OVP: Tammy and the Bachelor (1957)

Film: Tammy and the Bachelor (1957)

Stars: Debbie Reynolds, Leslie Nielsen, Walter Brennan, Mildred Natwick, Fay Wray

Director: Joseph Pevney

Oscar History: 1 nomination (Best Original Song-"Tammy")

Snap Judgment Ranking: 2/5 stars

Each month, as part of our 2024 Saturdays with the Stars series, we are looking at the women who were once crowned as "America's Sweethearts" and the careers that inspired that title (and what happened when they eventually lost it to a new generation).  This month, our focus is on Debbie Reynolds: click here to learn more about Ms. Reynolds (and why I picked her), and click here for other Saturdays with the Stars articles.

Debbie Reynolds was a household name for pretty much the entire run of the 1950's & 60's after her time in Singin in the Rain, but similar to last month's star Doris Day, she didn't get to that point solely through the movies.  Today's film is Tammy and the Bachelor, a film series that didn't actually feature Reynolds in the subsequent films (she would get replaced in the sequels by Sandra Dee), but did spawn a career as a recording star for Reynolds.  Anyone who watched Singin in the Rain knew that Reynolds could sing, but the title song from Tammy and the Bachelor, "Tammy," would become a massive hit song in 1957, getting her both a gold record and a Billboard #1.  While Reynolds had done live shows since the 1940's, "Tammy" opened the doors to what would end up being her longest show business legacy.  Similar to actresses as divergent as Mitzi Gaynor, Ann-Margret, Mamie van Doren, & Joey Heatherton, Reynolds would spend decades doing shows in Las Vegas & Los Angeles, frequently trotting out "Tammy" as the centerpiece of her act.

(Spoilers Ahead) The movie is about Tammy (Reynolds), a girl who lives in the delta of Mississippi with her grandfather (Brennan).  One day a handsome man named Peter (Nielsen) crashes his plane near their houseboat, and the two of them nurse him back to health.  Tammy quickly becomes smitten with Peter, but he dismisses her, and we soon learn why-he's the young heir to a proper family fortune, and his parents want him to marry a more suitable girl.  When Tammy is forced to live with this family after her grandfather is arrested for bootlegging, this comes into crystal clear view.  Tammy starts to show not only Peter, but his parents and his aunt (played by Mildred Natwick) that living a moral, but straight-forward life is the best, and in the process Peter falls in love back with her just in the same way she has with him.

The movie plays poorly today, and I suspect wasn't that good to begin with.  A pretty young white girl lecturing about Christian morality and how people around her aren't living up to the ideals in the Bible (the way she is) would 100% be the villain today (that isn't meant to be a political statement, but it definitely is real...conservatives have a point there).  She's kind of obnoxious throughout the movie, allowing for a lot of kindness but very little grace.  The film needs more humor, or it needs a bit more sex, to make it appealing (Leslie Nielsen is definitely trying in the latter part-if you're only used to him from the Naked Gun movies, you're going to be surprised he's a total snack).

But the song is wonderful, and totally earns its Oscar nomination.  The song is sung at the beginning of the opening credits, but it most takes off when Reynolds sings it about halfway through the film, with Natwick overhearing her.  It's romantic, and is honestly part of a better movie.  I get why, in a year of Elvis Presley and Buddy Knox getting kids to dance until they dropped, this was a song that literally knocked Elvis off of the #1 position on the Billboard charts.  Though Reynolds would continue singing for the remainder of her career, this was the only #1 she'd ever achieve.