Happiness Ahead

In every episode of Three's Company, someone tells a fib, it snowballs into bigger problems, and it's all finally resolved in the end. There's the plot of Happiness Ahead, from First National. Rich girl Joan (Jo Hutchinson) doesn't want to marry her assigned boyfriend, so she goes to great lengths to chase blue collar worker "Bob" (Dick Powell) who opens the film by singing "Happiness Ahead". The nasal Allen Jenkins is in here as the butler... we usually see him playing the wisecracking gangsters. Frank McHugh is in here as Tom, for comedy relief. And Jane Darwell (Ma Joad !) is the landlady that clues Bob in to what's going on. Cute little film. Fun little love story. Nothing that will tax the brain... I could have done with less singing numbers, but that's what everyone was doing in those days. Directed by Mervyn LeRoy, who was six when the big quake hit san francisco. Quite an interesting tale.

HAPPINESS AHEAD (First National, 1934), directed by Mervyn LeRoy, is one of the many 1930s Hollywood comedies dealing with "rich girl falling in love with common man" theme, a cliché' made famous with Columbia's Academy Award winning, IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT featuring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. In this instance, "It Happened New Year's Eve" being the basic theme.

The setting: New York. Time: New Year's Eve. The plot: Joan Bradford (Josephine Hutchinson, the central character to the story) is a lonely rich girl who prefers to mingle with the common people instead of her parent's rich but boring socialites. Granted permission by her understanding father (John Halliday), she walks about the city streets surrounded by happy-go-lucky people waiting for that big stroke of midnight. She comes into a Chinese night club where she sits alone. In the table next to her is Bob Lane (Dick Powell), a window washer, accompanied by his friends (Frank McHugh, Dorothy Dare and others). When the lights go out at the stroke of midnight, the lights come back on and Bob is seen mistakenly kissing Joan. Feeling sorry for the girl because she is alone, Bob invites her to his table. This becomes the beginning of a beautiful friendship, but Joan hides the fact of who she really is, pretending to be an unemployed girl living in a tenement apartment under the surname of Smith.

Also featured in the cast are Allen Jenkins and Ruth Donnelly as the Bradford chauffeur and maid; Marjorie Gateson as Joan's mother; Gavin Gordon as Joan's stuffy suitor; and Jane Darwell as the nosy landlady. HAPPINESS AHEAD relies more on plot than songs, but there's enough to go around, including the title tune sung by Powell prior to the opening credits as he's presented transposed through the clouds; "Pop Goes Your Heart," "All on Account of Strawberry Sundae" (sung by Dorothy Dare and Powell); "Beauty Must Be Loved" and "Massaging Window Panes" (sung by Powell and McHugh as they wash windows)

In 1938, Powell starred in another "rich girl/common man" story for Warner Brothers titled HARD TO GET with Olivia De Havilland as the heiress and Powell as a gas station attendant. Hutchinson's performance from this earlier film is more refined while the refine DeHavilland herself in HARD TO GET is more madcap and spoiled, making that story more amusing and fun. Both films, similar in theme, are quite enjoyable in spite their lack of production numbers famous in Warners musicals during that time.

HAPPINESS AHEAD would be reworked again by Warner Brothers as HERE COMES HAPPINESS (1941), a "B" comedy featuring Edward Norris and Mildred Coles (including the "Happiness Ahead" theme song), and as LOVE AND LEARN (1947) with Jack Carson and Martha Vickers. All three versions can be seen from time to time on cable TV's Turner Classic Movies. As Powell would say throughout the movie, "Well, that's taken care of." It certainly is. (***)

Dick Powell and Josephine Hutchinson star in "Happiness Ahead," a 1934 film featuring John Halliday, Allan Jenkins, Frank McHugh, and directed by Mervyn LeRoy.

This is a typical class system comedy, common in the 1930s, in which a rich girl, Joan Bradford (Hutchinson) poses as a poor one and meets a window washer, Bob Lane (Powell). The usual complications arise.

This film is a cut above, thanks to the beautiful singing of Dick Powell, as well as his boyish charm. Powell became success as a serious actor and producer, so my generation was not familiar with his early persona. He's marvelous, and overall, he was so multi-talented, he's probably underrated today.

Frank McHugh gives a lively performance as Bob's best friend.

What I loved about this movie were some of the prices given -- a New Year's Eve Chinese dinner for four, plus floor show, was $12.00 and was considered "the damage." It took three years for Bob to raise $700; and to start his own business would be $2000. There was also a shot of a suitcase -- everyone had this particular suitcase, beige with brown and white stripes down the middle.

Very enjoyable.

I would not go so far as to call this a musical, although some might because Dick Powell does do some singing in it. To my way of thinking a musical is simply where the music dominates the telling of a story. That is not so in this case. It is a romantic comedy with a song or two in it. It has the old fashioned boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy marries girl theme in it. The concept of s-e-x is 1934 style, with the two parties barely able to kiss one another until deep in the relationship. If you don't need special effects to tell a story, then you will like this one. The actors all speak like stage trained personnel with emphatic speech typical of the period. Many fine character actors in the cast including Frank McHugh and Allan Jenkins. It is just a classical and entertaining film comedy the way America used to do it. I loved it.

"Happiness Ahead" is a romance with some comedy and music that is set, as most such films were during the Great Depression, in New York City. This is another working stiff meets wealthy person, the latter who is anonymous. This one has a different twist that makes it a little more fun.

Dick Powell stars as the working man and Josephine Hutchinson is the millionairess in Cognito. This was her first film since one appearance as a child in a 1917 silent film. Hutchinson would go on to have a long career in films and then television to the mid-1970s. But it would be in supporting roles, not as a leading lady for which the First National and Warner Brothers tried to present her in the buildup for this film.

Some other familiar faces of supporting actors people this film - all of which gives it some familiarity and enjoyment. The musical aspect consists of one dance performance in a Chinese nightclub and Dick Powell singing a couple of numbers.