As Long as They’re Happy *** (1955, Jack Buchanan, Diana Dors, Jeannie Carson, Janette Scott, Susan Stephen, Jerry Wayne) – Classic Movie Review 7008

Director J Lee Thompson’s 1955 British comedy stars Jack Buchanan as a stockbroker whose London home is taken over by a Johnnie Ray-style American emotional pop singer, crooner Bobby Denver (Jerry Wayne), hideously mixing tears with the crooning – though it turns out that the tears are onion-induced.

Buchanan plays John Bentley, a suburban father who has a plan to cure the daughters in his family, Pat, Gwen and Corinne (Jeannie Carson, Janette Scott and Susan Stephen), of their passion for the visiting American star, who they trick into visiting  them at their suburban Wimbledon home.

Revue writer Alan Melville opens out Vernon Sylvaine’s satiricial play to become a light-weight, hit-and-miss farcical vehicle for the debonair song and dance man Buchanan, suddenly back in fashion after his lovely partnership with Fred Astaire in The Band Wagon. There are plenty of silly laughs and songs among the tears here, with Buchanan on good imperious form, and a splendid vintage British cast to back him up. It also stars Diana Dors as Pearl Delaney. If you’re old enough to remember any of these names you’ll be happy.

The grumpy broadcaster Gilbert Harding (What’s My Line?) pops in as himself. Also in the cast are Hugh McDermott, Nigel Green, Athene Seyler, David Hurst, Joan Sims, Dora Bryan, Charles Hawtrey, Brenda de Banzie, Joan Hickson, Leslie Phillips, Jean Aubrey, Edie Martin, Peter Illing, Arnold Bell, Pauline Winter, Hattie Jacques, Vivienne Martin, Charles Ross, Ronnie Stevens, John Blythe, Bill Shine and Norman Wisdom.

Joan Sims recalled: ‘I’d love to be able to tell how I performed a glitzy song and dance with Jack Buchanan, but I was just the fainting maid, overcome by the sight of the big Hollywood star turning up in the household.’

As Long as They’re Happy is directed by J Lee Thompson, runs 91 minutes, is a Group production, is released by General Film Distributors (UK), is written by Alan Melville, is shot in Eastmancolor by Gilbert Taylor, is produced by Raymond Stross and scored by Stanley Black.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7008

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