Invitation to Happiness
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | Invitation to Happiness |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1939 |
| length | 91 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Wesley Ruggles |
| script | Claude Binyon |
| production | Wesley Ruggles for Paramount Pictures |
| music | Friedrich Hollaender |
| camera | Leo Tover |
| cut | Alma Macorie |
| occupation | |
| |
Invitation to Happiness is an American melodrama starring Irene Dunne and Fred MacMurray and directed by Wesley Ruggles in 1939.
action
The wealthy Eleanor Wayne falls in love with aspiring boxer Albert "King" Cole. Shortly after the marriage, Albert already had to prepare intensively for the fight for the world championship. Out of consideration for her husband's career, Eleanor renounces her own family happiness. She raises their son alone and supports Albert wherever she can. The years go by and Albert becomes increasingly estranged from his wife and child. Eleanor finally demands a divorce and custody of the little son Albert Jr. Only when Albert Senior finally loses the long-awaited title fight does he win back the love of his family.
background
Invitation to Happiness is one of Irene Dunne's least known films . In the role of Eleanor, she returns to the roles that made the star at the beginning of the 1930s: the long-suffering wife who without complaint renounces her own interests and needs in favor of the man and endures every form of emotional neglect with stoic composure, only to win back his affection in the end. Such appearances had earned her the nickname of a female Mahatma Gandhi, but in 1939 the image no longer suited Irene Dunne. In recent years she had risen to a female top star and appeared in dramas such as Magnificent Obsession , comedies in the style of The Awful Truth and musicals à la Show Boat at home. Even Fred MacMurray was miscast basically as Great White Hope , especially the actor preferably a name for himself as a performer of romantic comedies alongside Claudette Colbert had made.
Wesley Ruggles had worked with Irene Dunne on Cimarron , for which she received her first Academy Award nomination for best actress .
Reviews
Most critics criticized the illogic of the script, which takes ten years before the all-important battle for the title comes up. The space in between, according to the reviewers, would be filled with banal and meaningless episodes.
The New York Times pointed out that Invitation to Happiness was empty of content :
"Wesley Ruggles demonstrates [...] how easy it is basically to keep the action going, then even throw it in the air and let it dance on invisible wires for as long as he likes. "Invitation to Happiness" cannot be called a wooden comedy with the best will in the world, because it is actually in a manic state of movement the entire time. But that is - as we now know - only an illusion. "
Variety praised the leading actress:
"Miss Dunne moves into a dramatic role after a series of comedies and farces and does a very good job."
Web links
- Background information with links to numerous set photos
- Invitation to Happiness in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Screenshots
Footnotes
- ↑ Wesley Ruggles is demonstrating […] how simple it really is, after all, to set a plot in motion, then whisk it into the air and keep it dancing there on invisible strings for so long as the levitation amuses him. "Invitation to Happiness" cannot be called, in consequence, a static romantic comedy, for its screen seems always in a mad state of tower. But that — we now know — is purely illusory.
- ↑ Miss Dunne switches to a straight dramatic role from her recent cycle of comedies and farces, and does a most capable job in the assignment.