Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher formed one of the all-time most famous Hollywood couples. Surprisingly, though, they only starred together on-screen once via 1956’s musical romantic comedy Bundle of Joy.

After Polly Parish (Reynolds) gets fired from her job at a department store, she finds an abandoned baby on the steps of an orphanage. Despite her denials, everyone believes her to be the mother.

Because store owner’s son Dan Merlin (Fisher) thinks this as well, he restores her employment. This leaves Polly stuck in a charade, one that leads to an improbable romance with Dan.

Spoiler? Not if you understand rom-coms, as there needs to be some “rom” along with the “com”, and obviously the two attractive leads would occupy that part of the tale.

Given their off-screen relationship, Reynolds and Fisher show surprisingly feeble chemistry together. That said, I think this falls mainly on Fisher’s head.

While a handsome man and a good singer, Fisher shows little real personality as an actor. Given that he made his bones in music and Joy represented his big-screen debut, I guess that shouldn’t come as much of a surprise.

Indeed, Fisher barely pursued a career in films. He appeared in 1960’s BUterrfield 8 and that’s it.

Actually, given Fisher’s lack of experience, he holds up better than one might expect in Joy, so he doesn’t embarrass himself. However, he seems badly outclassed by the rest of the cast and especially his wife.

A veteran performer with real cinematic charisma, Reynolds lights up the screen. Unfortunately, she can’t carry the whole movie on her own, though a skilled supporting group helps.

Even with a better leading man, Joy would sputter because it simply never offers anything especially interesting. Basically a rom-com with some “mistaken identity” comedy thrown in as well, the tale never gets into a groove.

We get a romance that seems less than sizzling and comedy that seems less than funny. While never genuinely bad, Bundle of Joy fails to connect in a meaningful manner.

Bundle of Joy appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Joy boasted a strong presentation.

Joy offered positive sharpness. Some process shots brought unavoidable softness, but those remained infrequent and minor, so this usually turned into a tight image.

Neither jagged edges nor moiré effects appeared, and grain felt appropriate. No edge haloes occurred, and print flaws remained absent.

Joy boasted a largely natural palette, albeit with a bit of a brownish vibe not atypical for Technicolor. The disc reproduced the hues with good dimensionality and fidelity.

Blacks felt dark and deep, while low-light shots demonstrated nice clarity and density. I felt pleased with this disc’s visuals.

Unfortunately, the movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack fared less well, primarily due to the reproduction of music. The flick’s songs tended to seem rough around the edges, and given that Joy exists as a musical, that became a problem.

Other aspects of the mix worked better, as speech seemed fairly concise and effects – a minor aspect – appeared reasonably accurate. Though not a bad track for 1956, the distortion during tunes turned into a drawback.

Along with the movie’s trailer, we find two vintage cartoons. This disc includes The Fright Before Christmas (7:03) and Gift Wrapped (7:27).

With Fright, the Tasmanian Devil ends up in Santa’s place and encounters Bugs. Why does this 1979 short appear attached to a movie from 1956? Beyond the Christmas theme, I have no idea, but Fright comes with reasonable amusement.

Though 1952’s Wrapped predates Joy, at least it seems more era-appropriate. Granny gets Tweety for a Christmas gift and Sylvester wants to eat the bird. Despite the Yuletide setting, this become a typical Tweety/Sylvester outing.

As the sole movie outing from famed Hollywood couple Debbie Reynolds and Eddie Fisher, Bundle of Joy seems more interesting as the answer to a trivia question than as a film. Though it remains watchable enough, the flick becomes somewhat tedious and without much zing. The Blu-ray offers very good picture and minor supplements along with surprisingly rough audio. This turns into a mediocre rom-com.