CHANCE AT HEAVEN is a fairly low-key soaper even though near the end it makes some rather startling precode plot turns. Ginger Rogers stars as Marge, a small-town girl who has been a quasi-fiancée to gas station owner Blacky Gorman (Joel McCrea) for two years but he takes her so much for granted you would think they'd been married for decades. Although set in a small town, both of them are quite comfortable financially (Marge's dad owns a store we never see). "Practical" Blacky wants to wait however until he gets a chain of gas stations going before he takes a wife though one has to wonder how much of their engagement is merely Marge's presumption given his rather non-romantic friendship with her. Suddenly another woman enters the picture when New York heiress "Glory" Franklyn (Marian Nixon) and her socialite mother purchase a large estate in the area apparently as a summer home. Blacky is immediately bewitched by this new scenery despite his denials to Marge although this new face is a blatantly shallow and frivolous coquette. Glory awakens a passion in Blacky that true-hearted, sensible Marge really hasn't done and they quickly become an item, with Marge good-naturedly (if incredibly) pulling herself out of the race and wishing them the best.
The couple elopes and Mrs. Franklyn reaches for the smelling salts, horrified that her daughter has married down. Glory attempts to step into the new role as small town wife of a small business owner but she is as dependent on new friend Marge (still hanging in there as a buddy) now as much as she was on her mother in her past life. Eventually Glory becomes pregnant and the news is not especially welcomed by this little shallow flirt who knows Mother will be an even harder role than Wife. Mrs. Franklyn takes her back to New York supposedly for a short rest but as the months past, Blacky begins to wonder just when she is going to return.
Ginger Rogers and Joel McCrea are two very appealing players and do what they can with this story although it's hard to have much sympathy for "nice guy" Blacky when he's been so inconsiderate throughout the picture to Marge, who despite being his "girl" for the first part of the film he treats with little more passion than a buddy. Marge, on the other hand, seems to be a male fantasy of the era, perfect, devoted, and always there no matter what kind of crud you throw at her and it is a bit disheartening to see the delicious spitfire that is Ginger Rogers restrained to this level. Marian Nixon was a fairly popular starlet/second tier star of the era, a minor rival to Janet Gaynor at Fox Films, but here she is miscast as a flighty flirt although she is quite credible in capturing her character's shallowness. Acting honors that are here may belong to character actress Virginia Hammond as Nixon's control freak of a mother.
