Happy Anniversary (United Artists) (1959)

THE STORY (Not for publication) CHRIS and ALICE WALTERS (David Niven and Mitzi Gaynor) are a happy couple on the eve of their 13th wedding anniversary. They have two bright kids, OKKIE (Kevin Coughlin) and DEBBIE (Patty Duke). A television set, a gift of Alice’s parents, arrives and Chris balks at having this modern day “menace” in his home, but he relents and he and Alice wax sentimental. The anniversary dinner _ itself comes off very well. but after dinner, when the kids have supposedly gone to bed, Chris commits a fateful indiscretion. Slightly tipsy from the champagne, he confides to Alice’s parents (Loring Smith and Phyllis Povah) that although he and Alice are celebrating their 13th wedding anniversary, they had actually jumped the gun and enjoyed the benefits of marital bliss for a full year previously. Mr. and Mrs. Gans are horrified and they leave in a rage. Alice is livid at her tactless spouse and things are further complicated by the fact that the two children who had been eavesdropping at the top of the stairs, had overheard the entire conversation. The kids are sent summarily to bed, Alice refuses to speak to Chris and turns on the new TV set. Chris, in a rage, sends his foot crashing through the screen. The following morning they receive a visit from Chris’ law partner, BUD (Carl Reiner), a smooth young man whose task it has been to sign up a wealthy and attractive young divorcee (Monique Van Vooren) for the law firm. Seeing the smashed TV set, Bud goes out and orders a replacement for Alice. When the new set arrives, it is turned on in time to hear and see Debbie standing before a juvenile panel revealing the family scandal to the small fry and to the world. Chris, furious, again smashes the television set. Crisis in the Walters household reaches a peak when Debbie returns, happily waving a $100 bond, and when Bud comes in, Chris accuses him of trying to undermine him by sending gifts to Alice. The fight’s really on and Chris stomps out of the house. The Walters household is pretty glum, when Bud returns to say that Chris is downstairs in the car, waiting contritely for permission to come back. Alice agrees and Chris believes that everything is back to normal, but he underestimates his wife. She tells him firmly that she is leaving him, but at that moment the phone rings and the doctor informs her that the tests have come through positive and that she is going to have another baby. Chris is delighted and Alice relents. As they embrace the television delivery men come back for the third time with a new set ... this one, however, is a gift from Chris himself. RUNNING TIME: 81 MINUTES THE CAST Chris Walters .... DAVID NIVEN Alice Walters...MITZI GAYNOR BON 5 lage hk Carl Reiner Mar. Gans 25 oes Loring Smith Jeanette..... Monique Van Vooren IVINS RG ANAS: «. stoner heters Phyllis Povah RNOONNE 6.5 59:6 cass oslae Patty Duke Mallets. -cacgvestere Elizabeth Wilson ORKIG eae, Kevin Coughlin CREDITS Directed by3.).: esis: David Miller Produced by ........ Ralph Fields Screenplay by.. Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov Based on their play “Anniversary Waltz” Director of Photography Lee Garmes Assistant Director. . Tony La Marca Production Design....Paul Heller Film Editor ...... Richard Meyer Makeupise 2. Herman Buchman Musiccbyieancne ns Sol Kaplan and Robert Allen Songs “I Don’t Regret A Thing” and “Happy Anniversary” Musievby <.2..4.. Robert Allen Lyrics“ bye sae. Al Stillman Sound Engineer ... James Gleason Camera Operator..Edward Hyland Script Supervisor... Roberta Hodes pound Bitects fi. ....2.2 Don Hall PAGE 1 O Stull HA-P-9 David Niven and Mitzi Gaynor bounce convention right out the bedroom window, as the ads say, in the saucy, spicy comedy, “Happy Anniversary,” opening Se ere at the . : x22 PUBLICITY Mat 2G .... Theatre. The movie is adapted from the successful Joseph Fields-Jerome Chodoroy stageplay, “Anniversary Waltz.” “HAPPY ANNIVERSARY” T0 BE CELEBRATED ON BIJOU SCREEN “Happy Anniversary” starring David Niven and Mitzi Gaynor with the new Broadway stage sensation, 10-year-old Patty Duke, will have its local opening next ......... at Gy. eesti Theatre. A Fields Production, “Happy Anniversary” jis Niven’s first starring role since he won the Academy Award last year. It is also the most important screen assignment for Patty Duke, who has received tremendous acclaim for her performance as young Helen Keller in the New York stage success, “The Miracle Worker.” “Happy Anniversary” was written by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodoroy from their stage hit, “Anniversary Waltz.” Ralph Fields produced and David Miller directed. A HAPPY, HAPPY (Prepared Review) David Niven and Mitzi Gaynor romp brazenly and breezily through one of the season’s funniest movies, “Happy Anniversary,” the United Artists release which opened. yesterday, at: the <.....:.. Theatre. The hilarity hardly lets up for a moment while the stars, aided and abetted in their comic capers by Carl Reiner, Monique Van Vooren, Loring Smith and Phyllis Povah, reduce seducing to a _ household word. The fun actually began on the Broadway stage where playwrights Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodoroy first presented the original “Anniversary Waltz.” The play ran for two laugh-filled years and has now been transposed in all its gayety to the big screen. The title has been changed to PAR Stull HA-24 It co-stars Carl Reiner, Loring Smith, Phyllis Povah and Monique Van Vooren, with Kevin Coughlin and Miss Duke as the sprightly children in the story. The musical score was composed and conducted by Robert Allen and Sol Kaplan. The currently popular title song, sung by The Four Lads on the Columbia label, has music by Robert Allen and words by Al Stillman. The anniversary of the title concerns the celebration of the happily married Niven who precipitates a crisis when he lets drop the information that he and his wife, played by Mitzi Gaynor, had enjoyed the benefits