Virginia Brissac Movies
Stern-visaged American actress Virginia Brissac was a well-established stage actress in the early part of the 20th century. For several seasons in the 1920s, she headed a travelling stock company bearing her name. Once Brissac settled down in Hollywood in 1935, she carved a niche in authoritative parts, spending the next twenty years playing a steady stream of schoolteachers, college deans, duennas and society matrons. Once in a while, Virginia Brissac was allowed to "cut loose" with a raving melodramatic part: in Bob Hope's The Ghost Breakers, she dons a coat of blackface makeup and screams with spine-tingling conviction as the bewitched mother of zombie Noble Johnson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Playwright Lillian Hellman first wrote of the horrible Hubbard family in her 1939 play The Little Foxes. In this lavish 1941 film version, Bette Davis takes over for Broadway's Tallulah Bankhead in the role of conniving turn-of-the-century Southern aristocrat Regina Hubbard Giddens. Regina's equally odious brothers (Charles Dingle and Carl Benton Reid) want her to lend them 75,000 dollars to help build a cotton mill. To do this, she must make peace with her long-estranged husband, Horace (Herbert Marshall) -- and failing that, she tries to arrange a wealthy marriage between her daughter, Alexandra (Teresa Wright), and her slimy nephew Leo (Dan Duryea). Horace refuses to give Regina the money, whereupon Leo is pressured by his father (Reid) to steal bonds from the family business. Regina uses this information as a means of blackmailing her brothers for a share in the new mill. In retaliation, Horace claims that he gave Leo the bonds as a loan, thereby cutting Regina out of the deal. When Horace suffers a heart attack, Regina makes no effort to give him his medicine, and he dies without revealing his willingness to loan the money to Leo. Regina is thus still able to strongarm her brothers into giving her a piece of the mill -- but the price for her evil machinations is the loss of her daughter's love and respect. The Little Foxes caused a censorship stir in 1941; by refusing to give Horace his medicine, Regina technically gets away with murder. However, the censors decided that Regina was punished enough when her daughter left her to marry an honest newspaperman (Richard Carlson). Given the usual Tiffany treatment by producer Sam Goldwyn, The Little Foxes was a success; several years later, Lillian Hellman wrote a "prequel" to The Little Foxes, titled Another Part of the Forest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, (more)
- 1941
Rather than play famous outlaw Cole Younger in this film, Warner Bros. contract star Humphrey Bogart chose suspension. Ronald Reagan was considered, and so were James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson, and George Raft, but, happily, the role eventually went to the more age-appropriate Dennis Morgan, a former band singer. Like MGM's Billy the Kid, also from 1941, Bad Men of Missouri emerged as a complete whitewash of the title outlaws. Returning from fighting on the Confederate side in the Civil War, the Younger brothers -- Cole (Morgan), Bob (Wayne Morris), and Jim (Arthur Kennedy) -- find their money no longer viable currency and their homestead about to be usurped by carpetbagger William Merrick (Victor Jory). Standing up to Merrick and his chief henchman, Greg Bilson (Howard DaSilva), old Hank Younger (Russell Simpson) is shot dead, and, in frustration, the sons take up train and bank robbing, eventually joining the even more notorious James brothers, Jesse (Alan Baxter) and Frank. Of course, the celluloid Youngers steal only from the rich to give to the displaced poor. When they are finally caught in Minnesota, the citizenry of Missouri, viewing the Youngers as local heroes, take up a petition for their immediate release. Despite the many historical inaccuracies, Bad Men of Missouri makes for exciting, fast-paced Western entertainment; quite the opposite, in fact, of MGM's staid, overly glamorous depiction of Billy the Kid. Filmed at Sonora, CA, and cast with veterans such as Erville Alderson, Sam McDaniel (who replaced Willie Best in the role of the Younger's devoted servant), and a very funny Walter Catlett, the film premiered in Harrisonville, MO, the birthplace of the Younger brothers and the town where the elder Younger had once been elected mayor. Jane Wyman appears as the nominal heroine, the upstanding girlfriend of Jim Younger, and the film marked the screen debut of Faye Emerson as Cole Younger's ill-fated fiancée. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Morgan, Jane Wyman, (more)
