HAPPY GO LOVELY
UK, 1950, 97 minutes, Colour.
David Niven, Vera- Ellen, Cesar Romero, Gordon Jackson, Gladys Henson, Joyce Carey.
Directed by Bruce Humberstone.
Happy Go Lovely is a pleasantly innocuous little musical comedy. Directed by H. Bruce Humberstone, a director of many musicals at 20th. Century Fox in the '40s and '50s, it was an attempt at a British musical and the film was a semi-official entry to the 1951 Festival of Britain. At this level of expectation, it is quite a disappointment. David Niven is as always a pleasantly suave hero and excels with one- liners and his smooth presence. Vera- Ellen is an attractive heroine with a talent for dancing and Cesar Romero does an enjoyable job as the would-be producer. There are some attractive songs and dances and an interesting British supporting cast including Gordon Jackson as a newspaper reporter. However, it did not establish a pattern for British musical comedies of the Hollywood kind.
1. A pleasant musical comedy, the Hollywood tradition, a British attempt at the genre?
2. The conventions of the American musical comedy? Putting on the show, difficulties, need of money, the devious producer, the attractive heroine who, through misunderstanding, becomes the star? The millionaire in the background? Love and romance? The roommate? The mistaken identities, farcical situations? Songs, dances? How well were these adapted to Scotland, the British setting? The American stars?
3. Colour photography, the Scottish setting, Edinburgh and the festival? The score. choreography?
4. The romantic conventions of the plot - the heroine and her Cinderella experience with a touch of humour? The stuffy millionaire and his being charmed and made romantic lead? The devious producer? Credible for this kind of comedy?
5. David Niven and his style as suave hero - as millionaire, his starchy approach in his firm, his staff? The question of bills? The heroine and her claiming acquaintance with him? His going along with the mistaken identity? His being charmed? The length that he went to date the heroine - the mistaken identities in the restaurant? The farcical aspects of the show and his being chased? The happy ending? The dream hero?
6. Vera-Ellen? as American heroine? Charm, honest, exasperation with the producer, the mistaken identity,, her stories, her trying to cover up for Bruno? The farcical aspects of the romance, the happy ending? Her being the star of the show?
7. Cesar Romero as producer - his wiles, imagination, deals, the mistaken sacking of the heroine, his re-employing her, Bruno and his identity, the bouncing cheque etc?
8. The supporting cast - the dancing troupe, the heroine's roommate and her not believing the story? Bruno and his staff. his chauffeur?
9. The comedy sequences - the meals, the car, the court case? The finale in the theatre?
10. The accepted values of success, the fulfilment of wishes in musical comedies like this?
