George Brent was certainly putting it about in the late thirties/early forties; In The Old Maid he knocked up Bette Davis and in The Great Lie he knocked up Mary Astor and in each case it led to deception. In this case concert pianist Astor is not too bothered about motherhood and is happy to more or less 'sell' the baby to Davis, who genuinely loved George Brent, missing presumed dead. Of course when he turns up considerably later Astor has second thoughts and makes a bid for both Brent AND the baby. As you and I know however you don't mess with Davis but along the way you do get both a great lie and a great movie because, as someone has said elsewhere, Davis thrived playing opposite strong actresses such as Crawford and Astor - who deservedly won an a major Award for this role.
Review of The Great Lie
