Good looking men in courtship, Happiness Ahead

The results of a recent explorative empirical study by McNelis & Segrin on human mating conclude that: handsome men, more than high-status men, succeed in courtship. The answers given by male and female subjects regarding sociosexual behaviour and mating preferences are predominantly congruent. Sex differences among preferences for good looking and high-status partners were small or even insignificant. Lower educated subjects had considerably higher status preferences than higher educated individuals. In both sexes, Physical Attraction was much more preferred in a potential partner than status. For both sexes, physical appearance was decisive for the subject's dating attractiveness. Male and female attractiveness correlates with a charismatic appearance. Furthermore, there was a positive linear relationship between men's physical attraction and their number of sexual partners within the last year. Men with more than four sexual partners were all above-average in physical attraction, while the most attractive women had a medium number of 3 or more sexual partners. Overall, women are rated higher for physical attractiveness, but there is less agreement of what constitutes an attractive man. In this respect, the results show that sex differences in mating are more complex than hitherto assumed. Source: pubmed.ncbi.nih.gov

New York socialite Joan Bradford (Josephine Hutchinson in her debut film) is unhappy with life in high society. Her mother has picked out a wealthy husband for her to marry, and Joan does not love him.  On New Year’s Eve, Joan ditches her parents’ party and goes downtown. Joan meets a window washing company manager, Bob Lane (Dick Powell) and starts posing as a working class girl so he won’t feel overwhelmed. She rents an apartment on the other side of town to keep up the guise. "Mervyn LeRoy seems to have made a lot out of a little,” Andre Sennwald reviewed in a 1934 New York Times film review. Sennwald hits the nail on the head. “Happiness Ahead” has a very simple plot–an unhappy socialite finds love with a common man. However, this is a very charming film, like most Dick Powell musicals, due to Powell’s melted-butter-like-voice that sounds so enchanting.

Notable Songs:

-Happiness Ahead sung by Dick Powell

-Pop! Goes Your Heart sung by Dick Powell

-All Account of an Ice Cream Sundae sung by Dick Powell and Dorothy Dare

-Massaging Window Panes sung by Dick Powell and Frank McHugh

Source: mikegrost.com/leroy.htm

Gold Diggers of 1933 is a pre-Code Warner Bros. musical film directed by Mervyn LeRoy with songs by Harry Warren and Al Dubin, staged and choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It stars Warren William, Joan Blondell, Aline MacMahon, Dick Powell and Ruby Keeler, and features Ginger Rogers. The "gold diggers" are four aspiring actresses: Polly (Ruby Keeler), an ingenue; Carol (Joan Blondell), a torch singer; Trixie (Aline MacMahon), a comedian; and Fay (Ginger Rogers), a glamour puss. At the unglamorous apartment shared by three of the four actresses (Polly, Carol, and Trixie), the producer, Barney Hopkins (Ned Sparks), is in despair because he has everything he needs to put on a show, except money. He hears Brad Roberts (Dick Powell), the girls' neighbor and Polly's boyfriend, playing the piano. Brad is a brilliant songwriter and singer who not only has written the music for a show, but also offers Hopkins $15,000 in cash to back the production. 

Of course, they all think he is kidding, but he insists that he is serious – he offers to back the show, but refuses to perform in it, despite his talent and voice. Brad comes through with the money and the show goes into production, but the girls are suspicious that he must be a criminal since he is cagey about his past and will not appear in the show, even though he is clearly more talented than the aging juvenile lead (Clarence Nordstrom) they have hired. It turns out, however, that Brad is in fact a millionaire's son whose family does not want him associating with the theatre. On opening night, in order to save the show when the juvenile cannot perform, Brad is forced to play the lead role. When Lawrence finds out that Brad and the real Polly have wed, he threatens to have the marriage annulled, but relents when Carol refuses to marry him if he does. Trixie marries Faneuil. All the "gold diggers" (except Fay) end up with wealthy men. Source: imdb.com