Chance at Heaven

CHANCE AT HEAVEN is a fairly low-key soaper even though near the end it makes some rather startling precode plot turns. Ginger Rogers stars as Marge, a small-town girl who has been a quasi-fiancée to gas station owner Blacky Gorman (Joel McCrea) for two years but he takes her so much for granted you would think they'd been married for decades. Although set in a small town, both of them are quite comfortable financially (Marge's dad owns a store we never see). "Practical" Blacky wants to wait however until he gets a chain of gas stations going before he takes a wife though one has to wonder how much of their engagement is merely Marge's presumption given his rather non-romantic friendship with her. Suddenly another woman enters the picture when New York heiress "Glory" Franklyn (Marian Nixon) and her socialite mother purchase a large estate in the area apparently as a summer home. Blacky is immediately bewitched by this new scenery despite his denials to Marge although this new face is a blatantly shallow and frivolous coquette. Glory awakens a passion in Blacky that true-hearted, sensible Marge really hasn't done and they quickly become an item, with Marge good-naturedly (if incredibly) pulling herself out of the race and wishing them the best.

The couple elopes and Mrs. Franklyn reaches for the smelling salts, horrified that her daughter has married down. Glory attempts to step into the new role as small town wife of a small business owner but she is as dependent on new friend Marge (still hanging in there as a buddy) now as much as she was on her mother in her past life. Eventually Glory becomes pregnant and the news is not especially welcomed by this little shallow flirt who knows Mother will be an even harder role than Wife. Mrs. Franklyn takes her back to New York supposedly for a short rest but as the months past, Blacky begins to wonder just when she is going to return.

Ginger Rogers and Joel McCrea are two very appealing players and do what they can with this story although it's hard to have much sympathy for "nice guy" Blacky when he's been so inconsiderate throughout the picture to Marge, who despite being his "girl" for the first part of the film he treats with little more passion than a buddy. Marge, on the other hand, seems to be a male fantasy of the era, perfect, devoted, and always there no matter what kind of crud you throw at her and it is a bit disheartening to see the delicious spitfire that is Ginger Rogers restrained to this level. Marian Nixon was a fairly popular starlet/second tier star of the era, a minor rival to Janet Gaynor at Fox Films, but here she is miscast as a flighty flirt although she is quite credible in capturing her character's shallowness. Acting honors that are here may belong to character actress Virginia Hammond as Nixon's control freak of a mother.

Small-town mechanic Joel McCrea keeps putting off marrying his sweetheart Ginger Rogers. Then flighty rich girl Marian Nixon shows up at Joel's gas station and he drops Ginger for her. Disappointing drama about how the grass looks greener on the other side or some such. The characters are poorly written, especially McCrea's. Ginger isn't the right fit for her role. Yes she could play wholesome girl next door types but here she's a doormat. Also, it's hard for me to buy any guy who has Ginger Rogers looking for someone else. On the plus side, one of the little things I love about watching older movies is soaking up all the pieces of history on display. The clothes, the cars, the architecture -- it's all pretty fascinating to me. In this movie, for example, I really enjoyed seeing the old gas station with the pumps and stuff. This isn't a very good movie but it's watchable due to the actors' personalities transcending their crappy parts.

Caught this on TCM this morning - a bit disturbing, really, considering the light-hearted tone in the early going. A poor sap mechanic (McCrea) is stolen from his girlfriend (Ginger Rogers) by a wealthy heiress. Can a marriage involving such a gap in class succeed?

Although McCrea and Rogers are charming enough to watch, there are some upsetting elements in this yarn that would be readily discernible by modern audiences: hence, I assume that the screenplay slightly pre-dates the crackdown of the Production Code. However, you might find the movie interesting if you like to delve into the evolution of 'mature subject material' during this era. TCM has championed this pastime. 6/10

If you ever wanted to examine a case study of what it was like to be a contract player at RKO in the early 1930s, check out Chance at Heaven (CAH). Ginger Rogers had just made her breakout movie Flying Down to Rio with Fred Astaire. Both of their roles supported featured players Dolores Del Rio and Gene Raymond, but Astaire-Rogers are the actors who are best remembered from that film today. Their dance routine of The Carioca is the principal reason why Flying Down to Rio is recalled at all now. It was sensational!

What does RKO do to showcase Rogers as an emerging star who had just completed a hit movie? They immediately cast her in a relatively thankless part as Joel McCrea's long suffering martyr of a girl friend in CAH! The character Rogers plays is so good--so understanding---so generous in her self-sacrifice---that it defies belief and almost becomes a complete caricature. When she loses McCrea to ditzy rich girl Marian Nixon, we are asked to accept as perfectly normal that Rogers is willing to morph into a glorified domestic servant---and thrives at essentially becoming their "door mat.." Rogers had a naturally charming and often spirited screen personality that remained totally invisible in CAH. What a pity!

While Rogers, McCrea and Nixon gave the film their best effort, in the end---they were severely challenged by the overly familiar storyline and its many cliches. In the case of Ginger Rogers, she would have to labor at RKO for one more year and make five more undistinguished movies before she and Astaire starred in their seminal musical The Gay Divorcee and thus attained screen immortality.

The Studio System provided an excellent basis for neophyte performers to develop necessary skills and achieve interesting and popular screen personalities. They often went from one unsatisfactory part to another, and had little to say about the process. It often produced frustration and disappointment--but a contract was a contract! Out of all this stress occasionally emerged some truly unique movie talent. Particularly in the case of Ginger Rogers and Joel McCrea---both went on from the rather inconsequential CAH to become movie stars of the first rank---and accordingly reached major success with top notch careers. As the saying goes---the longest journey begins with the first step (even if it is a minor one)!

Chance at Heaven is a 71 minute shortie from RKO with Marge ( Ginger Rogers) and Blacky (Joel McCrae), as the young locals in love. Rogers made all those dance flicks with Fred Astaire, while McCrae is mostly known for his Westerns. These two would also make Primrose Path together in 1940. Blacky runs a gas station, and flirts with Marge, planning the future, at least until Glory (Marian Nixon)comes along, then the showdown begins.....Look for Andy Devine and his raspy voice as the slightly slow but love-able co-worker. He's along for the comedy. Too bad they didn't give him a few more lines - he could have zinged things up a little more. The girls are remarkably cordial to each other, in light of the situation. They sure cram a lot into 71 minutes, dealing with some heavy issues for 1933. The Hays film code would start being enforced the next year, 1934. Fun film, with a serious plot of love between the classes, plus some comedy on the side for seasoning.