Joy of Living | Irene Dunne, Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

Joy of Living | Irene Dunne, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. | A Joyful Film

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Joy of Living

	Joy of Living Irene Dunne, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. Turner Home Entertainment, 1991 average customer review:based on 6 reviews
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highly recommended

Chief Two-Bucks!

Though nearly forgotten today, this charming and enjoyable comedy musical directed by Tay Garnett and starring Irene Dunne and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. is a little gem. My favorite studio from the 1930's, RKO, surrounded this good story by Dorothy and Herbert Fields with top production values and some very nice songs from Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields. The story is slight but quite charming and becomes very funny if you stay with it.

Irene Dunne is Margaret Garret, a broadway and radio musical sensation mobbed at every turn by adoring fans. She is rescued from one of these mobs by Daniel Brewster, a wealthy young shipping tycoon with his own island in the South Seas who has fallen for Margaret from afar. She, of course, promptly has the brash Daniel arrested as a masher! When he brings her to court and the judge is going to give him six months for doing what amounts to nothing, Margaret persuades the judge to go easy on him.

To her dismay, however, the judge uses a little known law to appoint her his probation officer, creating just the opportunity Daniel needs to show Margaret how to have fun. She is all responsibility, supporting her entire family, who have become much too dependent on Margaret and her ten thousand dollar a week salery, which they squander as fast as she can earn it.

Dunne, who many forget starred in Show Boat and other great musicals in this early portion of her career, does a nice job with some very pretty Jerome Kern melodies such as "Just Let Me Look at You" and "You Couldn't Be Cuter," the latter which she uses as a lullaby to get her twin nieces to sleep after a show. Lucille Ball is her not so adoring sister and understudy, Salina, chomping at the bit to be in Margaret's shoes. Alice Brady and Guy Kibbee are her mother and father. Her dad has no end of ingenious methods of sneaking liquor into every container in the house!

Daniel's enthusiasm for living life to the fullest finally wears down Margaret's defenses and a night on the town loosens her up-- maybe too much! The ever responsible Margaret gets tight and very irreverent as the two record their own song, have a drinking contest, and have a hilarious time at a rollerskating rink. Fairbanks shows off his special charm and Dunne is a hoot as she constantly reminds everyone who'll listen that she is Margaret Garret and can do as she pleases!

After a few twists and turns, it is obvious to Margaret she will have to choose between her family and her own happiness. Dorothy and Herbert Fields' story resolves everything quite nicely and the final scene is quite enjoyable. Because of the expensive production values RKO poured into this film, it was considered somewhat of a disappointment in 1938, coming as it did on the heels of Dunne's success in The Awful Truth with Cary Grant. Today, however, it is easy to enjoy it for the little gem it is rather than what it is not.

This film slides by on its charm and a slight premise at first, but treats those who stay with it to a night on the town with Irene and Doug which is quite memorable. A fun and charming little film that will hopefully get a second life on the small screen. A nice surprise for those who haven't seen it.

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A Joyful Film

She can go wherever she wants and do whatever she wants. She's Maggie Garret (Irene Dunne), the famous Broadway actress! She sings and she makes $10,000 a week, but that money all goes down the tubes because she supports her spoiled family and has little time for fun. That all changes when Dan Brewster (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) steps into the picture. He's enamored with Miss Garret, but he also knows that she isn't enjoying life the way she should be. She spurns his advances, but has trouble getting away from him. After one night of intense fun, though, Maggie starts to change her mind about this clingy man.

Though hardly a laugh fest, this movie is delightful and romantic. Fairbanks looks more and more like his father as the film goes on, that smile, the grace, that charm! His personalities fills up the screen, and it isn't hard to see why Maggie goes for him. Dunne isn't so bad either, singing several catchy songs including "You Couldn't Be Cuter" and "What's Good About Goodnight?"

Unfortunately this one is hard to find, but if you ever find it in a garage sale or at the library pick it up and fast! You won't be disappointed.

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"Maggie's got a man in the room!"

In 1938, one year after the wildly entertaining screwball classic THE AWFUL TRUTH, RKO Radio Pictures released JOY OF LIVING, again starring the very wonderful Irene Dunne. This one was originally called JOY OF LOVING but then was changed when the Hays censor office thought the title too risque. As screwball comedies go, JOY OF LIVING is pretty darn good, if not quite up there in the rarified atmosphere of, say, Libeled Lady, My Man Godfrey - Criterion Collection, My Favorite Wife, and The Awful Truth.

JOY OF LIVING's basic plot revolves around popular radio and Broadway star Margaret Garret (Dunne), who finds herself constantly working in order to keep her selfish, parasitic family in the mellow (even the little twin girls are unadorable). One evening, as Margaret is being mobbed by overly aggresive fans, she's rescued by breezy, rich-as-Croesus playboy Dan Brewster (Douglas Fairbanks, Jr.), a man who would change her life. Of course, their first meeting isn't that auspicious, especially for Dan, who ends up being arrested. But, in screwball, as well as in life, what's romance without an obstacle here and there, eh?

