Happy Ever After [Tonight’s the Night] **** (1954, David Niven, Yvonne De Carlo, A E Matthews, Michael Shepley, George Cole, Barry Fitzgerald) – Classic Movie Review 11,762

The 1954 Technicolor comedy Happy Ever After finds a vintage British cast hamming it up as devious Irish country bumpkins who plot to get permanently rid of the nasty new local landowner (David Niven). 

Director Mario Zampi’s 1954 Technicolor comedy Happy Ever After [Tonight’s the Night] finds a vintage British cast hamming it up as devious Irish country bumpkins who plot to get permanently rid of the greedy and nasty new local landowner, Jasper O’Leary (David Niven).

Beloved old General O’Leary bequeaths most of his estate to distant relative Jasper O’Leary, who arrives for the first time in the village of Rathbarney. Jasper confides to beautiful young widow Serena McGluskey (Yvonne De Carlo): ‘Once I squeeze the lemon dry, I’m off.’ Locals gather in Dooley’s pub and decide to participate in a secret lottery to see who will murder him.

Happy Ever After is an often hysterically funny, darker-than-usual comedy shot partly at authentic locations in Ireland, which include a haunted house. It is also shot at Forty Hall, Forty Hill, Enfield, Middlesex, England; Braughing railway station, Hertfordshire, England; and in Associated British Picture Corporation Studios, Elstree, Hertfordshire, England.

A neglected comic gem, it is packed with wonderfully appealing comedy acting of the kind the British have always excelled at. Niven is ideally cast as the unscrupulous cad and very effective.

The cast are David Niven as Jasper O’Leary, Yvonne De Carlo as Serena McGluskey, Barry Fitzgerald as Thady O’Heggarty, George Cole as Terence, A E Matthews as General O’Leary, Noelle Middleton as Kathy McGluskey, Robert Urquhart as Doctor Michael Flynn, Michael Shepley as Major McGluskey, Joseph Tomelty as Dooley, Eddie Byrne as Lannigan, Liam Redmond as Regan, Anthony Nicholls, Bill Shine, and Ronan O’Casey.

Made by Mario Zampi Productions (as Anglofilm), it was one of the most successful pictures released by Associated British-Pathé in the UK, with a box office take of £255,863 (UK). And it was released in the US by Allied Artists Pictures.

It runs 88 minutes.

It is also known as O’Leary Night, its original title.

The Braughing, Hertfordshire, rail station was renamed Rathbarney during filming.

Yvonne De Carlo was happy: ‘I think it will help me in comedy when it is released in America. I have had my share of sirens and am happy to get away from them no matter what the part.’

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,762

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