Ferenc Molnar's play "The Good Fairy" was a Broadway hit in 1931 (151 performances) with Helen Hayes as the ethereal heroine. To read one of the reviewer's description of the play was quite a shock to me - Lu was manipulative, ready to sleep with Konrad but in the end deciding to play a "good fairy" and pair each of the men with a suitable girl, even though she was left out in the cold. Obviously, when Preston Sturges wrote the screenplay, for Hollywood in the mid 1930s, he had to sanitize a lot of the quaint observations on marital infidelity, tacked on a new beginning and toned down the moral stance the play had adopted on the evils of do gooding. He did, however, retain the play's charm and Margaret Sullavan was absolutely bewitching (as usual) as the helpless girl who attracts the attention of three very different type of men.
I don't know of any other actress who could put across that enchanting air of complete innocence and, for me, the film was best at the beginning when Sullavan as Luisa was telling the orphans a fairy story. She held them spellbound as she ascended the rickety ladder, rode a broomstick - then crash!!! (Jane Withers and Ann Miller can be glimpsed as orphans).
She is soon out in the big world, working as an usherette in a beautiful picture palace. She meets Reginald Owen and shares an amusing scene where they both sit down to watch an enthralling movie. He "rescues" her from a stage door Johnnie (Cesar Romero) and invites her to a grand party. It turns out he is a waiter and takes a very parental view of her goings on. She meets Konrad (Frank Morgan), a wealthy meat packer who wants to shower her with riches, which she can't really handle so she pulls out the old standby "I'm married" which had worked for the stage door Johnnie (which was strange because the head of the orphanage (Beulah Bondi) had proclaimed she wouldn't know how to flirt, and she didn't but she was knowing enough to get out of a few sticky situations). I was as confused as the other reviewer as to why she didn't name the waiter, especially as Konrad offered to bestow on her "husband" lots of good fortune!! Instead she goes to a phone book, picks out a name and suddenly destitute lawyer(!!!), Dr. Sporum (Herbert Marshall) finds himself the recipient of a diplomatic post, which will bring him in 100,000 a year - enough to be able to buy his cherished dream - a pencil sharpener with a handle!!! And he doesn't know why!!!
The movie lost a bit of it's magic for me after half an hour, I know it was a bit much to expect Luisa to have the glowing innocence that she originally had but she seemed to learn the ways of the world awfully fast. As well, with Reginald Owen, Frank Morgan and Herbert Marshall competing for screen time, there just wasn't enough of the bewitching Margaret Sullavan for me. And I suppose, being a typical Hollywood romantic fantasy, the heroine had to have a dashing hero and both Konrad and the waiter were a bit too fatherly for sweet Luisa.
It is unfortunate that Margaret Sullavan didn't make more movies - she never gave a bad performance. She made an immediate impact from her first appearance (a sudsy soaper "Only Yesterday") and made usually cynical critics fall over themselves with praise. Otis Ferguson commented on Sullavan's performance in "The Good Fairy" - "Most of the time she is entirely lovely and if she isn't an actress, I wouldn't know who is"!!!
I don't know of any other actress who could put across that enchanting air of complete innocence and, for me, the film was best at the beginning when Sullavan as Luisa was telling the orphans a fairy story. She held them spellbound as she ascended the rickety ladder, rode a broomstick - then crash!!! (Jane Withers and Ann Miller can be glimpsed as orphans).
She is soon out in the big world, working as an usherette in a beautiful picture palace. She meets Reginald Owen and shares an amusing scene where they both sit down to watch an enthralling movie. He "rescues" her from a stage door Johnnie (Cesar Romero) and invites her to a grand party. It turns out he is a waiter and takes a very parental view of her goings on. She meets Konrad (Frank Morgan), a wealthy meat packer who wants to shower her with riches, which she can't really handle so she pulls out the old standby "I'm married" which had worked for the stage door Johnnie (which was strange because the head of the orphanage (Beulah Bondi) had proclaimed she wouldn't know how to flirt, and she didn't but she was knowing enough to get out of a few sticky situations). I was as confused as the other reviewer as to why she didn't name the waiter, especially as Konrad offered to bestow on her "husband" lots of good fortune!! Instead she goes to a phone book, picks out a name and suddenly destitute lawyer(!!!), Dr. Sporum (Herbert Marshall) finds himself the recipient of a diplomatic post, which will bring him in 100,000 a year - enough to be able to buy his cherished dream - a pencil sharpener with a handle!!! And he doesn't know why!!!
The movie lost a bit of it's magic for me after half an hour, I know it was a bit much to expect Luisa to have the glowing innocence that she originally had but she seemed to learn the ways of the world awfully fast. As well, with Reginald Owen, Frank Morgan and Herbert Marshall competing for screen time, there just wasn't enough of the bewitching Margaret Sullavan for me. And I suppose, being a typical Hollywood romantic fantasy, the heroine had to have a dashing hero and both Konrad and the waiter were a bit too fatherly for sweet Luisa.
It is unfortunate that Margaret Sullavan didn't make more movies - she never gave a bad performance. She made an immediate impact from her first appearance (a sudsy soaper "Only Yesterday") and made usually cynical critics fall over themselves with praise. Otis Ferguson commented on Sullavan's performance in "The Good Fairy" - "Most of the time she is entirely lovely and if she isn't an actress, I wouldn't know who is"!!!