Not for love or money

Debbie Reynolds was TCM's Star of the Month back in March, and this gave me the opportunity to record several of her movies that I hadn't seen before. Back in September I mentioned Mary, Mary when TCM aired it, pointing out how it didn't really escape its stage origins. Another Reynolds film based on a stage play was This Happy Feeling.

We actually don't see Reynolds for a while. Instead we see Curt Jurgens. He plays Preston Mitchell, commonly called Mitch. Mitch is one of those stage stars in an era when everybody, at least of a certain demographic and residency, knew the stage stars. But he'd like to retire from the stage to a farm in Connecticut, much to the consternation of friend Nita Holloway (Alexis Smith) and a producer. They want him to play the father of a character to be played by the big new star of the stage, Tony Manza (Troy Donahue). Mitch politely turns them down, and goes home.

Storming into Mitch's house is neighbor Bill Tremayne (John Saxon). He, like everybody else in the area, has been invited to a housewarming party for a couple who recently moved to the area, the Dovers. Bill comes over to tell Mitch about it, and if Mitch doesn't want to come, at least perhaps Mitch can lend Bill his car so Bill doesn't have to walk over in the rain. It's at the party where we finally see the Debbie Reynolds character. She plays one Janet Blake, a secretary who went to the party with her boss. But she'd like to get away from her boss, because he's doing things that today would be considered sexual harassment.

Janet buttonholes Bill, trying to get him to take her home, or at least to to nearest commuter train station. Bill, seeing Janet and already having been revealed to be a ladies' man, starts showing the sort of interest in Janet that her boss had been showing her. Janet, being terribly ticked, gets out of the car and starts running -- anywhere -- to get the heck away from poor Bill. She winds up at Mitch's house, and Mitch is kind enough to offer her a room so she can dry off and have a place to spend the night.

Mitch decides to give her a job as his secretary, mostly out of convenience so that Nita won't think Mitch had any bad intentions having a lovely young thing like Janet in his house overnight. Bill shows up, and also suspects the motives of Janet and Mitch. More complications ensue, leading to the predictable ending.

This Happy Feeling is supposed to be a comedy, but for me, it wasn't all that funny, largely because none of the characters are particularly likeable or nice to each other. There's also a subplot involving Mitch's maid (Estelle Winwood) and a seagull she shot by mistake but did not kill. That subplot is equally grating. Also not helping is the fact that while the opening says the movie was filmed in Cinemascope, we only get a panned-and-scanned release in 4:3.

Fans of stage plays may like This Happy Feeling, but I'm sorry to say I didn't really care for it.