Did Ginger Do A Lot Of Improvising?

Possible Spoilers...

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I noticed in some of the scenes where Ginger is having to act with the baby, Ginger starts to say her lines, but the baby then cries or something, and Ginger has to stop, and a few moments later, Ginger starts to say the same line again and then finishes it, and continues on with the script...

One scene in particular, Ginger notes that she won't put oatmeal in the baby's navel, and starts to say the name of this so called Baby Expert... But, She gets interrupted by the baby crying about having oatmeal in his navel, Ginger quickly agrees with the baby, and then when she continues, it seems as if she really forgot the name ...or at least, her character did... and then after saying the wrong name a couple of times, she says something like: "Whatever his name is"...

I know there is an unwritten "rule" in hollywood, that actors should not act with Children & Animals, because they are unpredictable... And even if they are highly "trained", they can suddenly do something that is not scripted. And since babies are very unpredictable... You either have to shoot take after take to get everything right, or everyone has to understand that you just have to act around them.

I know Ginger did some stage and theater work, before she made "Bachelor Mother", and would have been familiar with the old concept, of getting a play "back on track" by just dealing with accidents and flubs, and then working the scene back to the script...

But there were some moments, like when the Baby just happens to cry, when the idea of oatmeal being placed in his navel, is mentioned, that it makes me wonder, if that was just a lucky moment that the cameras caught, or if it was scripted.

My favorite scene, is when Ginger comes home from New Years Party, and has a sweet conversation with her "Fella" and then he grabs a hold of Ginger's finger and starts to suck on it, and Ginger then says "Oh, you can't eat my hand... You can't eat my hand..." Again, this seems like Ginger is improvising to what the baby was doing. The scene ends with Ginger whispering "Happy New Year" to the baby.

I really did feel most of what was in the film was happening was as a result of the camera just rolling, and not some planned out scene, and I would like to think that what we saw was genuine, since it added some life to the scene and makes the movie more realistic, but... I know Ginger was an extremely talented actress who could make us believe anything, and that she could be pretending to "Improvise"...

It's just something that I keep wondering about, and would like to know...

While Ginger noted in Autobiography that the baby was "precious" (as I recall), Ginger didn't say anything about the process. Also there is no Documentary on the DVD to provide any insight either.

Bachelor Mother is one of my favorite Ginger films, because Ginger and the baby were SO wonderful together...

I really think that if Ginger had children, she would have been a wonderful mother.