Rock-A-Bye Baby is a 1958 comedy film with songs, starring Jerry Lewis. A loose remake of Preston Sturges' 1944 film The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, the film was directed and written by Frank Tashlin, and features Marilyn Maxwell, Connie Stevens and Reginald Gardiner.
Plot
Clayton Poole (Jerry Lewis) is a small-town TV repairman whose former sweetheart, Carla Naples (Marilyn Maxwell), is now a famous movie star. When Carla marries a Mexican bullfigther, who dies the day after the wedding, she becomes pregnant. Her agent, Harold Herman (Reginald Gardiner) tries to avoid a scandal and damage to her career by sending Carla back to the town she grew up in, telling the world that she is going into seclusion to prepare for her next role, the lead in a religious epic called "The White Virgin on the Nile." Carla turns to Clayton for help, and he agrees to care for the child once it is born.
But Carla gives birth to triplets, and Clayton finds out that he has to be married before he can adopt them, so he marries Carla's younger sister, Sandy (Connie Stevens), who is in love with him. The press finds out about the triplets, and Carla tells them that she and Clayton are secretly married. Now suspected of bigamy, Clayton goes into hiding with the triplets until everything is cleared up.
Nine months later, Sandy gives birth to quintuplets, and soon a statue of Clayton and his five babies is erected in front of the town courthouse.[1][2][3]
Cast
Cast notes:
- Two of the original Keystone Kops, Hank Mann and Chester Conklin have bit parts.
- Jerry Lewis' son Gary Lewis plays "Clayton Poole" as a boy in a fantasy sequence.[4]
- A picture of comedian Jack Benny was used as a photograph of "Carlos", the Mexican bullfighter that Carla married, and the father of her triplets.[4]
- George Sanders is listed in some cast lists for the film,[5], but his part was cut out before the movie was released, as was a small part played by Jerry Lewis' father, Danny.[4]
Songs and music
The songs in Rock-A-Bye Baby were written by Harry Warren (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics):[6][7]
- "Rock-a-Bye Baby" - sung by Jerry Lewis[8]
- "The Land of La-La-La" - sung by Jerry Lewis
- "Love Is a Lonely Thing" - sung by Jerry Lewis
- "Dormi, Dormi, Dormi (Sleep-Sleep-Sleep)" - sung by Salvatore Baccaloni and Jerry Lewis
- "Why Can't He Care for Me?" - sung by Connie Stevens
- "The White Virgin of the Nile" - sung by Marilyn Maxwell
Songs and music notes:
- Another song by Warren and Cahn, "Me and My Baby", was written for the film but not used.[4]
- The musical numbers in the film were staged by Nick Castle.[9]
- Because of a musician's strike, Walter Scharf's score had to be recorded in Mexico City in March 1958, and causing union musicians to picket a preview of the film in Los Angeles on 3 June 1958. Some reports maintain that Lewis himself conducted the 100-piece orchestra.[4]
Production
Rock-A-Bye Baby was loosely based on Preston Sturges' 1944 film The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, which starred Eddie Bracken and Betty Hutton, and because of this Sturges received a writer's credit on the film, although he did not actually work on the project.
Rock-a-Bye Baby was filmed from 18 November 1957 through 8 January 1958,[10] and opened in Los Angeles on 16 July 1958, followed by a premiere in New York City on 23 July. It went in general release shortly afterwords.[11] The film was re-released in 1962 on a double bill with another Jerry Lewis film, Don't Give Up The Ship.[4]
Notes
External links
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Preston Sturges |
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Broadway
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| 1930s |
The Big Pond (dialogue,1930) · La grande mare (dialogue,1930) · Fast and Loose (add'l dialogue,1930) · Strictly Dishonorable (prev. play,1931) · They Just Had to Get Married (uncredited,1932) · Child of Manhattan (prev. play,1933) · The Power and the Glory (writer & dialogue dir,1933) · The Invisible Man (unc contract writer,1933) · Twentieth Century (uncredited,1934) · Thirty-Day Princess (writer,1934) · We Live Again (adapter,1934) · Imitation of Life (unc. contract writer,1934) · The Good Fairy (writer,1935) · Diamond Jim (writer,1935) · Next Time We Love (uncredited,1936) · Love Before Breakfast (uncredited,1936) · One Rainy Afternoon (lyrics,1936) · Hotel Haywire (writer,1937) · Easy Living (writer,1937) · College Swing (unc. contract writer,1938) · Port of Seven Seas (writer,1938) · If I Were King (writer,1938) · Never Say Die (writer,1939)
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| 1940s |
Remember the Night (writer,1940) · Broadway Melody of 1940 (uncredited,1940) · The Great McGinty (writer & dir,1940) · Christmas in July (writer & dir,1940) · The Lady Eve (writer & dir,1941) · New York Town (uncredited,1941) · Sullivan's Travels (writer, dir & prod,1941) · Safeguarding Military Information (writer,1942) · I Married a Witch (unc. prod,1942) · The Palm Beach Story (writer & dir,1942) · Star Spangled Rhythm (actor,1942) · The Miracle of Morgan's Creek (writer, dir, prod, lyrics,1944) · Hail the Conquering Hero (writer, dir, prod, music, lyrics,1944) · The Great Moment (writer, dir & unc. prod,1944) · I'll Be Yours (writer,1947) · The Sin of Harold Diddlebock (writer, dir & unc. prod,1947) · Unfaithfully Yours (writer, dir & prod,1948) · The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Bend (writer, dir & prod,1949)
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| 1950s |
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Broadway
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