legitimize the child. Her agent, Harold Herman tries to avoid a scandal by sending Carla into the country to give birth. He suggests that they send the baby back to the town where she grew up, Midvale, Indiana. The cover story will be that she is going into seclusion to prepare for her next role, the lead in a controversial religious epic The White Virgin of the Nile. After, she can adopt her baby. Carla says that her sister is too young and her father hasn't forgiven her for becoming a movie star, so Carla decides on Clayton to take care of her baby.
After she gives birth, Carla asks if Clayton will help her. Still professing his undying devotion, Clayton agrees to care for the child. He is very surprised to discover that it is triplets, not one baby. Carla's sister, Sandy, offers to help Clayton (she is in love with him and will do anything to get his attention).
Clayton works very hard to take care of the triplets, taking on extra work and attending a course on motherhood at a local college, but Midvale's child services want to place them with a well-to-do two-parent family. He earns the respect of Carla's father in his efforts to care for the triplets; both he and Carla's sister, Sandy, support Clayton keeping the babies.
On the final court day, the Naples family jump in to rescue Clayton and the triplets. Sandy enters the court in a wedding gown, pursued by her father, who is carrying a shotgun and claims that the babies are Sandy's. The Judge marries them, the implication being that they can keep the triplets. Meanwhile, Carla has seen the Midvale news and is afraid that her triplets will be taken from Clayton. She releases a press statement that triplets are hers and that she and Clayton are secretly married. Now suspected of bigamy, Clayton goes into hiding with the triplets.
Then, truth comes out: in the wake of the bigamy scandal, Mexican authorities reveal Carla's secret marriage to Carlos, so Clayton isn't a bigamist, nor is he the father of the triplets, nor are the triplets illegitimate. Harold (Carla's agent), who is in love with Carla, proposes. She accepts. Clayton then realizes that he's actually in love with Sandy, who has always loved him, not Carla. While taking a romantic walk and wondering when they can marry, they realize that they are married. Nine months later, Sandy gives birth to quintuplets. A statue of Clayton and his five babies is erected in front of the town courthouse, as Midvale's Hero.[5] [6]
Cast notes:
Rock-A-Bye Baby was loosely based on the Preston Sturges' film The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (1944), which starred Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton.
Rock-a-Bye Baby was filmed from November 18, 1957, through January 8, 1958,[8] and opened in Los Angeles on July 16, 1958, followed by a premiere in New York City on July 23. It entered general release shortly afterwards.[9] The film was re-released in 1962 on a double bill with another Jerry Lewis film, Don't Give Up The Ship.
The songs in Rock-A-Bye Baby were written by Harry Warren (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics):[10] [11]
Songs and music notes:
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 63% rating based on 8 reviews, with an average rating of 5.70/10.[15]
The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 14, 2012, through the Olive Films company.