A different way of telling a story

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

There are going to be a lot of modern audiences who find Jimmy Stewart's pilot character to be the epitome of a male chauvinist. He balks at the thought of working for a woman, let alone being married to his boss. That's the story here of when he encounters the wealthiest orphan in the world (Joan Fontaine, whose character claims to be 26, is actually 28, as played by an actress who was really 31), having just married the most boring man in the world. She's changed her mind, the groom slugs Stewart, and after the briefest of all attempts at a honeymoon, Fontaine runs into Stewart's hotel room and refuses to leave. Of course, after taking three sleeping pills, it is going to take more than dynamite to get her out of bed, but if Stewart and his co-pilot pal Eddie Albert have their way about it, they will.Joan Fontaine, in one of her few comic roles, is extremely funny as she slips and slides out of a chair and Stewart's arms while under the influence of these pills. Stewart and Albert agree to take her as far as Chicago, but along the way, they pick up a newlywed couple as well as a clerk who is wanted for embezzlement. It's "It Happened One Night" in the sky where a corpse, a chimpanzee and a bunch of fish ready for filleting are accompanying this mixed group of passengers. Then, when the plane hits bad weather, it's down it goes, right into the front yard of hick Percy Kilbride, his non-Marjorie Main wife (Edith Evanson), and their brood of 10 kids (and they've just started!). You know the minute a record player in the bridal suite begins to play "Hold That Tiger!" (which Kilbride always seemed to discover playing on his radio whenever he turned it on in the "Ma and Pat Kettle" series), you're in Universal territory, especially when Pa Kettle's Indian friends are the ones who show up to pull the plane out of the mud. The fact that this came out as the same year of "The Egg and I" proves this point, an ironic fact of free publicity in movie history.There's lots of funny moments here, especially the shot of the cigar- smoking chimp, embezzler Porter Hall getting all misty-eyed at the presence of a baby in his arms, and the battle of the sexes between Stewart and Fontaine. Marcy McGuire, the pop-eyed ingénue of a series of RKO musicals of the war years (and got the first screen kiss from Frank Sinatra), plays the new bride who sneaks a ride aboard the plane, while Vera Marshe is Hall's floozy secretary who runs off with him and the stolen money. This is a late screwball entry in the Post World War II era where comedies were more topical yet not always entertaining. You will be consistently entertained here.

By the time "You Gotta Stay Happy" rolled around, the motion picture career of James Stewart (my personal favorite actor) was in a slump, and this picture did nothing to alter that. Adding to the difficulty was the fact that screwball comedy had been a trend a decade earlier in the late 1930s. What's more, Joan Fontaine, who admittedly did not want to do the picture at all, was ill throughout the filming and discovered she was pregnant. She fondly remembered how Stewart was the only one who visited her at the hospital.Be that as it may, "You Gotta Stay Happy" is nevertheless an entertaining film, and here are the highlights (watch the film first before you read on). Twice in this picture, pilot Marvin Payne (Stewart) has a run-in with attorney Henry Benson (Willard Parker); the camera does not focus on Henry, but a punch is heard, and the camera shifts to Marvin lying flat on his back. The cigar-smoking chimpanzee named Joe (quite a bizarre spectacle on film) puts on a show while Marvin and his happy-go-lucky copilot Bullets Baker (a perfect role for Eddie Albert) make preparations to get their freight plane out of the mud. The night of the wedding, Henry and Diana "Dee Dee" Dilwood (Fontaine) come into conflict in their hotel room, and their loud bickering and clumsy chasing disturb Marvin, who is trying to sleep next door; Dee Dee escapes and flees into Marvin's room, where she develops amorous feelings for him, but the next morning things get complicated for Marvin when both Bullets and hotel manager Dick Hebert (William Bakewell) enter the room to find Dee Dee doped up by a strong sleeping pill. There is perhaps a slight touch of suspense as Marvin and Bullets make their emergency landing on the farm belonging to Mr. Racknell (Percy Kilbride); he is kind enough to let the stranded crew of six spend the night at his farmhouse with his expansive family. While they do, Bullets joins in a lively dance with a few others and Dee Dee is especially thrilled at the sight of the eight or ten little children lining up to kiss their mother (Edith Evanson) good night."You Gotta Stay Happy" failed to turn in a profit for the box office and did not give James Stewart the career boost he needed. But it is still a pleasant little comedy, and Stewart need not have worried much longer, for his next picture, "The Stratton Story" (1949), became a big hit and a precursor for the most successful decade of Stewart's career: the 1950s.

Though screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby and It Happened One Night had run their cycle by World Way II, Universal was persuaded to try it again with this frothy story about runaway heiress Fontaine escaping her stuffy groom for the charms of pilot Jimmy Stewart who is running a shoestring flying service. Stewart's finesse with this genre shows as does Eddie Albert's as yet another snappy best friend. Fontaine is more sweet than brittle with a comedic line, but thanks to a great supporting cast like Porter Hall, Roland Young, Percy Kilbride, and a cigar-smoking chimp,You Gotta works pretty well. The frantic pace relaxes more than it should when the cast gets airborne, but this is a very entertaining film of its kind with more than a few laughs.

Well, this wasn't "It Happened One Night" but, the plot line was similar. Rich girl (Joan Fontaine) secretly hops aboard a transport plane to escape a loveless marriage. Jimmy Stewart, the pilot, finds her and is annoyed to have a pretty girl hiding on board. In Hollywood guys always get mad finding a pretty stowaway, yeah, right. Anyhow, after a plane crash and lots of hanging around, nature takes over ... and you know... Actually, I enjoyed it. A little escapist comedy, that managed to entertain. Eddie Albert is good too, as Stewart's side-kick. I'd rank it a respectable 6 1/2. Also, Fontaine is as always, very feminine.