Highly Overrated But Still Good

a film so unique, intoxicating and bizarre that it not only demands another viewing, but is also forgivable as a satirical comedy where the jokes eventually take the back seat.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

For my money Vera-Ellen was the best all-round female dancer from Hollywood's golden era. There were better tap-dancers such as Eleanor Powell or Ann Miller, but Vera-Ellen was extremely good at all types of dance including balletic movement. She also had just about the most beautiful pair of legs I have ever seen & they are wonderfully show-cased in this movie. Rooprect in his review says there are two reasons for watching this movie, "VERA-ELLEN'S LEGS". For the ladies there are two handsome, suave & sophisticated men, David Niven & Cesar Romero, but Vera-Ellen's legs are reason enough for me! In his review of "Happy Go Lovely", jacob chiong says the plot is "simple & easily digestible, the humour is light & clean". That very succinctly sums it all up, really!.

As a lightweight British post-war comedy, it's fine. David Niven's really charming, Vera-Ellen's trying like crazy. As a musical, it's very odd. There's nearly no 'musical' in it, and when you finally get to the two on-stage numbers near the end, you'll be glad. There's one long imitation Gene Kelly odyssey piece about a little girl in a big city that's strangely small and mean and bad. It looks like it should at the start, but I'd swear there wasn't any choreography design per se, just the general idea of a Kelly avant-garde set. Large scope, small stage, and the routines are so disjointed, you'll wonder how dancers learned the sequences. But as a comedy, it's quite adequate. Vera-Ellen mostly shines as she usually does though it looks like a bit of a struggle to hold onto the lead position. Fortunately for her, pretty soon she'll get a boost from David Niven. He's really the reason you'd want to see this movie, he just couldn't be more forthright, very plainly happy to be there. Caesar Romero's miscast but he's also obviously happy to be working. Both those big presences, Niven's nuanced, Romero's steamrolling, make this a piece of film worth keeping. And of course, as always, the number one attraction is how Vera-Ellen wore the clothes!

"Happy Go Lovely" has only two things going for it. And those two things are Vera-Ellen's legs. This is a British (Excelsior Films) version of an M-G-M musical complete with second tier stars. I would imagine that Vera-Ellen took this role thinking that it might finally propel her to the status of a major musical star. But, I'm sorry to say, Ms. Ellen's chance did not pay off.Opening with a horrible Scottish number and stumbling thru awful dialog to the next dull tune, this movie seems very heavy handed and sloppy. The predictable mistaken identity plot is very thin, and with the exception of David Niven, Cesar Romero (who is way over the top in his role of a Producer) and Bobby Howes (who is totally wasted in a nothing role) the rest of the cast is totally forgettable.The choreography is boring, but Ms. Ellen gives it her all. She was never as famous as most of the other musical stars(and she shouldn't be since she couldn't sing and even had a "dancing stand in" in several of her pictures". But when she did dance, it was just entrancing.It's too bad that this film that could have made her a star did not give her the tools she needed to shine.4 out of 10

David Niven et al are charming in this tale involving the confused identity of Niven's character. The love story and humor were more interesting to me than the musical aspects which seemed rather weak except for Vera-Ellen's dancing talent. Depending on your interest, you can fast-forward these scenes. The confused identity situations seemed more natural and less contrived than most movies and certainly were better than today's TV situation comedies.David Niven is especially good at being David Niven! Ceasar Romero does well, if a little extreme, in his role.