Bobbikins (1959) User Reviews

Outlandish fantasy hindered by the usual tiresome morals...

[moonspinner55 · 4/10 · 25 July 2006]

What begins as an interesting idea for farce quickly falls apart under stalwart morality, with the notion that poor, hard-working folks are always happier and better off than the wealthy, miserable rich. Young man returns home to his wife and baby son after 18 months in the Navy, only to find that his toddler can talk like a grown-up (who only speaks to Pop) and gives spot-on stock market tips to boot! Of course, money rolling in means a loss of romance between the husband and wife, and only infant Bobbikins can save the day. Rather pointless, despite a cheery facade, intermittent songs, and a modest but amiable production. As the Mrs., Shirley Jones has to be tense, worried and motherly to everyone--appropriate for Jones' persona, but not an acting stretch; in the lead, Max Bygraves overworks his immature enthusiasm and maniacal laugh (very annoying), however the baby is adorable. Why can't these characters have wealth and happiness...or is there a movie rule which makes this unseemly? ** from ****

Look Who's Talking...25 years early!

[JohnSeal · 4/10 · 15 December 2000]

Bobbikins is the chatty offspring of a befuddled Max Bygraves, who was probably the big attraction for cinemagoers in early 60s Britain. He sings, he dances, he cracks limp jokes, and you have to be grateful that the Beatles forever changed the face of British pop music (Matt Monro notwithstanding). This film is eminently missable but it does feature a very early appearance of the enchanting Barbara Shelley and the supporting cast is excellent: a 34 year old Lionel Jeffries (already thoroughly bald!), Billie Whitelaw, and Michael Ripper all are on hand for trainspotters.

Shirley, you jest

[marcslope · 25 March 2003]

Times and tastes change, but Shirley Jones' warmth and professionalism hold up in this otherwise undistinguished baby-talk comedy. Here she's an American miss in London married to Max Bygraves, a popular mid-century British music hall entertainer whose style dates badly: Pudgy and charmless and with an irritating laugh, he's supposed to be an everyman but comes off like Garry Shandling without the edge. The talking-baby sequences aren't even faked well, the songs are execrable, and even at a trim 90 minutes you keep waiting for the plot to go through its predictable paces and just end. There are satirical targets -- the stock market, psychiatry, the Cold War -- but they're crudely, tritely mocked; and even the supposedly adorable title character is just another tot. Thank goodness for the delectable Barbara Shelley as a femme fatale, and for Shirley -- who, as evidenced by her recent appearance at the Oscars, just gets lovelier.

Simply awful!

[JohnHowardReid · 1/10 · 13 June 2017]

Copyright 1959 by 20th Century-Fox Film Corp. No New York opening. U.S. release: June 1960. U.K. release: 16 August 1959. Australian release: 4 February 1960. 8,070 feet. 89½ minutes. (Cut to 75 minutes in Australia).

SYNOPSIS: A talking baby gives his dad tips on the stock exchange.

COMMENT: Written and produced by Oscar Brodney, who gave you "When Hell Broke Loose", a film as uninspired and amateurishly written as this one. Admittedly, here the cast struggle valiantly against fearful odds, but, alas, they have absolutely no chance with the repeated onslaughts of Mr. Brodney's terrifyingly inept dialogue. Even the direction is far below Robert Day's usual standard. In fact, he doesn't even try. Presumably Day just directed the movie for the money - and who would blame him? And the photographer didn't try hard either: The film is very flatly photographed.

Bad title, worse movie

[fredcdobbs5 · 3/10 · 2 September 2014]

British comic Max Bygraves plays a song-and-dance man who comes home from an 18-month stint in the navy to his American wife (Shirley Jones) and his toddler son and tries to get back into show business. When he does a good deed for a fellow entertainer, his son reveals to him that he can actually talk like an adult, but that he'll only talk to him and not his mother ("you know how women talk, it won't be long before everybody knows I can talk") and his dad uses his son's ability to play the stock market and get rich.

Bygraves' brash, loud, over-the-top character wears thin quickly, and his sudden bursting into a squealing, high-pitched, almost mad- scientist laugh makes his character even more annoying. Jones and Bygraves don't connect at all--you wonder what a sweet, gentle, girl like Jones' character could possibly see in a loud-mouthed, braying, not particularly bright idiot like Bygraves--and the scenes where Bobbikins talks aren't done very well at all. Jones warbles a few songs but they're syrupy, juvenile and forgettable.

The young boy who plays Bobbkins is adorable, but other than he and Shirley Jones--and a small but funny bit by Lionel Jeffries as a greedy stockbroker--there's really no reason to watch this picture.

Bobbikins is a baby who can talk and think like an adult when he chooses.

