Evening star., 1952-11-15

sense Of the word. There is hand
some Uncle Desmonde, Canada's
most gifted philanderer, from
whom only immediate female rela-
tives are safe. And Uncle Louis
who drinks wine endlessly from a
water-cooler that he carries al
ways with him. Also Grandpere
who defies his scores of years to
divert him from the pursuit of
lonely widows.
With his own father. Boyer,
these three constitute a faculty
ready to teach young Bibi the
truth about growing up. This is
more than enough to terrify the
poor lads mother. although she
still remembers warmly the day
her Bonnard took her to hear the
lark singing.
+ X y X
Robert Fontain who wrote the
original novel which later was
turned into a Broadway hit play
by Samuel Taylor, skimped on
none Of the rich incident in Bon
nard lives. They are a tender, pas
sionate and gusty lot. Life deluges
them with invitations, all of which
they accept with pleasure.
AS the story opens, Pere jacques
Bonnard (Boyer) has just invited
into his home the lovely assistant
of a vaudeville magician. The girl
has to get away from the magi-
clans advances and where to q
safer haven than the Bonnard
home? Pere Bonnard can think of
none. His wife, remembering I'm
Gle Desmonde and the fact that
Bibi is on the threshold of man
hood. takes quite a different view
of the matter.
Bonnard family life, however, is
infinitely flexible, endlessly resili-
ent. Mignonette is fitted in, as a
kind Of inspiration to Bibi and a
great challenge to Uncle Des-
monde.
Too many things happen for the
Bonnards to focus on any one
happy crisis. There is poor Uncle
Louis, always being driven out of
his own home by his shrewish
wife. always philosophizing on the
ways Of the world. A great, visit
fully comic man is Uncle Louis.
A fascinating one is Uncle Des-
monde who meets his first worthy
Ifoewoman in Mignonette and who
precipitateS a crisis in Bibi's life
by sending him off to school with a
copy of a lurid French picture
magazine. And beyond these, lies
grandfather, always threatened
with physical collapse by the
ardorS of his venerable life.
It is the high merit of Richard
Fleischer's direction of 1.-The Hap
py Time" that he has kept such
excellent control of the swirling
movement Of his screenplay.
The principal concern, after all.
is BibiS growing out of small boy
hood. He is the Bonnard with
problems; how to deal with his
infatuation for Mignonette, how to
escape the pursuit of the small,
crooked tooth female next door;
and, above all. what to do about
the puritanical tyrant schoolmas-
ter who resents the pictures in La
Vie Parisienne.
For all the hilarious drama of
their personal lives, the Bonnards
are truly dedicated to Bibi. In
spite of his mothers fears, he
must be brought wisely and en-
Enthusiastically into his heritage as
a Bonnard. He is, and the process
is remarkably funny.
X X X n
There is positive relish in every
wisp of the acting in 1.-THE Happy
Time" Boyer as the Bonnard's
bulwark has seldom cut a more
winning figure on the screen and
he gets the support of a worthy
son in Bobby Driscoll's impersona-
ton of the baffled Bibi. To these,
Marsha Hunt plays the perfect
wife and mother.
Louis Jordan is happily cast as
the rowing Uncle Desmonde and
Linda Christian as the enticing
Mignonette. Kurt Kaznar makes
a momentous tragi-comedy figure
of Uncle Louis and Marcel Dalio
is superb as Grandpere.
They make the Bonnards enor-
mously worth knowing.
~ nI kI.s