This Happy Feeling ** (1958, Debbie Reynolds, Curd Jürgens, John Saxon, Alexis Smith, Mary Astor, Troy Donahue,) – Classic Movie Review 10,089

John Saxon won the Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer – Male as Bill Tremaine in writer-director Blake Edwards’s age gap comedy This Happy Feeling (1958), which is based on the play For Love or Money by F Hugh Herbert and also stars Debbie Reynolds and Curd Jürgens [Curt Jürgens].

The young and cute Debbie Reynolds (then 26) plays Janet Blake, who falls for her handsome mature thespian boss Preston Mitchell (Curd Jürgens), who is considered too elderly a catch for one so young. Saxon plays the young neighbour who befriends Janet.

This early Edwards comedy bears some traces of cloying sentimentality and heavy-handed humour, which are unusual for him. His patchy screenplay has its moments, but it lacks enough sharpness, wit and edge, and is sometimes unworthy of the high standard of the performances that the notable cast brings to it. The wonderful Estelle Winwood as a batty landlady called Mrs Early helps to raise the scattered laughs this meagre comedy has to offer.

Also in the cast are Alexis Smith, Mary Astor, Troy Donahue, Hayden Rorke, Gloria Holden, Alex Gerry and Joe Flynn.

To get audiences in the mood, it was sold as ‘Another spicy look at love by the author of The Moon Is Blue’ and as ‘That Tammy girl is back’.

This Happy Feeling is directed by Blake Edwards, runs 92 minutes, is made by Universal International Pictures, is released by Universal, is written by Blake Edwards, is shot in CinemaScope and Eastmancolor by Arthur E Arling, is produced by Ross Hunter, is scored by Frank Skinner.

John Saxon, born Carmine Orrico (August 5, 1935 – July 25, 2020)

RIP John Saxon, star of Joe Kidd (1972), Enter the Dragon (1973) Black Christmas (1974), Tenebrae (1982), and A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), who died at 84 on 25 July 2020. He was born Carmine Orrico on August 5, 1935 in Brooklyn.

He contracted with Universal Studios in April 1954 at $150 a week but it was 18 months before they first used him. Later the hit low-budget teen movie Rock, Pretty Baby (1956) established Saxon as a teen idol. This Happy Feeling was his first A film. In Cry Tough (1959) he had the main role.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,089

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