Is Everybody Happy?

In 1946 post-war America was waking up to the fact that the proliferation of labour-saving devices and modern conveniences in the home and at work were not necessarily a sure pathway to a life of contentment. This entertaining survey adopts a cheerfully sceptical tone in relation to the bizarre diets, quack remedies and astrological mumbo jumbo which Americans were turning to in the hope of becoming happier, slimmer, stronger, fitter and richer.

From agony aunt Dorothy Dix dictating a stern reply to a woman in the throes of an affair with her boss to strongman Charles Atlas ripping a phone book in two, before an admiring group of onlookers, this film, despite its jaunty tone, presents a picture of a country grimly committed to the pursuit of personal happiness. For every dubious personal counsellor or snake oil salesman, the film produces a sceptic to put the rational, scientific view, such as Harvard anthropologist Earnest Hooton, whose books were popular at the time but whose views on ethnic types have since been criticised for their racist overtones.