A spoiled heiress who has jilted multiple fiancés embroils a commercial pilot in a series of wacky misadventures.A spoiled heiress who has jilted multiple fiancés embroils a commercial pilot in a series of wacky misadventures.A spoiled heiress who has jilted multiple fiancés embroils a commercial pilot in a series of wacky misadventures.
- Directors
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe leather jacket James Stewart wore for much of the film is the same one he wore when he was flying missions during World War II.
- Quotes
Dr. Blucher: It's perfect natural for a girl to have doubts before getting married. In your case, certainly it isn't surprising; after all, you've been engaged six times.
Ralph Tutwiler: [interrupting] Officially; if you want the unofficial total, you'll need an adding machine.
Featured review
At first I thought You Gotta Stay Happy was just going to be a version of Runaway Bride (decades before that movie came out) and I was not at all excited about that. However, that's not the story being told here. Joan Fontaine isn't playing a woman who is frightened of commitment, instead she's simply a woman who hasn't found the right person. It's a subtle difference, but I appreciated that, and it made the romance click for me. I absolutely loved the early scenes with all the mix-ups in the hotel room. It was charming, and I am always entertained by what was considered scandalous behavior back in the 40s and 50s. If there was any problem with those early scenes it is how quickly the husband is written out of the story, and he doesn't even seem to put any effort into finding his own spouse.
Of course, I wasn't interested in watching a love triangle film, so in the long run I like that James Stewart and Joan Fontaine get so much time alone together (although sometimes with a monkey or Eddie Albert.) Their romance was convincing and I thought they had a nice chemistry with one another. The silly stuff that goes on with their flight is humorous, and I liked how it all snowballed from no passengers to a whole handful of people on board. It was kind of weird that we didn't see all those people hanging around all the time, but they needed to create alone time for the 2 leads. Now, every good rom-com has to have a conflict, and that's the biggest struggle with You Gotta Stay Happy. The things that upset James Stewart's character are kind of ridiculous for anyone to take as offensive or disappointing. I took it all in stride because it was matching the tropes I expect from this genre, but with some different choices I would have loved the film more.
Of course, I wasn't interested in watching a love triangle film, so in the long run I like that James Stewart and Joan Fontaine get so much time alone together (although sometimes with a monkey or Eddie Albert.) Their romance was convincing and I thought they had a nice chemistry with one another. The silly stuff that goes on with their flight is humorous, and I liked how it all snowballed from no passengers to a whole handful of people on board. It was kind of weird that we didn't see all those people hanging around all the time, but they needed to create alone time for the 2 leads. Now, every good rom-com has to have a conflict, and that's the biggest struggle with You Gotta Stay Happy. The things that upset James Stewart's character are kind of ridiculous for anyone to take as offensive or disappointing. I took it all in stride because it was matching the tropes I expect from this genre, but with some different choices I would have loved the film more.
- blott2319-1
- Oct 4, 2022
- Permalink
- How long is You Gotta Stay Happy?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Budget
- $1,673,000 (estimated)
- Runtime1 hour 40 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content