Mervyn Le Roy | Happiness Ahead | The King and the Chorus Girl | Strange Lady in Town

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Mervyn Le Roy

Happiness Ahead

Happiness Ahead (1934) is a little musical comedy. Its first half hour is much better than the rest of the film: it is a typically uneven Le Roy movie. Many of the themes recall Gold Diggers of 1933. Both films involve a character from the upper crust who is trying to break out of their mold, and join the more meaningful world of ordinary people. Here it is heiress Josephine Richardson; in the earlier film it was composer Dick Powell. In both films, the characters conceal their backgrounds. Both films caricature the rich as hopelessly effete and dull. Such caricatures are raised to new heights in Happiness Ahead. However, the film is actually very sympathetic to its upper class businessman. Unlike Sergei Eisenstein, who loathed wealthy businessmen and made them the center of his satire, Le Roy reserves his scorn for rich people who are idle, do not work, and who spend their time in Society. Unlike Eisenstein, Le Roy's philosophy here is not Communism, it is the plain old Capitalist Work Ethic. Le Roy also glorifies the Dick Powell character here, a working class guy who is trying to start a business of his own. He is not too proud to work along side his men, but he wants to be their boss and business owner as well.

Both films also unfortunately target classical music. Both films regard classics as the stuffy, dull music of upper class stiffs. Both regard it as inferior to the lively pop music played by ordinary folks. I do not agree with this point of view at all. However, something at least makes me glad the Le Roy has an opinion that he is not afraid to share. So many films seem to be calculated to appeal to people. Here is a director instead who fearlessly conveys his own ideas.

Happiness Ahead opens with a striking shot of Dick Powell singing, superimposed against a sky. The effect is if as he were a supernatural being, offering advice from a higher and better world. His song is a prediction of Happiness Ahead for the audience, so it is a futuristic forecast, as well. Superimpositions and dissolves were at their height in this era: see Sternberg's extraordinary dissolves in Shanghai Express (1932), for instance. Alan Dwan had superimposed shots of the Three Musketeers over clouds at the end of The Man in the Iron Mask (1929), to convey that they were immortals. Here Le Roy does something similar right from the start. The people on the silver screen have always looked larger than life anyway. Le Roy's startling effect underscores this in spades.

Later in the Le Roy produced The Wizard of Oz (1939), Glinda will appear superimposed in the sky above Dorothy, working her magic protective spells. Here Glinda is an actual fantastic being with magical powers, something that was only suggested in the earlier film. In both cases, the sky being is benevolent. In both, it is trying to help and watch over someone, Dorothy in Oz, the audience in Happiness Ahead. One also recalls the giant figurine which is set afire as part of the fiesta in Strange Lady in Town. It too is designed to help people magically with their troubles.

After this, the film moves fairly rapidly to its great set piece, the New Year's Eve celebration in the Chinese restaurant. Le Roy loved New Year's Eve scenes. This is a bigger, fancier and longer version of the one in Little Caesar (1930), which was already pretty elaborate and impressive. While at the restaurant, Dick Powell sings the film's other best song, "Pop Goes Your Heart". The sympathetically presented, non-caricatured Chinese characters here are a symbol of the film's democratic leanings.

The King and the Chorus Girl

The King and the Chorus Girl (1937) is a very sweet romantic comedy.

The character types in this movie recall previous Le Roy films. Little Caesar (1930) set up an opposition between the strong, tough Rico, and his weak willed friend, played by Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. This young man wanted to dance, not to take part in crime, and the film virtually condemns him as a wimp. However, he is a figure of glamour and romance as well. The King in the later film seems like an extension of the Fairbanks character, adapted to the needs of comedy. Both men are dressed the same, in either double-breasted suits, or in evening clothes. Their white tie and tails are remarkably similar in both movies, even including a watch chain dangling from their pocket. Fairbanks was often shown against nightclub settings; the best scene of the film shows him wandering through a nightclub New Year's Eve celebration, complete with streamers, a visually splendid scene that contrasts with the visual barrenness of much of the rest of the film. Similarly, the King here is often shown against festive, ritzy settings, either night clubs or his own palatial apartment. Both men are easily manipulated by their women, to whom they are devoted. Both are pleasure loving, and self-indulgent; neither is cruel or mean. They often look for the line of least resistance in their affairs.

The King in this film is treated as a likable if easily satirized figure. This is a much more sympathetic treatment than was meted out to the Fairbanks character. I like this treatment much better. What are its underlying causes? Partly, this is a comedy, and comedies are always more sympathetic to human failings. But also, this film is not trying to glorify gangsters. I have felt a great deal of reservations about Little Caesar: Fairbanks reluctance to get involved with crime seemed reasonable to me, but it is virtually condemned as cowardice in that film. In real life, a desire to have fun and to dance is a much more desirable quality than Little Caesar makes it appear. This latter film recognizes it.

Both Le Roy films show a fondness for staircases. These are apartment staircases, and twisted around in spirals. The earlier film also has a fire escape. There are no baroque staircase angles, of the type we associate with film noir. Instead, the staircases are shown from the front, in a straight on angle shot. They are shown as a whole. Le Roy's camera steadily watches a person climb their entire length. These staircases tend to be shot slightly from below, from a ground floor level. This emphasizes the height of the staircases. These scenes have plenty of drama. They are related more to the spectacular sets of the silent and early sound era, then they are to the enclosed spaces and dramatic angles of film noir.

Many Le Roy films of the 1930's alternate between interiors and automotive scenes. These show people riding in cars, and being picked up and dropped off on the sidewalk. The automotive scenes are so common as to almost be a trademark. These scenes are usually upbeat: people usually seem happy, even festive, when they are out driving to some party or event.

Strange Lady in Town

Strange Lady in Town (1955) is one of Le Roy's best dramas. It deals with a woman doctor (Greer Garson), who winds up in Santa Fe, New Mexico in the 19th Century West. The film has a good script, and is vividly acted by a bunch of talented performers. It depicts in a forthrightly feminist way with the issue of women trying to break into professions controlled by men. Greer Garson had previously starred in Le Roy's Madame Curie, another feminist film about a woman scientist. So this is a natural progression for their characters. The sympathetic treatment of the Native American characters is also typical of Le Roy's regard for minorities.

There is less violence here than in many 1950's Westerns. Its female protagonist also makes this atypical of Western films. There is a bubbling sense of happiness running through many of the scenes.

The time period is too early for automobiles, but the film is full of people riding buggies and horses. These are full of Le Roy's usual joy at such activities. There is also one of the dance sequences that run through Le Roy's films. These tend to involve public dancing by groups of people. They are always happy social events.

Dana Andrews is an unusually refined leading man for a Western. He specialized in playing successful urban types, such as the news executive he depicted in Fritz Lang's While the City Sleeps (1956), and the psychologist in Jacques Tourneur's Night of the Demon (1956). Here he is equally civilized, being both a ranch owner and a doctor. He conveys a sense of advancing civilization in the West, something Le Roy regards as an entirely good thing. So does Garson's doctor. Andrews is also as well dressed as the typical Le Roy hero, being in a series of sharp suits, and culminating in white tie and tails, like many other Le Roy males.

Like the King and the heiress in other Le Roy films, here Garson is an upper crust Bostonian who has run away from her home, to start a new life among ordinary people. But Garson is not a spoiled rich woman; instead, she is fleeing discrimination against her as a woman doctor. She is hoping to make a fresh start in Santa Fe. She charms everybody, including a troop of cowboys and most of the locals.