- 1941
With a little extra effort, Washington Melodrama might have passed muster as an A picture. Frank Morgan stars as millionaire philanthropist Calvin Claymore, who comes to Washington in hopes of promoting a Senate bill on behalf of European war relief. Away from his wife (Fay Holden) and daughter Laurie (Ann Rutherford) for the first time in years, Claymore succumbs to tempation and spends a night on the town with chorus girl Mary Morgan (Anne Gwynne). Though nothing of a sexual nature transpires, Claymore finds himself in a compromising-and possibly fatal-position when Mary later turns up murdered. Blackmailed by slimy nightclub emcee Whitney King (Dan Dailey), Claymore is unable to turn to the police, and must stand by helplessly as the trail of clues leads inexorably to himself. Making matters worse, reporter Walt Thorne (Kent Taylor), the principal investigator on the case, has fallen in love with Claymore's daughter Laurie. It's a melodrama, all right, done up in style by MGM and a topnotch cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Morgan, Ann Rutherford, (more)
- 1941
A nostalgic and patriotic film from director Henry King similar to such later films as The Corn Is Green (1945). Claudette Colbert, stars as Nora Trinell, an aging schoolteacher awaiting a meeting with presidential candidate Dewey Roberts (Shepperd Strudwick). As Nora waits, she reflects on the past. It seems that a young Dewey (Douglas Croft) is Nora's pupil many years earlier in 1916, and has developed a schoolboy crush on his teacher, who encourages him to pursue his dreams. Nora, however, is quietly married to a fellow teacher, Dan Hopkins (John Payne), which inspires Dewey's jealousy when he discovers the truth. Tragedy awaits Dan, however, when he joins with the Canadian forces entering World War I. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, John Payne, (more)
- 1941
The Great Lie is Soap Opera Deluxe from Bette Davis' peak period at Warner Bros. Davis plays a socialite who is madly in love with playboy aviator George Brent. Brilliant but bitchy concert pianist Mary Astor (who won a well-deserved Academy Award for her chain-smoking histrionics) is also in love with Brent, going so far as to marry him in a secret ceremony. When it appears that the marriage may be invalid, Astor is too devoted to her art to take the necessary corrective steps, so Brent returns to Davis, who is too proud to be picked up on the rebound. While flying an important government mission, Brent disappears and is presumed killed. Davis meets Astor, who had been impregnated by Brent before the question of their marriage's validity came up. Since her first marriage had been in secret, Astor is terrified that her career will be ruined by the sudden appearance of an unexplained child, so Davis, out of love for Brent, agrees to claim the baby as her own. When Brent, who of course has not been killed after all, resurfaces, Astor demands that the child be returned to her, hoping that the child will forever bind Brent to her. Davis tells Brent the whole sad story, whereupon our long-absent hero declares his love for Davis and his willingness to give up the child to Astor. At the last moment, Astor returns the kid to Davis and Brent, and the film ends on a splendiferous musical chord courtesy of overworked Warner Bros. composer Max Steiner. In lesser hands, The Great Lie would have been outrageous hokum, but somehow Bette Davis and Mary Astor (and, to a lesser extent, George Brent) make you want to believe that the story has some resemblance to Real Life. The film was based on the novel January Heights by Polan Blanks, which was not governed by Hollywood censorship and thus didn't have to bend over backwards to "legitimize" the baby in the story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Davis, George Brent, (more)
- 1941
The Nurse's Secret is a low-budget remake of Miss Pinkerton (1932), which in turn was based on a play by Mary Roberts Rinehart. Nurse Ruth Adams (Lee Patrick) is on the premises when two people die of what seem to be natural causes. Ruth suspects that they've been murdered, as does her detective boyfriend Tom Patten (Regis Toomey). Snooping around on her own, Ruth uncovers a deucedly clever insurance scam-and, as expected, nearly ends up a victim herself. The pre-Production Code candor of Miss Pinkerton has been toned down considerably in The Nurse's Secret, but the basic premise is still a workable one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Patrick, Regis Toomey, (more)
