Who payed the critics

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

True to its essence, the characters remain on the same line and manage to entertain the viewer, each highlighting their own distinctive qualities or touches.

Forget the usual musical Warner Brothers leading ladies of the 1930's who surrounded crooner Dick Powell with tap dances, huge eyes and wisecracks. There's no Ruby, Joan or Ginger around, just the non-singing Josephine Hutchinson playing the most frequently dramatized of screwball heroines: the slumming heroine. Running out on her family's lavish New Year's Eve party, she ends up in a night club where she befriends real people, unaware of who she really is, ultimately finding love with handsome Powell. It's a reverse of Powell's 1933 "Gold Diggers" plot to where he played a struggling songwriter who was really a rich kid from Boston. To connect Powell's part in that with Hutchinson's in this, they both share the same last name (Bradford), and an easy going attitude in spite of being heirs to huge fortunes. A super duper cast of supporting players surround them, including John Halliday and Marjorie Gateson as Hutchinson's socialite parents, Ruth Donnelly as her maid and Allen Jenkins as her chauffeur who run into her on one of her outings, and Mary Treen, Frank McHugh and Dorothy Dare as Powell's pals. "Pop Goes Your Heart" stands out among Powell's songs. This is a gem among forgotten jewels, and is worthy of higher recognition.

"Happiness Ahead" is a title that might lure a citizen into a movie theater during the depression. Dick Powell and Josephine Hutchinson are the couple paired to provide the happiness in this story about an heiress (natch!) who falls for a working stiff.The story is very basic. Fortunately, Powell (as Bob Lane) has a nifty singing voice, so the script can allow him to vocalize at regular intervals. The happy couple base their relationship on the misunderstanding that Hutchinson (as Joan Bradford)is also a member of the working class--a misunderstanding that she promotes, and that drives the tension of this story, though things are not that tense. Lightheartedness is the order of the day.Frank McHugh plays Bob's sidekick, whose antics are like a tame version of Curly Howard's--typical for his work. John Halliday plays the aristocratic father of Joan with a light touch that is appealing.You can guess what happens to the two lovebirds in the end. The film is a pleasant diversion.

Not only did Dick Powell get a hit film from Warner Brothers with Happiness Ahead, but he got a radio theme song as long as he was concentrating on musicals. Breaking tradition somewhat, the film opens with Powell singing the title song Happiness Ahead. For the next several years until Powell was doing the dramatic parts he wanted, the song Happiness Ahead served as his theme song in the same way that Where The Blue Of The Night was Bing Crosby's theme. But the film didn't end here.Happiness Ahead is a typical Depression Era film with either a poor shop girl falling for some young millionaire playboy or in this case the other way around. Josephine Hutchinson plays the young débutante who is bored to tears with her society peers and goes out with maid Ruth Donnelly and chauffeur Allen Jenkins one night. At a night club she meets Dick Powell who charms her with a couple of other songs Beauty Must Be Loved and Pop Goes Your Heart. He's a dispatcher for a window washing company and looking to form a company of his own with pal Frank McHugh. Powell doesn't know about Josephine's big bucks and she wants to keep it that way for the moment, but maybe help him on the sly.Of course this leads to all kinds of complications, business and romantic, but in true Hollywood style it all gets resolved in the end.One role I found especially interesting is that of Russell Hicks who plays a grafting politician who has the necessary contacts to get Powell the jobs he needs. We pay him off first before anything else happens. It was an extremely true and insightful role coming from a film that the workingman's studio of Warner Brothers made.John Halliday also has a good part as Hutchinson's father. He made it the hard way himself and secretly appreciates what Josephine wants in a man. So if you like Dick Powell the singer as well as Dick Powell the hardboiled noir star, Happiness Ahead will make you very happy indeed.

Cute little movie with Dick Powell, Frank Mchugh. Any movie Dick Powell sings in is alright with me.