SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Lack of good storyline.

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

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

In New York, the spoiled Diana "Dee Dee" Dillwood (Joan Fontaine) is an indecisive millionaire that has broken with her various fiancées. Her uncle and her psychiatrist convince Diana to get married with Henry Benson (Willard Parker) and they go to a fancy hotel. Meanwhile the pilot Marvin "Marv" Payne (James Stewart), who owns an air flight company with two old airplanes with his friend Bullets Baker (Eddie Albert), lodges in the wedding suite on the next door of Dee Dee and Henry expecting to rest to fly to California on the next morning. Dee Dee flees from the wedding night and hides in Marv's room. She uses a strong sleeping pill and on the next morning, she does not wake up. Marv and Bullets take her to the airport and she convinces them to take her to California with them and a chimpanzee; a soppy couple that has just married; an embezzler with a wallet full of money; a coffin with a body; and frozen seafood. After a storm, passenger and crew are stranded in a farm of a hospitable family where Dee Dee learns that the she will find her true love when she kisses the right man. "You Gotta Stay Happy" is a delightful screwball comedy with James Stewart and Jean Fontaine that show wonderful chemistry. I saw this movie yesterday and I laughed a lot with the funny situations, especially when the poor Marv wants to sleep and is interrupted many times. It is amazing how Hollywood does not present a tribute to Jean Fontaine (96), to her sister Olivia de Havilland (97), to Maureen O'Hara (90) and to Lauren Bacall (89) and any other actor or actress from the Golden Age still alive in the Oscar ceremony. Ms. Lauren Bacall is still filming but it would be heartwarming to see Ms. Jean Fontaine, Ms. Olivia de Havilland and Ms. Maureen O'Hara reunited again, after all those years. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): Not Available

Though "You Gotta Stay Happy" came after the heyday of screwball comedies, it follows the recipe well enough: take one zany heiress, mix up with earnest hero, add wise-cracking best friend, toss in some comic stereotypes for support, add a dash of innocent deception to get the plot rolling, then a pinch of mistaken identity (or something like it) to keep things stirred up, and top off with some chaste romance. Bake (or half-bake) for a little over an hour and a half, garnish with a cigar-smoking chimpanzee, and... voilà! Enjoyable light entertainment. You may be hungry an hour later, but it's fun while it lasts.Jimmy Stewart's Marvin Payne is a variation on the actor's patented good-guy persona: a decent if sometimes cranky pilot, he's trying to keep his ramshackle airline *and* his carefully crafted life-plan running smoothly. Joan Fontaine, proving surprisingly proficient at comedy, plays indecisive rich girl Dee-Dee Dillwood, whose antics seem calculated to throw Marvin off schedule in both arenas. And Eddie Albert, as "Bullets" Baker, shines in an early and excellent incarnation of what would become his trademark 1950s character-- the lovable sidekick.It's hard to outline the plot without giving it all away-- partly because all the pieces are intertwined, and partly because there aren't all that many pieces-- but I'll try. Fontaine's running from the altar, and Stewart, not fully aware of her circumstances, is somehow persuaded to let her aboard his cargo plane. Meanwhile, co-pilot Albert has enterprisingly sold seats to a few other unauthorized personnel. Will our intrepid fly-boys manage to steer their two-engine plane through stormy weather to complete all deliveries and stave off bankruptcy, or will they be too distracted by the fact that the police seem to be looking for one of their illicit passengers? And how about Stewart's heart, which seems to be flip-flopping for Fontaine a full six years ahead of schedule (he's penciled in "love" for 1954)? Will he be relieved or upset, if and when he learns her full story? It'd be too much to say that "the plane lifts off and hilarity ensues," but I was both amused by the proceedings and invested enough in the leads to care whether they got their happy ending. A warning: some of the aforementioned comic stereotypes-- naive Native Americans, women content to stay in their place-- haven't aged as well as others, so put on your 1940s hat before popping in the DVD.

Though screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby and It Happened One Night had run their cycle by World Way II, Universal was persuaded to try it again with this frothy story about runaway heiress Fontaine escaping her stuffy groom for the charms of pilot Jimmy Stewart who is running a shoestring flying service. Stewart's finesse with this genre shows as does Eddie Albert's as yet another snappy best friend. Fontaine is more sweet than brittle with a comedic line, but thanks to a great supporting cast like Porter Hall, Roland Young, Percy Kilbride, and a cigar-smoking chimp,You Gotta works pretty well. The frantic pace relaxes more than it should when the cast gets airborne, but this is a very entertaining film of its kind with more than a few laughs.

I think this movie is charming. It is part farce and part whimsy. It is not a great comedy, and I don't think it was ever intended to be. It has a few stereotypical characters, but that can be fun. I have seen the movie several times. It is pure escapism.