Rock-a-Bye Baby
Rock-a-Bye Baby
NR | 23 July 1958 (USA)
Rock-a-Bye Baby Trailers

An average television repairman must care for the newborn triplets of his former hometown sweetheart—now a famous movie star—so her career will not suffer.

Reviews
Inclubabu Plot so thin, it passes unnoticed.
Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful
Ariella Broughton It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.
Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
Hitchcoc For the most part I find Jerry Lewis insufferable. Here the plot takes over and he manages quite well. Through a series of circumstances he ends up taking care of a set of triplet girls. Much of the comedy comes, of course, from Lewis's pratfalls and lack of understanding about raising children. It is a good vehicle for his brand of humor and he is charming and humbled by his circumstances. Of course, to the outside observers, he is incompetent and potentially dangerous. A woman decides to go to court to have the girls taken from him, and we get the classic treatment of a man who knows love in his heart. There always seems to be a villain out there ready to swoop in. Anyway, a lightweight, uneven presentation.
mark.waltz While there is plenty of comedy to keep your funny bone out of joint, the film overall depends on a bunch of idiots to create its plot. Surprisingly, Jerry Lewis's simpleton is not one of them; His character (if not himself) comes with a lot of heart, taking in three adorable babies which may or may not be his. The usually likable Connie Stevens is truly annoying as the impish girl who seems obsessed with getting his attention, which ultimately causes him to always be in trouble as the result of her obnoxious distractions. Then, there is her older sister (Marilyn Maxwell), a movie star who insinuates that Lewis is the father and leaves the babies with her so she can continue her career. Stevens and Maxwell's father misinterprets the situation and idiotically fluctuates between emotions that are extremely inconsistent from one moment until the next. This musical variation of 1944's "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek" keeps the viewer guessing as to who & why the identity of the kiddy's daddy is never revealed until the end.Comically, the film is extremely funny, especially the opening scene involving a fire hose that destroys an entire neighborhood. Isobel Elsom is the Billie Burke like society matron who goes after custody of the children for herself after Lewis (thanks to Steven's interference) accidentally fills her living room with chimney soot. The adorable Ida Moore is very funny as Lewis's commercial loving landlady who tries pretty much every product she sees on TV. Such vets as James Gleason, Hans Conried and Hope Emerson are wasted in minor roles, but Reginald Gardiner is given some good material as Maxwell's droll manager. The songs are actually above average, although an Egyptian themed production number is truly silly. Although Salvatore Baccaloni's papa is the real dumbbell of the story, he does get a nice duet with Lewis called "Dormi-Dormi-Dormi (Sleep-Sleep-Sleep)". Lewis's young son appears as his character in a flashback which is a nice touch, and the courtroom scene at the end has some clever dubbing utilized for comic effect.
bkoganbing It might be redundant to say that Jerry Lewis did his best work with Frank Tashlin as director, either by himself or with Dino. He was a comic genius, but it took another genius to bring out the best in him.Paramount dusted off the Preston Sturges classic The Miracle Of Morgan's Creek for Lewis in his early years as a solo entertainer. When he was with Dean Martin, Paramount was always remarking earlier hits for the team so this was in tradition. It took a lot of rewriting because Lewis's raucous type of comedy is far different than Eddie Bracken's more gentle schnook like character. Still Jerry does generate a lot of whimsy and pathos in his character of Clayton Poole.It seems years ago Lewis had a big old torch for Marilyn Maxwell who left town and became a Hollywood Star. Maxwell's younger sister Connie Stevens is also crushing out on Lewis, but he can't see for the glare in Maxwell's spotlight.Marilyn is now in a family way expecting triplets as a result of a marriage to a bullfighter who died in the arena after the honeymoon. It was all a blur and she can't remember where she got married, only that she did.Her agent Reginald Gardiner fixes up the answer, have her go away to quietly give birth, then send them to her old friend Lewis to take care of. Later she can adopt. Hey, it worked for Loretta Young back in the day. Of course Jerry gets fond of the three and goes to extraordinary lengths to tend to the kids. His scenes with the infants are both Tashlin and Lewis at their best. The only real criticism I have is Lewis's best comic moment is unfortunately right at the beginning where he gets involved with a some loose chimney bricks, a runaway firehose, and a great deal of chimney soot, wreaking havoc for the whole neighborhood. Something that good should have been saved for last.Rockabye Baby is not quite the classic of Miracle Of Morgan's Creek, but it's right up there with some of Jerry's best.
caspian1978 This is another typical Jerry Lewis comedy. Overall, it will make you laugh. But more, this is a musical that makes you laugh. Jerry Lewis hits a home run for his typical audience. No surprises here, if you are a fan of his work, this is a treat. Then again, the supporting cast including Marilyn Maxwell, Connie Stevens and Salvatore Baccaloni make it more than just a Jerry Lewis comedy. Baccaloni is perfect. At first you hate him and then love him. Connie Stevens is beyond beautiful. She is as sexy as she can be for the decade. She plays the perfect girl next door who is head over heels for Jerry. The trick is, it is Jerry who is playing hard to get. This adds to the wonderful genre that Lewis created in his comedies. This is a nice story that offends nobody. This is hard to do when making a successful comedy. Somewhere, usually someone is the butt of the joke. Here, Jerry is the butt as well as the rest of the cigarette (wink wink).