Joy in the Morning ** (1965, Richard Chamberlain, Yvette Mimieux, Arthur Kennedy) – Classic Movie Review 12,683

Richard Chamberlain, teen idol and star of the MGM TV show Dr Kildare, and Yvette Mimieux, also under contract to MGM, star in the joyless 1965 MGM American romance drama film Joy in the Morning. 

Director Alex Segal’s limp and lame 1965 MGM American romance drama film Joy in the Morning stars Richard Chamberlain as Carl Brown, the 1920s Mid-West law-school student striving for a better future as he wrestles with problems with his new wife Annie (Yvette Mimieux), her pregnancy, his difficult rich father (Arthur Kennedy), and their lack of cash.

Playing a newlywed couple who marry against their parents’ wishes and struggle to maintain their relationship, Richard Chamberlain and Yvette Mimieux also struggle to maintain their performances against all the script’s many clichés and caricatures.

A decent cast give the screenplay from Betty Smith’s 1963 novel some sense of reality, and the film is sensitively done and obviously well meaning. But the story seems largely eventless and inconsequential – and now badly dated too.

Trying for quality, the makers have rejected soapiness, when actually it would have been far more fun. As it is, it is limp, lame and desperately thin.

Hitchcock noticed a great similarity in Bernard Herrmann’s scores for Joy in the Morning and his film Marnie (1964), and thought Herrmann was repeating himself. Herrmann’s later score for Truffaut’s The Bride Wore Black (1968) repeats the main theme in Marnie, slightly altered in its harmony.

Chamberlain sings the title song ‘Joy in the Morning’, released as a single and included on his 1964 album called Richard Chamberlain.

The cast are Richard Chamberlain as Carl Brown, Yvette Mimieux as Annie McGairy Brown, Arthur Kennedy as Patrick Brown, Oskar Homolka as Stan Pulaski, Donald Davis as Anthony Byrd, Joan Tetzel as Beverly Karter, Sidney Blackmer as Dean James Darwent, Virginia Gregg as Mrs Lorgan, Chris Noel as Mary Ellen Kincaid, Bartlett Robinson as Professor Victor Newcole, Ellen Atterbury as Marriage Licence Clerk, Harvey Stephens as Dr Marson, and Ira Barmak as Dr Kirkson.

© Derek Winnert 2023 – Classic Movie Review 12,683

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