Many Happy Returns

Department store owner George Barbier returns from Europe to find that daughter Gracie Allen has turned the property into a bird sanctuary, while other daughter Jon Marsh has taken up with Ray Milland, and they're off to Hollywood to star in a movie. So Barbier marries Miss Allen to George Burns at $10 a mile, sends them to Hollywood, and hires a couple of gangsters to kidnap Miss Marsh back. Instead Burns & Allen take the juveniles' role in the movie.

Well, that doesn't sound good for the movies. It's an hour of Miss Allen doing her nitwit routines, which is charming, but goes on a bit too long. There are plenty of specialty acts to vary the comedy, like Veloz & Yolanda, Guy Lombardo and His Royal Canadians, Duke Ellington on the piano, and Larry Adler playing the harmonica. The best sequence is the one in which Miss Allen wrecks the movie.

This is the fifth early movie I've seen with George Burns in it, and it looks to me that he didn't do anything without his partner Gracie Allen. The two were a comedy tandem in which he played the straight man and Gracie played the ditz.

In "Many Happy Returns" George Burns and Gracie Allen again play characters with no name change. They worked for Gracie's father, Horatio Allen (George Barbier). Horatio owned a radio station which Gracie was attempting to get torn down and converted into a bird sanctuary or something like that.

Why?

Who knows why Gracie does the things she does.

Horatio had Gracie see a psychoanalyst. The psychoanalyst concluded that Gracie was stuck on George, or as she called him, Georgie Porgie. Perhaps if she married George she would stop monkeying with her father's business and behave normally. Upon hearing that, Horatio offered George his daughter, Gracie, except George wasn't amenable to marrying Gracie if he had anything to say about it.

Horatio wouldn't be denied his request, or should I say demand. He gave George an ultimatum: marry his daughter or be fired. When George again rejected the offer, Horatio offered him $10/mile of travel on their honeymoon from New York to California. That came out to $30,000, which George couldn't refuse.

So they were married.

The rest of the movie would be more of Gracie and her goofiness, George trying to remain sane, and a kidnapping plot involving Florence (Joan Marsh), Horatio's other daughter.

Free on Internet Archive.

Beautiful, adorable Gracie Allen! If only more people were as "crazy" as the characters she plays, the world would be a better place. It doesn't matter what's going on, she always sees the best in everything, and if it's not the best, she's got the best answer for everything. She's just the best! And gosh, but I love her voice!

Yes, she can be a little much to handle, but by the end, you just got to love her. Even George, who was forced to marry her in this movie, summed it up when he said "Gracie, you'll be the death of me! I don't know what to do with you! Then again, I don't know what I do without you!" And that's the beauty of Gracie and her screen persona, she's just so lovable, no matter how annoying, she's just so gosh darn adorable!

And let's face it, being too smart is really what is the death of us all. If we would all just live in a little more blissful ignorance, like Gracie Allen does on the screen, we would all be so much happier! Ignorance truly is bliss, but not only that, I think that it would make us better people, not just happier, but nicer. The more we know, the angrier we get, the more we act to lash out at people, etc. Ignorance is the answer to world peace. The smartest people can be some of the meanest. But the opposite is also true. Think about it. Or, better yet, think a little less, and be a little more like Gracie!

I love you, Gracie Allen! And George Burns, you weren't so bad yourself! My favorite showbiz Couple ever! They just make me feel good! The energy that they have together - not sexy, but rather sweet, innocent, and wholesome - but never drab, never boring, and not unromantic either. They have this wonderful oneness to them - a oneness that exudes family and unconditional love, and they exude this all while being so briskly funny and light. This is the kind of relationship I dream of! They just make me pleased and rather proud to be part of humanity, because they are two of my favorite humans! Gosh, I love them! How many more ways can I say it? I can never say it enough to express just how much I adore them!

Oh, and I just realized tonight that Gracie Allen was born in 1895, which is basically my girl Joan Jett's birth year scrambled, as she was born in 1958. Moreover, this film was sold to Universal for television distribution in 1958 too, so little Joanie in her bassinet might have seen this on the TV! Plus Gracie's sister in this movie is played by a Joan, i.e. Joan Marsh. And everything comes full circle!

I am a fan of Burns & Allen.I am old enough to remember their television series being shown on BBC in the 50s.I think that they are a funny team even if it is a bit one joke all the time.I believe that they were less well served by their films and unfortunately this film proves that point.Unfortunately the antics of Gracie in this film are unfunny and over the top.I think that if i hear her shout "Georgieporgie" at Burns one more time i will put my fist through the screen.Interestingly they are not top billed this dubious honour belongs to Guy Lombardo and His Orchestra.So if you are a fan of this duo i would say ,give this one a miss.