SO YOUNG! SO IN LOVE!.....SO WHAT? BQ SWOONS FOR THE ROCKY ROMANCE OF "JOY IN THE MORNING"

Joy In The Morning (1965)    MGM sure wasn't kidding around with this star vehicle for their two  major Cutie Pies, 'Dr. Kildare' hearthrob Richard Chamberlain and bubbly blonde sprite Yvette Mimieux....(kind of the Elle Fanning of the 60's....)

                  As struggling, battling, over-sexed 1920's newlyweds in a college town, the movie throws more obstacles at these sweethearts than a Ninja Challenge course.........damn exhausting, for both us and them.......

                   Law student Chamberlain scrambles to scrape two bucks together, though he and Mimieux live in an artfully designed cottage, accessed by a little bridge over a pond.......one of those production designer's dream-come-true's......

                    They're both playing children of Irish immigrants, but only Mimieux takes periodic stabs at a Lucky Charms Leprechaun accent.......Arthur Kennedy, however, playing Chamberlain's stern disapproving father, huffs 'n puffs like a refugee from 'The Quiet Man, as he generally makes life miserable for our Adorable Duo.........

                     And Kennedy's ranting dad is the least of their problems........Mimieux's hot temper and PTSD from her stepfather's molestations erupt in almost every scene. Much to Chamberlain's exasperation, she befriends a homosexual shopkeeper and babysits for a woman carrying on an adulterous affair.....

                      The tentative, kid-gloves handling of the gay guy in this film is something for film historians to savor..........(in case you didn't get his orientation......he's a florist, he feeds squirrels and he's writing a novel........heh, heh, heh....wink-wink....)

                       Deep irony alert.....throughout the movie, our sensitive  flower-guy suffers insulting names like 'sissy' and pansy'........the latter spewing out from Chamberlain himself, still decades away from coming out of the closet.......

                      As if the plot isn't overheated enough, the young lovers' many trials and tribulation unfold to a full-bodied, overripe Bernard Herrmann score........consisting of slightly altered versions of themes from "Vertigo" and "Marnie"........(this didn't escape Hitchcock's angry attention, setting the scene for the legendary falling out with Herrmann over the "Torn Curtain" score a year later....)

                      But back to our Cutie Pies. With thousands of teen girls crowding the theater, MGM gave them the climax they dreamed about........accomplished by making evil bastard Arthur Kennedy do a 360 degree turn into a healing, lovable Daddy, a character rehab that would be ludicrous to anyone above the age 16.......

                     As the gay florist drives our Sweeties off to new horizons, Chamberlain starts singing the title tune. Yes, he does....while he and Mimieux cuddle.....like the last scene in an MGM musical......or an Elvis movie.

                       That ending can only explain why we award a warm hug of 3 stars (***)........hey, MGM.......what happened to all the other songs in it??