Happy Anniversary

Mitzi Gaynor and Niven were quite good as a couple celebrating their thirteenth anniversary. I found the children annoying--especially the son. I found the conflict of the film amusing--Niven, after having consumed too much alcohol, lets it be known to Gaynor's parents that he and their daughter had engaged in relations prior to their marriage. This of course scandalizes Gaynor's parents, especially her mother who feels like a fool for having had a deep heart-to-heart conversation with her daughter (presumably about sex) the night before the wedding.

The other conflict in the film is that Gaynor's parents purchase a television set for the family. Niven deems television detrimental to family life and to people's intelligence and does not want one in the house. A running gag is that Niven keeps ruining the television sets. Anyway, the thing I was most surprised about was the amount of language in the film. While I'm used to 1950s films having more colorful words allowed (the word "hell" or "damn" will be heard once or twice in the film), Happy Anniversary seemed to have more of these words than I'm accustomed to in a film that is still technically in the production code era.

I also found the frank discussion of sex very interesting. At the beginning of the film, Niven and Gaynor's characters clearly sneak off to a hotel for a romantic rendezvous, then there's Niven letting the cat out of the bag about he and Gaynor's pre-marital sex, later, their little girl ends up on television to inquire about her parents' pre-marital sex and how that was negatively affecting their relationship.

There seems to be a recurring problem with films that have one foot in the production code era and one in the budding sexual revolution. They can't really figure out what they are about and wind up having neither the courage nor the quaintness of their convictions on either side. This one is mainly saved by Niven's charm and Gaynor's skill.

As a young girl, my all-time favorite film star was David Niven. I went to as many of his films as I could. Happy Anniversary was a hilariously funny film. Of course, since television became such an American staple, some might not find the humor in it. I call TV the plug-in drug! So, I have always felt this very funny film was a masterpiece.

In 1959, there were several precursors to the typical "1960s sex comedy," including Pillow Talk and Happy Anniversary. In this hormone-based comedy, David Niven and Mitzi Gaynor are married with two kids and too busy to focus on each other anymore. Of course, we all know it that means when The Niv comes home from work early, gets into his bathrobe, and calls Mitzi up to the bedroom. Then, with phone calls, kids barging in, and their cook interrupting, they sigh and face the rest of the day without their afternoon diversion. Niv complains and reminds his wife how much fun they had the year before they were married, sneaking off to hotel rooms and going to dive bars.

When Mitzi's parents (whom The Niv naturally hates) come over for dinner, Niv drinks one too many cocktails and lets the cat out of the bag. Mitzi's folks are shocked and disgusted that he sampled the goods before the wedding, and when he reminds them, "Well, I married her, didn't I?" it doesn't go over well. Of course there are fights and humiliations and vows never to forgive, and by the end of the night, The Niv is banished to the couch while Mitzi hides behind her locked bedroom door.

If you like to chuckle about jokes old movies get past the censors, you might like this one. While out to lunch on a date without their family responsibilities, The Niv promises to never lose his temper again. Mitzi is so grateful, she asks if there's anything she can do for him. He smiles and the scene cuts to show the outside of a hotel. When they come home later that afternoon, they're all smiles and giggles. I thought it was entertaining because David Niven's comic timing is wonderful, and it was funny to see him take all his frustrations out on his wife instead of reverting to his playboy ways. I normally can't stand Mitzi Gaynor, but if there's anyone who can make her look good, it's The Niv. Try it out with a bunch of your girlfriends and cocktails this weekend!

I have caught some of this this morning because the little girl that was playing in it was the same little girl that played Helen Keller on The Miracle Worker (1962). Looking quite different here, she puts on a cutesy nails-on-a-chalkboard Shirley Temple (if I may say so) voice which sometimes disturbed me about her earlier work. She looks a little like Natalie Wood or Margaret O'Brien. But her acting was pretty charming. None of the actors did an exceptional job, everybody had some forced moments.

The girl in there is obnoxious and precocious like her brother, she fights with her brother and I know that that can be that way with siblings, especially when they get older but they were still precociously insolent. Even to their parents, the children disregard the rules. That may not have been clichéd those days but it just didn't age well.

The movie pretty much only manages a chuckle out of me. The romance was just saccharine. And some of the scenes were forced.

Here's another one of those funny movies the whole family can enjoy. You can really relate to this one, because the funny things here really happen in real life. My favorite is Niven's toast at dinner that starts a family argument. I can just see my family reacting to it now. As usual in the fifties, family values are squeaky clean, but that doesn't deter from the plot or the humor, which is the kind Niven fans expect.

David Niven is great as usual. Patty Duke is excellent and funny. Mitzi Gaynor is the perfect Barbie send-up, and as always, perfect for the time. If I could find it on tape, I would buy it, since this is a classic for its time, like "The Importance of Being Earnest" was decades earlier.