Following the death of his wife Helen, Tom Corbett needs to adjust to a new bachelor life with his young son Eddie. Although they both dearly miss Helen, Tom and Eddie would like another woman to enter their lives as wife and mother. One woman already in their lives is Elizabeth Martin, a volunteer nurse, divorc￿and Helen's best friend who lives next door. Tom and Elizabeth like each other as friends, as do Eddie and Elizabeth, but Tom and Elizabeth are constantly bickering and place walls up between each other in developing anything more serious. The first new woman to enter their lives does so for more pragmatic reasons - Tom hires a housekeeper, Mrs. Livingston, to tend to the domestic duties in the household. The second woman to enter their lives is Dolly Daily, a naive but attractive young woman from small town America who is in the big city solely to build up her self-confidence. Tom feels more protective toward Dolly than anything, and a business meeting Tom sets up between Dolly and Tom's womanizing colleague, Norman Jones, leads to a romance and ultimate marriage between the two. And the third woman to enter their lives is Rita Behrens, a chic fashion consultant. Tom and Rita immediately hit it off, but Eddie shows open disdain for Rita, solely because she has squinty eyes like all the "bad" girls in the comic books. Tom and Eddie have a falling out because of what Tom sees as Eddie's irrational dislike for Rita. After a courtship, Tom asks Rita to marry him, an act that sparks two responses. Rita, noticing Eddie's disdain for her, wants to send him away during the beginning of the marriage just to give it a chance of success without the added pressure of Eddie's judgment. And Eddie runs away from Tom into the safe and caring arms of Elizabeth, who he would really like to see as his new mother. Both responses show Tom that marriage to Rita would not work, and that perhaps the walls he and Elizabeth have placed between themselves really are what need to come down for both the Corbett household and Elizabeth to be truly happy.

In Norman Jones's (Jerry Van Dyke's) radio studio, there are black-and-white publicity photos of various celebrities on the wall. One of the pictures is of Jerry Van Dyke's real-life brother, Dick Van Dyke, who was starring in "The Dick Van Dyke Show" (1961) at the time the film was made.

[first lines]


Norman Jones:
Wake up Manhattan. Come out of that warm, rosy dream, open those big, luscious eyes and meet a new, exciting day. I'm talking to you ravishing, delicious, madcap girls still in that warm, cozy bed. Now what you need is a nice, hot cup of coffee, Bentley Coffee of course. That rich, intoxicating aroma, that tantalizing blend that makes the senses reel and the pulses tingle.

[shouts]


Norman Jones:
Look out! Don't burn those delicate, sensuous fingers. Why if anything should happen to those wild, impetuous hands, Jones would be heartbroken, Aw, did she hurt herself? Don't cry. Old Norm here will fix it.

[sounds of kisses]


Norman Jones:
There now, doesn't that feel better?


Tom Corbett:
[turns off radio]

[writes himself a note]


Tom Corbett:
STOP NORM

Written by Victor Young and Stella Unger