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ComedyRomance

The Happy Time

""Eet ees magnifique". And it's all about the birds and the bees...and a lot of delightful people."

User Score13 votes
63%6.3/10
Release1952
Runtime1H 34M
LanguageEnglish
StatusReleased

Synopsis

A violinist and his brother guide one's son through his crush on the family maid in 1920s Ottawa.

Principal Cast8

Full Cast & Crew (31)

Media5

Backdrops

The Happy Time backdrop 1

Posters

The Happy Time poster 1
The Happy Time poster 2
The Happy Time poster 3
The Happy Time poster 4

Director

Richard Fleischer

Richard Fleischer

Director →

Certification

NR

Keywords

violinist1920sottawa, canada

External Links

Reviews1

CinemaSerf7/10

Aside from "Treasure Island" (1950) this might be my favourite film featuring the charming Bobby Driscoll. He's the teenage "Robert/Bibi" who is completely oblivious to the affections of his next door neighbour because he only has eyes for the new maid "Mignonette" (Linda Christian). His obsessiveness starts to affect his schoolwork, and when the lovelorn "Peggy" (Marlene Cameron) doctors a rather risqué copy of "Paris Match" and gets him into hot water, things get so serious as to require the intervention of his dad (Charles Boyer) and two uncles (Louis Jourdan and Kurt Kasznar). They question him about the naughty photos and respect his denial whilst also clocking really quite quickly just what is troubling their young charge. Boyer is also on good form here, and I thought Richard Fleischer's amiable direction allowed the deftly adapted script to tell us a story of pubescent love mixed with familial concern and affection and peppered with some lovely, quite witty, observational humour. Driscoll was seventeen or so when he made this, so he probably had some genuine hormones to add to this genuinely quite enjoyable comedic drama. Don't be put off by the rather ropey title track, it's really quite good fun, this.

Dec 8, 2024

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Countries:United States of America
Production:Stanley Kramer ProductionsColumbia Pictures