The 1950 film "Father Is a Bachelor" is a comedy which stars William Holden as Johnny Rutledge, a confidence man who is stranded in a small town and "adopts" five orphan children. Johnny tries to get by with doing as little work as possible. He carries a two-headed silver dollar sized "good luck" coin which he sometimes uses to mildly cheat people. The setting is in the 1870's or 1880's in a southern town along the Mississippi River, but William Holden almost always wears a 1940's fedora hat, his partner the professor wears a "Vote Bull Moose" political button which dates from 1912, and a coin is shown with the date 1881. The coin fully appears at the end of the film, it has the obverse of a real old French five franc coin and the French coin reverse is altered to imitate a US dollar coin.

Sometime after the Civil War, Johnny Rutledge is working with medicine show promoter and confidence man Professor Mordecai Ford in a small Southern town. Ford is spotted by one of his earlier victims and is arrested and sentenced to jail for 30 days. Johnny isn't arrested but has to remain in the town until his partner gets out of jail. Johnny goes fishing and meets the Chalottes, five children who are orphans living in a old house. They invite him (and his fish) to dinner.

The childrens' parents were killed in a steamboat explosion and they have kept the deaths a secret as they do not want to be split up or sent to an orphanage. Johnny poses as their uncle and moves in with them. The children are named after months, Jan, Feb, March, April, and May, the only girl. Johnny accompanies the oldest boy Jan to town where Jan sells some cut wood to a storekeeper for a dollar.

Johnny tells the storekeeper that the boy should have received two dollars and suggests flipping the coin. The coin comes up heads and Johnny wins, giving the second dollar to Jan. Outside the store Jan examines Johnny's coin.

Jan sees that the coin is a trick coin which has two heads and is upset with Johnny's dishonesty. Prudence Millett, the wealthy daughter of the local judge, appears at the house.

She asks Johnny why the children are not going to school and he takes her to meet them.

Johnny starts taking jobs in the town and spending the money on the children. He also sends the four oldest to school; the little girl May being too young for school. A local bigshot, Mr. Gilland, calls the children "river trash" and Johnny beats him up. Gilland files an assault complaint, Johnny is arrested and then bailed out by Prudence. Johnny is conned by a lawyer into becoming engaged to an elderly woman. Mordecai Ford serves his sentence, is released from jail, and asks Johnny to go with him on the road. Gilland's son runs away from home, Johnny convinces him to go home, and Gilland drops the charges. Ford suggests that Prudence and the elderly woman flip a coin for Johnny. Johnny supplies the coin and May does the flipping.

The coin shows "heads" and Prudence wins him. Johnny then examines the coin.

The coin is not his two-headed coin but a regular one. Johnny flips it over allowing for views of the coin.

The obverse is of a French five franc coin of Louis Philippe I who was king of France from 1830 to 1848.

A French five franc coin with Louis Philippe:

Silver, 38 mm, 24.17 gm, Lyon Mint (mint mark 'D')
Obverse: Louis Philippe I facing right, LOUIS PHILIPPE I ROI DES FRANCAIS
Reverse: Wreath, 5 FRANCS D 1831.
The coin reverse in the film is that of the French coin but with some alterations.

The reverse is rather crude with the French wreath, a large number '1', and the date 1881. Also there is some dark writing which reads "ONE" possibly followed by "DOLLAR." Johnny pulls out his other dollar and examines them.

Johnny realises that he really took the chance of his life on a normal coin.

Johnny now has one more thing to do.

Johnny tells Prudence he doesn't need a "good luck" coin any more.

William Holden as Johnny Rutledge
Coleen Gray as Prudence Millett
Mary Jane Saunders as May Chalotte
Charles Winninger as Professor Mordecai Ford
Directors: Abby Berlin and Norman Foster
Writers: Aleen Leslie, James Edward Grant