Though history is distorted almost beyond recognition in Warner Bros.' They Died With Their Boots On, audiences in 1941 ate it up like cotton candy. In the gospel according to Warners, General George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn) is neither an arrogant fool nor a rabid Indian hater. Instead, he is a flamboyant but brilliant cavalry officer, who during the Civil War defies his superiors' orders and becomes a hero as a result. After a period of forced retirement in the postwar years, Custer is put in charge of the 7th Cavalry in the Dakota Territory. Here he whips this ragtag group into spit-and-polish shape, and also does his best to extend a neighborly hand to the local Indian tribes. Custer even goes so far as to promise Chief Crazy Horse (Anthony Quinn) that the white man will never set foot in the sacred Black Hills. Alas, Custer is betrayed by greedy gold prospectors, whipped into a frenzy by scheming (and fictional) land speculator Ned Sharp (Arthur Kennedy). Forced by circumstances to do battle against Crazy Horse to prevent tribal retaliation, Custer and his command ride towards a rendezvous with destiny at the Little Big Horn on June 25, 1876. Though some of the historical inaccuracies in the film are real howlers, blame cannot be laid solely at the feet of Warner Bros.; the Custer legend had previously been perpetrated by the general's loyal widow Elizabeth Bacon (played herein by Olivia de Havilland), then eagerly elaborated upon by Eastern news journalists and dime novels. This film represented the final screen pairing of Errol Flynn and Olivia de Havilland, a fact that lends poignancy to their classic parting scene. Though an extremely long film, They Died With Their Boots On is never dull, especially during the spectacular Custer's Last Stand finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Errol Flynn, Olivia de Havilland, (more)
- 1940
In this western, two disparate twins ride the range. One is a real troublemaker while the other is a government agent. When the bad brother is sent to prison, the good one begins posing as him so he can capture two outlaws. He does so, but then finds himself accosted by an angry dance-hall girl who says that he (the bad brother) had promised to marry her. The good brother's girl friend has a thing or two to say about that and romantic mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chester Morris, Anita Louise, (more)
- 1940
Producer Walter Wanger's House Across the Bay serves as an excellent showcase for Wanger's then-wife Joan Bennett. She is cast as nightclub singer Brenda Bentley, the wife of high-rolling gambler Steve Lawrett (George Raft). When Steve is railroaded into Alcatraz by duplicitous attorney Slant Kolma (Lloyd Nolan), Brenda promises to remain faithful to her husband during his incarceration, even going so far as to purchase an apartment "across the bay" from the island prison so that she can be near him. But while Steve is serving his time, he discovers that Brenda has succumbed to the charms (and innate decency) of handsome Tim Nolan (Walter Pidgeon). Enraged, Steve vows to kill Nolan, staging a daring escape attempt to realize his goal. But will Steve be able to get off "the rock" in one piece, succeeding where so many others have failed? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Raft, Joan Bennett, (more)
- 1940
A Child is Born is a remake of 1932's Life Begins, softened to conform to stricter movie censorship and lengthened to qualify as an "A" picture. The film is an episodic account of one particularly busy night in a maternity hospital. A generous portion of screen time is lavished on a gangster's moll (Geraldine Fitzgerald), about to give birth to her illegitimate baby. The young woman dies in childbirth, but other subplots end more happily. Even at 79 minutes, A Child is Born seems more padded and protracted than its 1932 predecessor--notably in a contrived sequence wherein the only surgeon qualified to perform a delicate operation is blinded in an accident. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jeffrey Lynn, (more)
- 1940
Stalwart Warner Bros. contract player George Reeves, better known as TV's Superman, was given an early opportunity to "carry" a picture in the 1940 quickie Always a Bride. Wealthy Rosemary Lane, dissatisfied with her dishwater-dull fiance John Eldredge, throws him over in favor of Reeves. To make certain that her new beau will be acceptable to her parents, Lane contrives to have Reeves enter a mayoral campaign. As election day draws close, criminals complicate matters (one of the "disreputables" is Ben Welden, later a frequent Superman guest star) The 58-minute Always a Bride was pared down from a three-act play by Barry Conners. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosemary Lane, George Reeves, (more)