[weezeralfalfa · 7/10 · 8 July 2018]

A 1959 B&W Cinemascope British film. I would describe it as a musical comedy fantasy. There are 4 decent songs sung in 5 musical numbers, sung by either or both of the stars: Shirley Jones and Max Bygraves, who are cast as Betty and Ben Barnaby, respectively. Comedy is provided primarily in the novelty of the Barnaby's 14 month old baby being able to think and talk as an adult, but only in the exclusive presence of Ben. This follows the format of the Frances the Talking Mule film series, and the Mr. Ed, the talking horse, TV series. The screenplay provides a coherent, if unbelievable, story, with a period of extreme elation followed by depression...... In the beginning, Ben has returned from an 18 month stint in the Royal Navy, while Betty has been a model. Ben hopes to get a job as an entertainer, and gives a sample in his "Funny Little Clown" performance. Betty, too, returns to being an entertainer. Meanwhile, Bobbikins happens to overhear a conversation by Sir Jason Crandal: Chancellor of the Exchequer in which he says that a very small company has gotten a major government contract. Bobbikins communicates this fact to Ben, who immediately gathers his liquid assets, goes to the stockbroker Gregory Mason, and asks to buy shares in this company. Mr. Mason is amazed when the price of this stock suddenly jumps upward. Bobbikins then hears Crandal talking about a major oil strike by a small company, and again communicates this fact to Ben. Ben immediately dumps his inflated stock and buys shares in this company, which then soon begins a spectacular price increase. Mr. Mason offers Ben to become his partner. When people ask where he gets his tips from, he tells them Bobbikins. But the tyke won't talk to anyone else, hence they assume he is hallucinating. Betty arranges for him to see a psychiatrist, who pronounces him paranoid and schizophrenic. When Ben asks Bobbikins for another hot tip, he hasn't any. But, he makes up one, fingering another obscure company. Ben buys into it bigtime, Mason takes notice and does likewise, as do some of his clients he tells about it. Well, the company soon goes bankrupt, and everyone loses their shirt. Ben is accepted back in the Navy, but soon a rereading of his civilian record reveals his diagnosis by the psychiatrist. So, it's decided to give him a medical discharge, on the condition that he participate in the entertainment for the Christmas party. Somehow, he gets Betty to also participate. They sing and dance to "Last Night I Dreamed". The implication is that both will return to the world of showbiz, which is their true calling.....Some are irritated by Bygraves occasional high pitched cackle, although I am not.....Sexy Barbara Shelley plays Valerie: a vamp who hangs around stockbroker Mason, and makes a play for Ben during his heydays as a perceptive stock buyer. Barbara was best known for roles in horror movies, either as the victim or perpetrator.

An over-the-top, if slight, hoot

[rsteiner969 · 7/10 · 5 May 2006]

I thought the movie, starring Shirley Jones as the American mother in London of a toddler who talks like an adult to be harmlessly charming. Having a brother named Bobby, and another brother, reminded me of how grown adults still need to be coddled like Shirley Jones, conversely, coddled this toddler who talked like an adult! When I think of my middle brother, I can't help think of him at Joeykins (since his name is Joe), or my brother as, naturally, Bobbykins.

Just a laugh I get. You also have to check out Gregory Peck's over-the-top performance in The Boys From Brazil, with his turn chasing after 12 year olds (I won't give out the over-the-top plot) crying out, "Bobbbbby!" ...Reminds me of Shirley constantly referring to her precocious toddler as Bobbykins! Bobbykins is just a trifle, but in my opinion, a hoot.

Classic!

[goteverlastinglife · 9/10 · 2 December 2018]

I love this cute little movie! It surprisingly to me, is actually a British product. Somehow, it seems to have a spirit of some of the great Christmas classics, such as "It's A Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Carol", though it really has nothing to do with Christmas at all. Far from a perfect movie, it definitely has it's flaws. The worst to me is the Father's crazy high pitched laugh. But, the movie as a whole kind of neutralizes this irritant. The toddler is adorable, as is Shirley Jones. Beautiful and young, and her voice is lovely in the songs she sings. One last note, this is a musical, but, it really doesn't seem like it, until someone starts singing. The musical numbers are placed well, and are few, and far between. Never heard of this movie before, but in my first viewing, it strikes me as one of those " special" classics, that they just don't make any more. Recommend to those who feel as I.

Francis the Talking Baby

[vandino1 · 14 May 2007]

The title alone is enough to repel, but this is an amiable, cutesy comedy that aims to please. The dubbing of Baby Steven Stocker is remarkably good, and the supporting cast is familiar and helpful. The two leads aren't very interesting, sadly. Jones is saddled with the concerned wife part and plays it so tightly that it removes the breeziness when she is on screen. It's all very predictable, with the usual Francis the Talking Mule routine of only one person hearing the title character speak and the resultant think-he's-nuts stuff that bedeviled Donald O'Connor and his mule. Then again, it's never made truly clear whether the infant is able to talk like an adult or that the whole thing is a delusion on the part of Bygraves' character. It's certainly contrived as to why the child refuses to speak to anyone else. It's almost like the ventriloquist who thinks his dummy is real. And somehow, in the midst of all this silliness, the film tries to sell the idea that making money is a bad thing and that it's better for Bygraves & Jones to continue to struggle as stage performers. Weird movie, even though it appears to be mild fluff.