You Gotta Stay Happy by H.C. Potter (1948)
17 June 2008I love films that involve flying, so I was a sucker for this love story featuring a rich heiress running from her wedding and meeting a most interesting cargo pilot. Stewart is great, he always gives an extra in his roles as a pilot, and Joan Fontaine is lovely, and you can see why he would fall for her. Not only that, but the miniatures, and playing landing in a storm sequence are great, and exciting, especially for the time. Well worth checking out.
Joan Fontaine is Dee Dee Dillwood a very wealthy heiress who has been engaged and unengaged more times than she can count. Finally her psychiatrist convinces her that she should marry her fiancee who is a good choice for her, so they marry, but right away she knows it is a mistake. She is in a hotel on her wedding night, and wants to get away from her husband. At the hotel the owner of an air cargo service named Marvin Payne (James Stewart) is staying in a room, which he got a deal on because a friend of his works there, and he has to leave early. That night Dee Dee sneaks out her hotel room, in only pajamas, and ends up in Marvin’s room, saying she is running from someone, and he doesn’t want to, but he lets her sleep in the bedroom, though she has trouble sleeping, so has to get sleeping pills, which really nock her out. That morning Marvin’s co-pilot Bulelts Baker (Eddie Albert) shows up, and they have to deal with getting Dee Dee out of the room, and out of the hotel before a wedding takes over the room, and the end up with her tagging along to the airport, wanting to go withe them to California.
REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS...
It turns out that Bullets has gambled their gas money away, so he is finagling some illegal passengers for the flight, and he gets a newlywed couple and Dee Dee gets a guy who is in a hurry, with something in his bad, and whose blond girlfriend is taking a different flight. Marvin isn’t too happy, but he does the flight, and they have to dodge the law on their first stop, but it makes Marvin think that Dee Dee is the blond on the run with money with their other passenger, so he ends up trying to make a more dangerous run, and they have to put down in a field, almost crashing.
Some people help them out with a place to stay, and Marvin really starts to get feelings for Dee Dee and she for him. And after seeing the guy with the money, who stole it with his secretary is going to turn himself in so he can be with his family again, and Marvin finds out who Dee Dee really is, and that she is married, and he ends up making her go her own way, when they right the plane to go on it’s final leg.
The plane gets in, but all the cargo is now late, so they are in trouble financially, and Marvin is horrified to find out that everyone else has sold their stock in the company to some woman, who he realizes is Dee Dee.
Marvin goes to confront Dee Dee, and how he will leave the company, but then the new Payne aircraft shows up, his dream plane, and he can’t be anything but in love with her when he is around her.
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A cut little love story, and well worth checking out!
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