- 1940
In It's a Date, the teenage diva Deanna Durbin is cast as Pamela Drake, the daughter of celebrated stage actress Georgia Drake (Kay Francis). Hoping to find success as an actress herself, Pamela energetically lobbies for the role of the maid in an upcoming play based on the life of St. Bernadette -- a role that has already been given to Georgia. When those conducting the auditions hear Pamela's singing, however, they quickly change their mind and offer the part to her. The rivalry between Pamela and Georgia intensifies when both fall in love with handsome middle-ager John Arlen (Walter Pidgeon). Innumerable complications follow, leading to a happy ending for both mother and daughter, though not quite the ending that either one had in mind. Deanna Durbin's musical repertoire this time out includes "Musetta's Street Song" from La Bohème, "Loch Lomond," "Love Is All," and a curious climactic rendition of "Ave Maria." It's a Date was remade in 1950 as Nancy Goes to Rio, with Jane Powell and Ann Sothern. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deanna Durbin, Kay Francis, (more)
- 1940
Henry Fonda plays Chad Hanna, a New York country bumpkin of the mid-nineteenth century who joins a travelling circus. He falls in love with beauteous bareback rider Dorothy Lamour, but she spurns him. Chad Hanna then finds himself attracted to another runaway, country girl Linda Darnell. Though everybody assumes that the boy is slow on the uptake, Chad Hanna manages to save the circus from financial ruin. He also secures the services of a trained elephant; when asked how he acquired such a prize, Chad laconically responds "I gave him half interest in the circus." A lightweight period piece, Chad Hanna is visually impressive, and best viewed in its original pristine Technicolor state. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Fonda, Dorothy Lamour, (more)
- 1940
Rosalind Russell and Brian Aherne go through their customary farcical paces in the formula romantic comedy Hired Wife. Russell plays Kendal Browning, the superefficient secretary of business executive Stephen Dexter (Brian Aherne). When Dexter is legally obliged to put his business and its assets in his wife's name, he is momentarily stymied, inasmuch as he has no wife. Rather than enter into a hasty marriage with one of his various amours, Dexter proposes to Kendal, with the firm understanding that their union will be strictly a business arrangement. Is it any surprise that this "in-name-only" set-up culminates in a deep and abiding romance by fade-out time. Also contributing mightily to the overall frivolity is Robert Benchley as Dexter's prudish business partner and Virginia Bruce as a sexy model whom Dexter plans to wed as soon as his financial problems are straightened out, and John Carroll as a temperamental Latin Lover-type-stock characters all, but consummately played. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosalind Russell, Brian Aherne, (more)
Paramount followed up its successful Bob Hope/Paulette Goddard co-starrer The Cat and the Canary (1939) by warming up another venerable "old dark house" stage play, Paul Dickey and Charles Goddard's The Ghost Breaker, pluralizing the title to accommodate both stars. This time Hope plays radio personality Lawrence L. Lawrence (the middle initial stands for Lawrence: "My folks had no imagination") who has to flee New York to avoid being mistakenly arrested for murder. He and his manservant Alex (Willie Best) book passage on a Cuba-bound liner, where they meet lovely heiress Mary Carter (Paulette Goddard). She is heading to Cuba to take charge of her ancestral mansion, despite warnings from several sinister characters that to enter this "haunted" house will mean certain death. Appointing himself Mary's protector, Lawrence investigates the mansion on his own, thereby crossing the path of a zombie (Noble Johnson) and an apparently genuine ghost. He also meets the twin brother of the man he's accused of killing (Anthony Quinn), who seems the most likely suspect when Mary nearly comes to harm. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hope, Paulette Goddard, (more)
- 1940
