Cortechba Overrated

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Caryl It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties. It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

mark.waltz Forget the usual musical Warner Brothers leading ladies of the 1930's who surrounded crooner Dick Powell with tap dances, huge eyes and wisecracks. There's no Ruby, Joan or Ginger around, just the non-singing Josephine Hutchinson playing the most frequently dramatized of screwball heroines: the slumming heroine. Running out on her family's lavish New Year's Eve party, she ends up in a night club where she befriends real people, unaware of who she really is, ultimately finding love with handsome Powell. It's a reverse of Powell's 1933 "Gold Diggers" plot to where he played a struggling songwriter who was really a rich kid from Boston. To connect Powell's part in that with Hutchinson's in this, they both share the same last name (Bradford), and an easy going attitude in spite of being heirs to huge fortunes. A super duper cast of supporting players surround them, including John Halliday and Marjorie Gateson as Hutchinson's socialite parents, Ruth Donnelly as her maid and Allen Jenkins as her chauffeur who run into her on one of her outings, and Mary Treen, Frank McHugh and Dorothy Dare as Powell's pals. "Pop Goes Your Heart" stands out among Powell's songs. This is a gem among forgotten jewels, and is worthy of higher recognition.

MartinHafer During the 1930s, Dick Powell played a lot of similar roles--the fresh-faced young man who sings some very high-pitched but pleasant songs. The public adored it...and Powell hated it and wanted meatier, tougher roles. In my opinion, he was right and his tough- guy roles are my favorites. As for the guy he plays in "Happiness Ahead", it's pretty much the typical 30s Powell film.Joan (Josephine Hutchinson) is a rich, pampered society girl. However, she's vaguely dissatisfied about this and longs for fun in her life...something sorely lacking at her boring high-brow parties. So, she decides to slum it and goes on on New Years Eve to see how the normal folks live and celebrate. There she meets nice-guy, Bob (Powell) and they soon start dating. She's very happy but he has no idea she's loaded.This plot is awfully familiar in the 1930s. You would have thought that films would have avoided the whole bored rich girl angle--after all, it WAS the Depression and many folks were just happy to get enough to eat! But despite this, films like "Five and Ten" and "Poor Little Rich Girl" and this one were pretty common. This isn't necessarily a complaint but does mean that the film isn't exactly original.So is it any good? Well, most of the songs were pretty forgettable but I liked the one Powell and Frank McHugh sang as they washed windows as well as the weird number in the bizarre Chinese restaurant/night club near the beginning of the picture. I personally just hoped they'd end soon so they could get back to the romance--which was rather cute and enjoyable. Deep? No way...but cute.

Dunham16 This singing romance assigns the main songs to Dick Powell who clocks in and assigns the men at a window washing franchise assisted by Dorothy Dare as a secretary and a less well known 1930's personality Frank McHugh As a window washer. Other familiar names from popular 1930's films currently available on DVD include Jane Darwell as the inquisitive landlady and Allan Jenkins as the chauffeur in love with the ladies maid. Roy Del Ruth splices plot twists from several familiar movie sources including the society girl trying to convince a working class gent she is poor and out of work, a well heeled wet rag using the traditions of society to wed the society girl in an arranged marriage, an understanding father trying to fend off a gorgon mother, hi jinks at a 1930's skating rink, a party in an apartment complex causing physical damage to the rented apartment, faithful house staff covering up the escapades of a family member and songs popping out of nowhere on a restaurant table and on a window ledge. Roy Del Ruth provides snappy dialogue, fascinating photography and editing including camera hi jinks along the exterior of a tall office building and well over an hour and a half of pure cinematic delight. Other than you've seen most of this before in different 1930's movies a perfect film.

calvinnme This is one of those films so popular in the 1930's in which a rich person, either intentionally or through coincidence, is mistaken for a person of modest means. As a result of this, the rich person ends up falling in love with a person of actual modest means.In this case Joan Bradford (Josephine Hutchinson) is a wealthy heiress who is expected to marry a wealthy heir in a manner that resembles a corporate merger more than a romance. On the night that the engagement is to be announced she escapes her parents' mansion and begins walking along the streets of New York City. She goes into a night spot where she meets a group of young people, one of whom is window washing dispatcher Bob Lane (Dick Powell). Bob offers Joan a ride home at the evening's end, and she accepts. She doesn't want Bob to know she is wealthy, so she picks a random boarding house and tells him to drop her off.Now the problems of the deception begin. Joan has given Bob a fake name - Joan Smith - and Bob is expecting to pick her up for a date in a few days at an address where she does not live. So Joan rents a place there and furnishes it, only showing up on Sundays, Wednesdays, and Fridays right before her dates with Bob, and going back to her real home after he drops her off. She manages to fend off her mother's questions with the help of her sympathetic father (Jack Halliday). However, Joan soon finds she is in love with Bob, and with him talking about the two of them having a future together, she must face how to let him know who she really is without him feel betrayed.This film is a bit of a departure for Dick Powell's musical films. He is not playing someone with musical abilities who is itching to be discovered. There are no big musical numbers in the film, just Powell singing a few catchy songs. This is a very fun film if you like the Warner Brothers musical comedies from the 1930's.