of marital bliss a full year before they became _ officially hitched. “ANNIVERSARY” “Happy Anniversary” and the wit sharpened. The result is rowdy, racy. rollicking comedy, beautifully performed by the sharp-witted cast and adroitly directed by David Miller. The story, as you may recall, has to do with the brandy-tinted confession by David Niven to his startled in-laws that the thirteenth wedding anniversary which they are celebrating should properly be reckoned their fourteenth. The ensuing laughter makes a shambles of some sacred cows such as television, bedroom doors and the progressive education of children. The latter, incidentally, is professionally handled by two young stars, Patty Duke and Kevin Coughlin. All in all, “Happy Anniversary” is sheer delight. Mat 2C The comedy highlight of “Happy Anniversary” at the ee eee Theatre is precipitated when David Niven lets drop a hint that there had been some premarital shenanigans. Mitzi Gaynor, as Niven’s shocked wife, Phyllis Povah and Loring Smith, the startled in-laws, are Niven’s audience. “ANNIVERSARY” CAKE SPICED WITH STARS AND SOPHISTICATION (Production Feature) “Happy Anniversary,” opening OMe eee sale BLtabhen oases tite ever: Theatre through United Artists release, is a frank and funny exploration of a subject which most married couples—including the one in the film—try to shove under the carpet when the kiddies (or the in-laws) are around: whether or not they were intimate before the wedding bells rang out. Adapted from the spicy, sexy, occasionally rowdy Broadway comedy hit by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov, “Happy Anniversary” stars David Niven and Mitzi Gaynor as the couple above-mentioned, and co-stars Carl Reiner, Loring Smith, Monique Van Vooren and Phyllis Povah. The large featured cast is headed by Elizabeth Wilson, Patty Duke and Kevin Coughlin, A Fields Productions presentation, “Happy Anniversary” was produced by Ralph Fields and directed by David Miller. Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodorov wrote the script in an adaptation of their own play “Anniversary Waltz.” Niven, who last year won his first Stull HA-30 The sharp-witted, saucy, sophisticated kids of David Niven and Mitzi Gaynor in “Happy Anniversary” at PNG 2S oe Theatre are played by Patty Duke and Kevin Coughlin. Miss Duke is currently a smash hit on Broadway as young Helen Keller in “The Miracle W orker.”’ TWO MOPPETS IN “ANNIVERSARY” The late, great W. C. Fields, whose thunderous animadversions against the child actor are a legend of show-business, once said: “There is only one thing in the world more horrible than playing in a picture with a child actor, and that is playing with two child actors.” It is just as well, perhaps, that Fields is not on the scene to see “Happy Anniversary,” which opens OMe o: Sk ‘the > foe sce 24 Theatre through United Artists release. Yes, the picture features two child actors. “Happy Anniversary,” which stars David Niven and Mitzi Gaynor, is a sexy, spicy, rowdy comedy adapted from the Broadway hit play by Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodoroy. The two moppets who inhabit “Happy Anniversary” are Kevin Coughlin and Patty Duke, aged ten and twelve respectively. And, although W. C. Fields can be heard snorting in disbelief, it must be stated that neither of them is in any way opprobrious. Kevin, for example, is strictly limited as to allowance, plays Little League baseball and attends a regular public school. Patty lives in Astoria, Long Island, and at the moment (which may easily extend well into her teens) is walloping Broadway audiences with her moving performance as young Helen Keller in “The Miracle Worker.” Oscar for his work in “Separate Tables,” is one of Hollywood’s wittiest men and deftest performers in that most difficult of all acting genres, light comedy. The son of a British general, Niven landed in Hollywood accidentally a couple of decades ago, after a career that included such oddly mated _ professions as lumberjacking, whisky-selling, delivering packages for a Chinese laundry and running a pony racetrack. Mitzi Gaynor, at 27, plays the role of a 32-year-old woman, a bit of precocity which has characterized her career from the start. For example, she was only thirteen (and said she was sixteen) when she landed a leading role in the musical “Music in My Heart,” and not much older than that when she was starred in “The Great Waltz.” She later appeared in such pictures as “Anything Goes” with Bing Crosby, “The Joker is Wild” with Frank Sinatra, and “Les Girls.” Her triumph was complete when she was chosen for the role of nurse Nellie Forbush in the screen version of “South Pacific,” followed by her assignment in “Happy Anniversary.” Mat 2E “HAPPY” MUSIC NEW SONG HIT A popular song hit that bids fair to become a standard for wedding anniversary celebrations into the far future is one of the highlights of “Happy Anniversary,” David Niven-Mitzi Gaynor starrer NOWHab’ thea. See, 2 Theatre. The song, of course, is the title tune which The Four Lads have swept into the winner’s circle via the Columbia label. A Jane Morgan recording of “Happy Anniversary” is also on the racks from Kapp Reeords. The song “Happy Anniversary” and a companion piece called “I Don’t Regret A Thing” were composed by Robert Allen with lyrics by Al Stillman. The picture’s musical score was composed and conducted by Mr. Allen, this time in collaboration with Sol Kaplan. “Happy Anniversary” is a Fields Production for United Artists release, adapted by authors Joseph Fields and Jerome Chodoroy from their successful stage hit, “Anniversary Waltz.” Ralph Fields produced and David Miller directed the comedy. In the cast with Niven and Miss Gaynor are Carl Reiner, Monique Van Vooren, Loring Smith, Phyllis Povah, Patty Duke and Kevin Coughlin. Both “Happy Anniversary” and “I Don’t Regret A Thing” have also been published in sheet music by Korwin Music, New York. They were especially written for the screen version of the hit play.