Don't Give It Back

The idea that it's the bad girl who claims to be "daddy's girl" has never been more celebrated than in Cole Porter's "My Heart Belongs to Daddy," which he wrote for Mary Martin to sing in the 1938 musical "Leave It to Me." Since, the song has had a pantheon of memorable female singers wrap themselves around it (e.g., Ella Fitzgerald, Anita O'Day, Marilyn Monroe, Eartha Kitt ...).

By 1942, the irony of the bad chick as the dad chick was dudded down to the movie MHBtD that in DVD form is this week's objet d'eBay. The film places Richard Carlson as the so-far unfathering, widowed, besieged by mother- and sisters-in-law, scientist and Martha O'Driscoll as a widowed, pregnant exotic dancer who shows up at his doorstep. Hijinks (and love) ensue ... not the usual path for those who claim to be DGs.