Joy of Living

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Movie
Original title Joy of Living
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1938
length 91 minutes
Rod
Director Tay Garnett
script C. Graham Baker ,
Allan Scott ,
Dorothy Fields ,
Herbert Fields
production Tay Garnett,
Felix Young / RKO
music Jerome Kern
camera Joseph Walker
cut Jack Hively
occupation

Joy of Living is a 1938 American comedy film that combines elements of screwball comedy with numerous vocal numbers by Jerome Kern . The leading roles are played by Irene Dunne and Douglas Fairbanks Jr.

action

Musical star Maggie Garret is one of the brightest stars on Broadway and makes $ 10,000 a week. After the premiere of her latest hit show, she is saved from an intrusive horde of fans by the wealthy shipping company owner Dan Brewster. In gratitude, Maggie asks her rescuer for a drink at her house, where Dan meets Maggie's parasitic family. The numerous relatives are all lazy, uneducated, vulgar and live happily ever after on Maggie's income. Maggie is completely exhausted, almost bankrupt and would actually throw anything, but the sense of duty keeps her going. Dan persuades the diva to have an evening without private worries and problems. In the intoxication of a happy night, the two marry on an impulse. The newlyweds come home overjoyed the next morning, when the horrified family loudly protests against the lightning marriage, fearing for their income. Dan gives the clan a moral sermon, but Maggie, who puts loyalty to her family above her own feelings, throws Dan out. In the end, the rest of the Garrets realize how selfish and mean they have been in the past. They persuade Maggie to follow Dan onto his yacht, with which the two then sail into the South Seas.

background

Irene Dunne had already worked more or less successfully in four film adaptations of Jerome Kern / Oscar Hammerstein II musicals: Sweet Adeline , Roberta , Show Boat and High, Wide, and Handsome . Jerome Kern in particular was impressed by the potential of the actress and believed that she had found the ideal interpreter of his songs in Irene Dunne and her style of presentation, which often seemed a little chilly. However, after the financial failure of High, Wide, and Handsome, considerable doubts arose as to whether Irene Dunne could really establish herself as a serious competitor of Jeanette MacDonald in the long term . The actress was unsure of herself and accepted the offer to return to her old studio RKO and participate in Joy of Living there, only on the condition that it should not be a pure musical . Instead, the script attempted to mix music film, screwball comedy, and romance.

Decades later, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. expressed his amazement at the efficiency in his female co-star's approach to every single scene.

“A craftswoman. Nothing happens instinctively or is left to chance. But it is not boring-perfect, but charming-perfect. "

Lucille Ball , who only got the role of Dunne's greedy younger sister when Ann Sothern turned down the offer, made similar observations.

“Dunne always surprised, even in the repetitions of individual scenes. I watched her repetitions, there were 32 takes in one day and she acted differently in 25 of them. She has always worked hard for the effects. "

The shooting of Joy of Living grew into a disaster. The problems began with the title of the film, which was originally supposed to be called Joy of Loving . The censorship authority, which had had considerable rights of intervention and veto during film production since the Production Code came into force in mid-1934, categorically rejected this proposal. Those responsible based the reasoning on the - alleged - ambiguity of the title, which is thus likely to violate the moral ideas of minors. The director Tay Garnett, who was previously known more as a director of adventure films such as Adventures in the Yellow Sea or romantic melodramas in the style of Travel Without Return , did not cope with the change of genre very well. Joy of Living's financial failure ended a period in Irene Dunne's career during which the actress mainly focused on her singing talent.

Theatrical release

The costs for the shoot escalated and in the end reached a total of around 1,040,000 US dollars. At the box office, Joy of Living proved to be reasonably popular with gross profits of 1,337,000 US dollars, but due to the high investments RKO had in the end realized a loss of over 314,000 US dollars.

Songs

In the course of the plot, Irene Dunne sings the following songs:

  • Just Let Me Look At You
  • You couldn't be Cuter
  • What's Good About Good Night?
  • A Heavenly Party

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ A craftswoman. Nothing is instinctive or left to chance, but instead of being dull and perfect, she's' enchanting and perfect.
  2. ^ Dunne always surprised, even in repeated takes of the same scene. But I watched her do takes — literally, one day there were thirty-two takes — and twenty-five must have been different. She really worked on how to do that scene.