Rock A Bye Baby (film)

Plot

Clayton Poole (Jerry Lewis) is a small-town TV repairman whose former sweetheart, Carla Naples (Marilyn Maxwell), is now a famous movie star. Carla marries a Mexican bullfighter and becomes pregnant; her husband dies the day after the wedding. Her agent, Harold Herman (Reginald Gardiner) tries to avoid a scandal by sending Carla back to the town where she grew up. The cover story is that she is going into seclusion to prepare for her next role, the lead in the religious epic The White Virgin of the Nile. Carla turns to Clayton for help, and he agrees to care for the child once it is born.

Carla gives birth to triplets, and Clayton discovers that he has to be married before he can adopt them. He marries Carla's younger sister, Sandy (Connie Stevens), who is in love with him. The press learns that the triplets are Carla's, and Carla tells reporters that she and Clayton are secretly married. Now suspected of bigamy, Clayton goes into hiding with the triplets.

Nine months later, Sandy gives birth to quintuplets. A statue of Clayton and his five babies is erected in front of the town courthouse.

Cast

Cast notes:

Songs and music

The songs in Rock-A-Bye Baby were written by Harry Warren (music) and Sammy Cahn (lyrics):

Songs and music notes:

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 November 18, 1957 through January 8, 1958, and opened in Los Angeles on July 16, 1958, followed by a premiere in New York City on July 23. It went in general release shortly afterwords. The film was re-released in 1962 on a double bill with another Jerry Lewis film, Don't Give Up The Ship.

Home media

The film was released on DVD and Blu-ray on February 14, 2012 through the Olive Films company.