Even though Irene Dunne proved to be a very effective dramatic actress (I Remember Mama, Love Affair, Anna and the King of Siam), I truly enjoy her best in her wacky roles. Dunne was a dazzling practitioner in the screwball genre, on equal terms with Jean Arthur and Carole Lombard. Dunne had this knack for going from reserved and sophisticated to gorgeously madcap, but somehow without losing that touch of elegance. Her comic timing was impeccable, with her throaty laugh always tickling my fancy. And she just about equalled Myrna Loy in how she can effortlessly put someone in place with a mere understated look. Now, to tell the truth, I wasn't ever too keen on her operatic style of singing, but, in this film, I ended up relishing her renditions of the very cute "You Couldn't Be Cuter" and that one ballad she hilariously sped thru during a radio broadcast (sorry, can't recall the song title). The music and lyrics, by the way, are respectively by the great Jerome Kern and Dorothy Fields.

Plenty of uproarious humor here, what with courtroom shenanigans and revolving door hijinks. But the scenes to really look out for begin with Maggie cautiously sipping from her big mug of beer. Which leads to more sips, progressively less cautious. From then on, for the next 20 minutes or so, it's screwy dame time as Irene Dunne breaks away from the prim and proper and causes havoc in various late evening locales, including memorable sequences in a German beer garden and in an ice skating rink. It's worth noting that, in these moments, with her merry yet subversive "Hyuk, hyuk, hyuks," it's almost as if Dunne had channeled a cartoon character (but an elegant cartoon character). Anyway, it's funny.

I also like Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., frequently an overlooked leading man. Since his go-getting character is the engine which mostly drives the story forward, it's fairly key that the audience like him. And Fairbanks is likable, with his self-effacing but confident personality, his big, affable grin, and his rakishly angled hat. If I had to critique his performance (and I guess I'm gonna), I'd say his Dan Brewster might have been a mite too heavy handed with his "my way or the highway" attitude. But, then again, given the nature of Maggie's relatives and the point Dan was trying to get across to Maggie - that the only resolution is to make a clean break - one might see why he adopted such a posture.

By the way, I've always wondered if Fairbanks actually made those Donald Duck noises. When I first heard them, I was shocked and then I couldn't stop giggling. Oh, that final scene in the ice rink...

Also, it's a testament to just how well the supporting actors played Margaret's foolish, leeching relatives that I gave an enthusiastic fist pump when Margaret finally gave them a dignified but well-deserved dressing down. Her family's just scuzz, man.

In 1938 and with America still in the throes of the Great Depression, movies like JOY OF LIVING were what the audience craved the most, cinematically. JOY OF LIVING has beautiful stars, genuinely funny moments, and even some good songs. The crowds of yesteryear must've gotten a kick out of it. For fans of Lucille Ball, the lovely redhead has a tiny supporting part here, as Maggie's jealous sister and understudy. But this one's strictly Irene Dunne's vehicle, all the way, although Fairbanks gives a capable assist. JOY OF LIVING isn't one of Irene Dunne's best ever comedies, no. But I submit that only THE AWFUL TRUTH, MY FAVORITE WIFE, and THEODORA GOES WILD are better screwballs. The rest of her comedy films are on par with or even inferior to JOY OF LIVING. I mean, this one's got a guy doing Donald Duck impressions, for cripe's sake! That's just ballsy.

Lastly, there really needs to be a dvd collection of Irene Dunne's screwball comedies. I can't be the only one thinking this, right?

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An expensive flop

"Joy of Living" was an expensive flop for RKO in 1938 and it is not hard to see why. The film copies bits of other much more successful films but it just does not come together here.

Irene Dunne plays a successful musical comedy actress who supports a lazy family and has no time for herself. Along comes bohemian Douglas Fairbanks Jr who teaches her to relax and eventually break away from her stilted lfe.

So many ideas can be sourced in better films - the family of leeches from Jean Harlow's "Bombshell", a court scene reminiscent of "The Awful Truth", ladylike Dunne acting zany like "Theodora goes Wild" etc etc. It is very contrived. Douglas Fairbanks is no substitute for Cary Grant. Dunne glides through the nonsense competently but her performance lacks the spontanous joy of "The Awful Truth". She betrays a touch of disdain for the familiar material.

The supporting cast are all familiar. Alice Brady does her scatty mother but is very unsympathetic and Lucille Ball is shrill and unattractive. The best thing is Dunne's cool singing of some lovely Jerome Kern tunes.

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A FAIRLY ENGAGING 1938 COMEDY.

Dunne plays a very successful radio show star who earns half a mill a year. Her family are a bunch of lazy ne'er-do-wells who leech off her earnings and her income tax problems are astronomical. After Fairbanks is arrested for being a "masher" among the mob of Dunne's adoring fans, Dunne is, rather absurdly, appointed as Fairbank's parole officer, a plot twist which gives the duo a chance to meet in watering holes, get drunk and fall in love...With several tunes by Jerome Kern, one would expect that this rather forced little comedy would have more classy attributes. The picture was expensive to shoot, and it shows; it lost a fortune at the box-office. Even the comedic talents of Pangborn, Kibbee, Gilbert, Blore, and, in a very short bit - Lucille Ball - fail to raise the level of slapstick. Disappointingly flat and ludicrously corny. The original title of this film was to be THE JOY OF LOVING, but the censors of 1938 made it clear that there should be no joy in loving!

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reviews: page 1, 2

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