Chance at Heaven

Neither Joel McCrea or Ginger Rogers was particularly fond of Chance At Heaven where nobility borders on the idiotic. They would have to wait until Primrose Path to get a decent film together.

Good natured Joel is a garage mechanic and even in the Depression folks have to get their cars repaired. So he's making a good living and he and Ginger Rogers are planning to marry. But along comes heiress Marian Nixon and she sees sweaty Joel repair her car, she eyes him like a slab of beefcake.

Before you know it they're married and the heiress who tries everything for a lark, decides to settle down and be a simple domestic housewife.

Meanwhile Ginger who should have whacked Marian upside the head with a two by four is positively saintly in her approach. Positively saintly and positively ridiculous.

Everybody involved has certainly done better. Make sure to see Primrose Path for a good film with the leads.

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)!

A small-town mechanic (Joel McCrea) leaves his girlfriend (Ginger Rogers) for an heiress (Marian Nixon).

An early role for Ginger, Chance at Heaven is an enjoyable little bauble, coming in at just over 70 minutes. Ginger doesn't get much to do, but is very good as always, while Joel McCrea is a competent leading man. Marian Nixon is good as the heiress; however, her character is so scatterbrained it makes Carole Lombard in My Man Godfrey look like Einstein!

The film itself is a little depressing, and it's hard to sympathize with McCrea because his character is such a sap. There's also a thinly veiled reference to abortion, one of the worst screen mothers in history and Andy Devine as McCrea's friend. Overall, it's nothing very memorable, but it's enjoyable.

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.

Well, this little Pre-Code Soaper without the sobbing builds around a triangular romance plot involving the lovely, cheerful, eager-to-please girl next door, Marjorie "Marje" Harris (Ginger Rogers), her fiancée, the clean-cut All-American Blackstone "Blacky" Gorman (Joel McCrea) in his starchy white service station uniform, and the irresponsible, spoiled, wealthy, but perky Glory Franklyn (Marian Nixon), who arrives on the cape (Cape Cod?) in search for fun.

Mrs. Harris (Ann Shoemaker) and Mr. Fred Harris (Lucien Littlefield), of modest means, rear their daughter to appreciate life's simple, everyday pleasures with a sense of responsibility, which Marjorie gleefully accepts, as she plans her forthcoming marriage with Blacky, content with the notion of creating with him domestic happiness.

Mrs. S.T. Franklyn (Virginia Hammond), on the other hand, oversees the maintenance of her summer residence, on the cape, along with a staff of "accents," or foreign-born servants, as she plans her daughter's, Glory, engagement to suitor Sid Larrick (George Meeker), whom Glory deems as somewhat stuffy.

Al (Andy Devine) attempts to support his employer and friend, by attempting to offer unheeded advice, but Blacky somehow suddenly becomes smitten with the tempting Glory, who cares little, if anything of the feelings of others, such as Blacky's fiancée or the suitor whom her mother has selected for her.

But when Marjorie discovers that Blacky considers jilting her for a position of wealth and society with another, she stands beside him, by pointing out that marrying Glory could represent Blacky's one "Chance at Heaven." Marjorie then encourages Glory to concentrate upon domestic tranquility to please Blacky, instead of painting stenciled floral patterns upon the woodwork of Blacky's bungalow.

Marjorie's role, thus, shifts from romantic interest to trustworthy, encouraging neighbor, as Glory defies her mother and social circle to pursue Blacky, who, along with Glory, needs Marjorie more than anyone realizes, for much encouragement behind the white Pickett fence.

So, the moral of the story would have to surround the decision regarding which path could offer the gentleman the greater "Chance at Heaven?" -- the carefree life of wealth even if Glory may find herself disowned by her mother for associating with a lowly mechanic, or the stable life of virtue and sincerity with the innocent one who would feel honored to cater to the every need of a handsome and capable mechanic?