Hey, gang! Let's put on a swell show and call it Strike Up the Band! Yes, it's the irrepressible Mickey Rooney, teamed up again with Judy Garland to show the grownups how to do things right. This time, Rooney wants to organize a high-school band. He hopes to enter a competition being held in Chicago by the great orchestra leader Paul Whiteman; all he needs is two hundred dollars for train fare. To raise the money, Rooney, Garland and company stage a student "mellerdrammer" that in real life would have cost the equivalent of a third-world-nation annual budget. They get the dough, but soft-hearted Rooney turns over the money to the mother of student musician Larry Nunn, who is in desperate need of emergency surgery. It looks hopeless until, luck of luck, Paul Whiteman arrives in Rooney's town. The original George and Ira Gershwin Broadway musical Strike Up the Band was a satire of warfare, with America declaring war on Switzerland in order to corner the chocolate industry. You'll see none of that subversive stuff in this MGM musical; instead, we are treated to such highlights as a George Pal animated sequence involving dancing fruit. It ain't profound, but Strike Up the Band is sure entertaining. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mickey Rooney, Judy Garland, (more)
- 1940
The notoriously temperamental Miriam Hopkins is ideally cast as equally contentious theatrical prima donna Mrs. Leslie Carter in The Lady With Red Hair. As rapidly paced as any Warner Bros. gangster picture, the film charts Caroline Carter's rise to fame on Broadway through the auspices of impresario David Belasco (Claude Rains). The screenwriters take great pains to cast Carter in a sympathetic light, suggesting that she turned to the lucrative world of the theater to regain custody of her son (Johnnie Russell), won by her husband in their acrimonious 1889 divorce settlement. Though at first she meets with nothing but failure, our heroine perseveres, and by 1904 she is the idol of millions throughout the world. Along the way, she marries visionary producer Lou Payne (Richard Ainley), but by film's end she is reunited with her mentor Belasco. A young Cornel Wilde makes his screen debut as an aspiring actor in a boarding-house sequence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Miriam Hopkins, Claude Rains, (more)
- 1940
Previously filmed in 1923 as a vehicle for Marion Davies, Rida Johnson Young's warhorse theatrical property Little Old New York was dusted off by 20th Century-Fox for Alice Faye, Fred MacMurray and Richard Greene. The latter plays the nominal lead, Scottish inventor Robert Fulton, who in 1807 arrives in New York City with the intention of building a steamboat which will accelerate transportation between the many boroughs. Everyone laughs at "Fulton's Folly" with the exception of gorgeous tavern keeper Pat O'Day (Alice Faye), who offers Fulton shelter and financial assistance. This doesn't sit at all well with Pat's boyfriend Charles Brownne (MacMurray), who like most of the sailors in the region is fearful that Fulton's steamboat will put him out of business. By film's end, however, Brownne has aligned himself with Fulton, if only because of his intense dislike for the villain of the piece, rival mariner Regan (Ward Bond). Several notably 19th century New York personages show up for cute cameo bits, among them Nicholas Roosevelt (Robert Middlemass), John Jacob Astor (Roger Imhof) and Washington Irving (Theodore Von Eltz). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alice Faye, Fred MacMurray, (more)
- 1940
Little Orvie (Johnny Sheffield) is a small boy whose stern father (Ernest Truex) and by-the-book mother (Dorothy Tree) refuse to buy a dog. Orvie befriends a stray mutt, which of course follows him home and just won't leave. Failing to keep the dog's presence a secret, Orvie is ordered to give up the canine. Orvie's dad finally weakens his resolve and reveals himself to be a sentimentalist. Based on a story by Booth Tarkington, Little Orvie provided an unusually "normal" assignment for young Johnny Sheffield, best remembered for his appearances as Boy in the Tarzan pictures and his later starring stint in Monogram's "Bomba the Jungle Boy" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Sheffield, Ernest Truex, (more)
- 1940
A romantic comedy drama directed by former art director Mitchell Leisen and based on a skillful Preston Sturges screenplay. Barbara Stanwyck stars as Lee Leander, a New York City shoplifter who is arrested just before Christmas after trying to filch an expensive piece of jewelry. Her trial delayed until after the holiday, Lee comes to the attention of an assistant district attorney, John Sargent (Fred MacMurray). Although he will be expected to prosecute Lee in a few days, John takes pity on the prisoner, who is from his home state of Indiana. He arranges for her to be released for the holidays and escorts her home, but her mother (Georgia Caine) is not interested in a reunion. So John takes Lee to his own festivities, where Lee is bowled over by the love and affection of the Sargent family, particularly John's mother (Beulah Bondi), who is so unlike her own. Lee and John fall in love, but their return to the Big Apple and Lee's trial loom large over their romance. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Fred MacMurray, (more)
