O Prazer de Viver

Comedy about a famous singing sensation Maggie Garret (Irene Dunne) who is constantly hounded by the press and rabid autograph hounds, and that's not all - a man (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) who is crazy in love with her from afar is busy chasing after her too, but she doesn't seem to care for him and sees to it he is arrested for "mashing". But when he is sentenced to six months in jail (and based on the fact that he is rather handsome and charming, I surmise) she agrees to become his "probation officer" so that he can be released. Next thing you know he's advising her that she needs to live for herself and have some "fun". Soon they out on the town boozing it up on gigantic mugs full of beer, becoming very, very drunk to the point where they are playing face slapping games with other and end up stealing a bunch of signs from local businesses - h'm, at this point she actually begins to really like him for the first time, I guess all it took was the drink.

Nothing great here - but still entertaining, silly, and fun to watch. I didn't find this film particularly laugh-out-loud funny (except for the scenes with Billy Gilbert which ARE quite funny) - but it is amusing and has a number of scenes featuring favorite comic actors from the thirties including not just Billy Gilbert, but Franklin Pangborn, Eric Blore, even Lucille Ball - all seen in very small parts. The film also features a number of catchy songs performed by Irene Dunne, especially "You Couldn't Be Cuter" - so catchy, in fact, I am still singing it aloud as I type. Worth seeing.

The 1930s were one of the worst decades in our history in terms of economics. People if they were lucky to have even the most menial of jobs, just scrimped and got by. You did that too if you were on what was then called relief.

Lots of socially relevant films were made, but they didn't draw flies as compared with escapist entertainment like Joy of Living. That's what people wanted to see, to keep their minds off their troubles.

And they wanted to see beautiful people and certainly stars Irene Dunne and Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. fill that bill. Dunne is a musical comedy star on Broadway who has these leeches of a family dependent on her. And she meets playboy Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. who is a sea captain by avocation who wants to take her to the South Seas. Experience the Joy of Living.

I'm convinced part of the charm of this movie at least for the men is the notion they could escape with Doug and Irene by signing on as a deckhand. And the women sat in the audience hoping that a Fairbanks would come into their lives.

Well, maybe if they sang like Irene Dunne. Playing a musical comedy star gave her to sing some tunes from her favorite composer Jerome Kern. Besides Joy of Living, Irene Dunne did four other films with Jerome Kern scores. Sweet Adeline, Showboat, Roberta, and High Wide and Handsome were the others. From the score of Joy of Living, Just Let Me Look at You and You Couldn't Be Cuter sold quite a few 78 rpm platters back in 1938.

Escapist stuff like this depends on the charm of it's leads and charm is what Fairbanks and Dunne have in abundance. Nice and entertaining and easy to take is Joy of Living.

The script is what prevents Joy of Living from being the fabulous movie it could have been. Did the audience of 1938 find Fairbanks character -a stalker, controller, manipulator - appealing? Did the audience cheer when Dunne dumped her grasping family and abandoned her Broadway career for Fairbanks and an island in the South Seas? An island escape is fine for a 2-week vacation, but will forsaking all one has worked for and achieved, and abandoning stardom for fun and sublimating herself to her husband's goals of having a good time be satisfying? Also, Fairbanks is not stellar. He's an OK actor but not equivalent to Cooper, Gable, or even Scott or McCrea, not that any of these talents could have made a silk purse out of this sows ear of a character.

Fairbanks introduces the career-oriented Dunne to the Joy of Living, which is accessed via getting intoxicated on pitchers of beer. She cuts loose, has a barrel of fun, and in her inebriated state finds him so appealing that she marries him. And then runs away with him. He's besotted with the Great Star, but she's spent so little time with him that she doesn't know him or have any realistic idea of what life with him on his island will be like. Had the film ended 6 months after their marriage, we would have seen a very unhappy Dunne back in New York filing for divorce and returning to the Broadway stage.

What Dunne deserved is a husband of substance and merit who would have loved her - not just her public persona - and supported her in her career while pursuing his own career goals. Instead, as there were no other suitors, she tumbled to Fairbanks, who made noises like Donald Duck to show his displeasure and demonstrated his joie de vivre by whooping it up like an Indian brave going into battle.

Yes, I do understand that this is screwball comedy, but it falls far short of the great classics such as My Man Godfrey and Dunne's The Awful Truth. Still, despite the poor script, Dunne's performance makes this film worth watching.

A successful star, a sponging family, and a wanderer with a pencil-thin mustache to upset the apple cart. With its antecedent in proto-screwball BOMBSHELL, 1938's JOY OF LIVING has a clear model that allows us to note its strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths first: Irene Dunne and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Miss Dunne sings here, something she did all too rarely in the movies. She was also a perfect foil in screwball comedy. As for Fairbanks, he was made for light comedy, one of those great leading men who never seemed to understand how good-looking he was. Their scenes together are a delight. The sequence where they go out for a cheap night on the town is simple, lighthearted fun. There's also a gret cast in support, including Guy Kibbee, Alice Brady, Lucille Ball, John Qualen Billy Gilbert....

The weakness, however, is that most of that cast is wasted. They are so wasted that there's no real sign that they are leeches. Kibbee and Miss Brady as Miss Dunne's parents might just be retired and enjoying having a daughter so successful she can keep them all on Sutton Place. Kibbee drinks secretly, Miss Brady flutters, Miss Ball seems a trifle clingy, but there are twins for Miss Dunne to sing "You Couldn't Be Cuter" to. The movie feels unbalanced, as if editor Jack Hively (who, as a director, may have invented Film Noir) tossed out the scenes establishing their character in favor of the leads drinking beer and playing "Crack the Whip" on an ice-skating rink.... which is understandable. Or perhaps director Tay Garnett thought the plot was so common he could just indicate it.

It's a close decision, and while I enjoy watching Billy Gilbert berating waiter Bert Roach, I don't think it's a favor to the movie. Still, it's great fun.

Irene Dunne plays a Broadway singer who serves as her family's meal ticket. Her family, including sister Lucille Ball, don't do much, other than enjoy the wealth and status (by association) Dunne's success brings them. Dunne is exhausted, but is constantly pressured into taking more and more responsibilities on and Dunne does so as to not disappoint her family. Despite all of her hard work and wealth, her family's spendthrift ways have plunged Dunne deeply into depth. When she finds out about her financial woes, she is very disillusioned (who wouldn't be?).

Dunne ends up meeting heady and fresh Douglas Fairbanks Jr. At first she is put off by Fairbanks' pushiness and even has him arrested at one point, accusing him of being a masher. Fairbanks manages to charm his way out of jail time and even gets Dunne appointed as his probation officer. Legally he has to report to Dunne two times a week. As she gets to know Fairbanks, Dunne finds out that he comes from wealth but has chosen to live his life as a pleasure seeker. He also claims to own an island in the South Pacific and urges Dunne to leave her stress behind and live in paradise with him.

Lucille Ball is good as Dunne's younger sister (and understudy), but her part is so small, she doesn't really get to make much of an impression. Though, she continues to prove that she is good with the one-liners. It must have been frustrating for Lucy to have come from such a great supporting part in Stage Door, only to be put into another small supporting part, but in not as prestigious a film. Irene Dunne is good here, even though it is only sightly above average material. Douglas Fairbanks Jr is always a charmer and he's very handsome in this film. It's easy to see why Dunne would have a hard time between choosing Broadway or Fairbanks.