As Long as They're Happy (1955)

User Rating:

4.9/10   

Director:

J. Lee Thompson

Writers:

Alan Melville (writer)
Vernon Sylvaine (play)

Release Date:

9 September 1955 (West Germany)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Musical

Plot:

A stockbroker's youngest daughter tricks an American singer into visiting her family at their suburban Wimbledon home...

Plot Keywords:

Based On Play

Cast

Jack Buchanan	...	John Bentley
Janette Scott	...	Gwen
Jeannie Carson	...	Pat (as Jean Carson)
Brenda De Banzie	...	Stella
Susan Stephen	...	Corinne
Jerry Wayne	...	Bobby Denver
Diana Dors	...	Pearl
Hugh McDermott	...	Barnaby Brady
David Hurst	...	Dr. Schneider
Athene Seyler	...	Mrs. Arbuthnot
Joan Sims	...	Linda
Nigel Green	...	Peter
Dora Bryan	...	May
Gilbert Harding	...	Himself
Joan Hickson	...	Barmaid

Runtime:

91 min | USA:74 min

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl | UK:U | Australia:G

Filming Locations:

Pinewood Studios, Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire, England, UK

Company:

Group Film Productions Limited

Quotes:

Gwen Bentley: It's not infatuation. I'm in love with him.
John Bentley: Don't be ridiculous. He's nearly as old as I am. You're only sixteen.
Gwen Bentley: Juliet was only fourteen when she fell in love with Romeo.
John Bentley: They were foreigners!

Soundtrack:

I Hate the Morning

Bye Bye British Birdie

Really, almost a warmup to the Strouse-Adams stage musical of five years later, in that it's about a teen-idol singer (a crooner here, rock and roll being just on the horizon) who invades an upper-middle-class suburban home, antagonizes the paterfamilias, enthralls his impressionable teenage daughter, and generally charms the women of the neighborhood. As the dad, Jack Buchanan mainly purses his lips and inserts nasal insults into the proceedings; he's nowhere near as broad as Paul Lynde, nor as funny. (But then, his lines are unusually feeble.) And he only gets one brief dance, near the end, and a smattering of vocals. David Hurst, as a cartoonish German shrink studying the effects of a teen heartthrob on the bourgeoisie, is just unforgivably bad. It's not all his fault: J. Lee Thompson, as he did years later with "What a Way to Go!", overemphasizes everything and hammers the comedy into the ground. Jerry Wayne, as the Conrad Birdie of the piece, sings some Johnnie Ray-type ballads with the right sobbing style. And Jeannie Carson, as another of Buchanan's girls, is the best thing in the picture, pretty and spirited and talented, even in an overproduced musical sequence that hasn't much to do with anything. There's also Diana Dors, the camera lingering lovingly on her cleavage, as a good-time party girl. None of it makes sense, the subplots are unrelated to each other, and there's no payoff, but as a chronicle of how the British tried to adopt American pop-culture customs even as they were satirizing them, it's kind of fascinating.