- 1940
Radio humorist Bob Burns plays the title role in Alias the Deacon. Based on a stage play by John B. Hymer and LeRoy Clements (previously filmed in 1927 with Jean Hersholt), the story concerns a philosophical drifter named Deke Caswell (Burns) who is mistaken for the new deacon of a small town. A gambler by nature, Caswell decides to continue the clerical pose so that he can divest the locals of their hard-earned dollars. Instead, he turns honest, eventually solving all of the town's problems. A subplot concerns the "scandalous" (but wholly innocent) relationship between truck driver Johnny Sloan (Dennis O'Keefe) and hitchhiker Phyllis (Peggy Moran). This being a Universal film of the early 1940s, it was all but mandatory for Mischa Auer to show up in an incongrous but amusing supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mischa Auer, Peggy Moran, (more)
- 1940
Told in flashback as Dr. Ernest Sovac (Boris Karloff) is marched into the gas chamber, Black Friday concerns kindly college professor George Kingsley (Stanley Ridges), who is seriously injured when he is caught in the middle of a gangster shootout. Kingsley's best friend Sovac performs an emergency "brain-ectomy", replacing Kingsley's gray matter with that of dying gangster Red Cannon. Though the operation is successful, the mild-mannered Kingsley occasionally lapses into Cannon's more brutal personality, and it is during one of these spells that he reveals the existence of a cache of stolen money. Hoping to use these ill-gotten funds to finance his neurological research, Sovac hypnotizes Kingsley into "becoming" Cannon, and while thus entranced the poor fellow commits several murders, including the elimination of his chief rival, mobster Eric Marnay (Bela Lugosi). Ultimately, Sovac is forced to kill Kingsley/Cannon "for the good of mankind", which brings us full circle to Death Row. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, (more)
- 1939
In this romance, a young woman journeys from Syracuse to New York to see her sweetheart, a prominent architect. She is bitterly disappointed to discover that he has lost interest in her. The residents of the women's hotel at which she stays offer the heartbroken lass words of encouragement. They tell her to take a stand and to show him what he is missing. She takes their advice and becomes a renowned fashion model. Naturally this piques the designer's interest and he wishes to court her anew. Of course, she by then has many suitors, so he must really work to win her back. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell, (more)
- 1939
According to Hollywood, the parents were generally at fault when good kids went bad. This theory is elucidated in Columbia's Parents on Trial, wherein strict disciplinarian James Westley (Henry Kolker) fails to understand or appreciate the real needs and feelings of his teenaged daughter Susan (Jean Parker). Rebelling against parental tyranny, Susan falls in with a gang of youths from similar unhappy households. Minor misbehavior blossoms into major lawbreaking, with parents and kids alike suffering from the results. Among the "kids" in Parents on Trial are Johnny Downs and Noah Beery Jr., both on the sunny side of thirty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Parker, Johnny Downs, (more)
- 1939
Irene Dunne plays an impulsive society girl; Fred MacMurray plays a no-frills prizefighter. They marry (just like Jack Dempsey and his many trophy wives) in the waning days of the Roaring 20s. MacMurray begins training so diligently for the championship that he neglects his wife and son (Billy Cook). Fed up, mother and child walk out. Ten years later, MacMurray, looking not one scintilla older, finally gets his championship bid. He also regains his family, after all concerned promise to pay more attention to one another. Invitation to Happiness is what Variety used to call a "Four-Hanky Picture." Sidebar: The director was Wesley Ruggles, who refused to allow a certain member of the supporting cast--Wesley's big brother Charlie Ruggles--to inject any "funny stuff." Charlie begged for one brief comic sequence, and Wesley complied; he just didn't bother to tell Charlie that the scene would be cut even before the first preview. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Irene Dunne, Fred MacMurray, (more)
