Bachelor Mother is a 1939 American romantic comedy film directed by Garson Kanin and starring Ginger Rogers, David Niven, and Charles Coburn. The screenplay was written by Norman Krasna from an Academy Award-nominated story by Felix Jackson ( Felix Joachimson) written for the 1935 Austrian-Hungarian film Little Mother. With a plot full of mistaken identities, Bachelor Mother is a light-hearted treatment of the otherwise serious issues of child abandonment.

Plot

Polly Parrish, a saleswoman at Merlin's, a New York City department store, receives notice that her seasonal position will be terminated after the Christmas season. Walking to lunch, she sees a woman leaving a baby on the steps of an orphanage. Afraid the baby may roll off the steps, Polly picks it up. Seeing Polly holding the baby, content in her arms, the orphanage staff assumes she is the mother. Despite Polly's disclaiming motherhood, they offer her aid so she can keep the baby. Polly leaves the baby in their care, but not before giving them her name and informing them that she works at Merlin's.