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ACTOR
Sonja HenieRichard GreeneJoan DavisCesar Romero
DIRECTOR
Roy Del Ruth
SYNOPSICS
My Lucky Star (1938) is a English movie. Roy Del Ruth has directed this movie. Sonja Henie,Richard Greene,Joan Davis,Cesar Romero are the starring of this movie. It was released in 1938. My Lucky Star (1938) is considered one of the best Comedy,Music,Romance movie in India and around the world.
The son (Romero) of a department store owner enrolls the store's sports clerk (Henie) at a university to use her as an advertisement for their fashion department. She falls for a teacher (Greene) and gets expelled.
My Lucky Star (1938) Reviews
Swingy Late 30's Skate Musical
I bought this movie because I am a huge Richard Greene fan and I have always wanted to watch Sonja Henie. I was not disappointed. This movie is definitely worth seeing and/or buying. It has wonderful, catchy swingy tunes and a great cast. Sure, the story is cliché, but weren't most musicals like that back then? Well, it is actually a little bit more original than others, because Sonja wraps packages at a department store, and after meeting her, and to keep her away from his jealous wife (Gypsy Rose Lee a.k.a Louise Hovick), Caesar Romero, the son of the big department store Sonja works for, sends her to fictional Plymouth University as a "living mannequin" to promote their store's women's' sporting goods section. While there, Sonja befriends student Buddy Ebsen and his girlfriend Mary Dwight (Joan Davis), does some enjoyable skate routines (best one is COULD YOU PASS IN LOVE? first sung by Buddy and Joan, then skated by Sonja and a chorus of skating guys in bowler hats), gets tricked by a nasty Southern girl who is a bad ice skater (played nicely by Patricia Wilder) gets accused of being involved in a scandal (courtesy of Gypsy Rose), and falls in love with super-duper handsome senior Richard Greene. They and others sing a very lovely ballad on a hayride. (I don't know the name.) But it's very charming, and it was stuck in my head for a week after I watched it. The musical numbers are fun, though they come nowhere near MGM or early Busby Berkeley musical splendor. Sonja dos live up to her name as great ice skater, though. In the big production "Alice in Wonderland" finale, she shines, and the costumes and music and charming. The other big musical number, I'VE GOT A DATE WITH A DREAM, showcases a myriad of showgirls wearing beautiful furs and evening gowns, and other fashionable outfits, and a tenor who sings the song admirably. Later into the number, Buddy and Joan do a short, comedic rendition of the song. In all, MY LUCKY STAR is a good way to pass the time and a good film to start with if you want to explore the works of Sonja Henie.
Sonja's Skating Skills
"My Lucky Star" is my second Sonja Henie musical and I liked it even more than "One in a Million"(1936). The songs and Sonja's skating dances are joyous as ever. This time Sonja gets to romance with a British newcomer Richard Greene who plays the university prof Larry Taylor. Director Roy Del Ruth, a gifted studio craftsman from 30s, imbues the contrivance of the plot with charming playfulness and effervescent grace. Del Ruth's choice of close-ups and staging of skating scenes are very well done. Cesar Romero has surprisingly agreeable presence, especially when he is not quarrelling or getting into a fight with his father, played by George Barbier, who owns the department store that lures Sonja to enroll in university to wear their fashion clothes. The capable supporting players include Joan Davis as Sonja's roommate, Gypsy Rose Lee as Romero's jealous girlfriend, Buddy Ebsen, Elisha Cook,Jr, Billy Gilbert, and Arthur Treacher. Ultimately, as Ron Oliver noted, this is a Sonja's show. It vivifies her athletic exuberance, her dazzling skating skills as she skates divinely before an amazed audience.
Sonja Skates Circles Around Simplistic Plot
A pretty Norwegian coed finds plenty of romantic complications while working as an undercover campus mannequin at old Plymouth University. Sonja Henie was Norway's ice queen when she won Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932 & 1936. After going professional, she began a celebrated movie career at 20th Century Fox in 1936 with ONE IN A MILLION, which was her American film debut. Beautiful & talented, as well as being a natural in front of the cameras, she carved out her niche during Hollywood's Golden Age. Although Henie's ice routines may look antiquated by comparison to modern champions, there was nothing antique about her dazzling smile or sparkling personality. In this regard, some of today's snowflake princesses could still learn a great deal from her. As her career progressed, it became increasingly difficult for Fox to find decent stories for Henie and the excuses for the lavish ice dancing numbers were often implausible. No matter. Audiences did not flock to her films to watch Sonja recite Shakespeare. The movies were meant to be pure escapist fantasy, plain & simple. MY LUCKY STAR is no exception and its story is often quite silly - relying a bit heavily on impromptu singing from its middle-aged college student cast, and borrowing too much from its predecessor, HAPPY LANDING. However, the moments on the ice never bore (especially the Alice in Wonderland sequence -with music from Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland - which closes the film) and the co-stars are rather interesting. Stalwart Richard Greene is fine as Sonja's romantic interest, while Cesar Romero once again gets to display his comedic talents as a zany Romeo. Joan Davis grabs a lot of the laughs as Sonja's rubber-limbed roommate; Buddy Ebsen is her slow-talking, fast-dancing beau. George Barbier is enjoyable as an apoplectic tycoon, as is laconic Arthur Treacher as his factotum. Miffed minx Gypsy Rose Lee and gung-ho student Elisha Cook Jr. are given little to do, but Billy Gilbert easily steals his few scenes as a soda jerk besotted by pistachio nuts. Ultimately, though, this is Sonja's show. She glides effortlessly into the viewer's heart, while balancing on a thin edge of silver, suspended over frozen water.
She's Skating Her Way Through College
MY LUCKY STAR (20th Century-Fox, 1938), directed by Roy Del Ruth, bearing no resemblance to any movie about Hollywood nor any connection with the Janet Gaynor silent melodrama, LUCKY STAR (Fox, 1929), is a likable and tuneful musical starring Fox's own lucky star herself, Olympic ice skating champion, Sonja Henie, in her fourth motion picture role. Following her enormous success in ONE IN A MILLION (1936), THIN ICE (1937) and HAPPY LANDING (1938) opposite Fox's top leading men as Don Ameche and Tyrone Power, Henie acquires a newcomer named Richard Greene, a likable British actor whose name has failed to equal both popularity and starring status of either Ameche or Power. The lightweight plot revolves around Christina Nielson (Sonja Henie), a Norweigian girl employed as package wrapper for New York's Cabot's Fifth Avenue Department Store. After two years in the sporting goods department, she is found skating after hours by George Cabot Jr. (Cesar Romero), son of the store's founder (George Barbier). A recent groom in the process of divorce proceedings from cabaret queen, Marcelle (Louise "Gypsy Rose Lee" Hovak), George invites Christine to his apartment, where, after going to another room, is met by a surprise visit from Marcelle and her witness, Louie (Paul Hurst), with intentions of using the unknown blonde as grounds for divorce. George, however, breaks away with Christina before Marcelle is able to see her face. In order to keep Christina out of sight and help boost up sales at the same time, George impresses "Papa" by having Christina representing the store by sending her to Plymouth University (P.U.) in upstate New York where she's to secretly work modeling sporting clothes while getting an education at the company's expense. While there, Christina catches the attention upper class-man, Larry Taylor (Richard Greene). All goes well until Christina, an ice skating sensation in their ice carnival, makes the front cover in Life Magazine, where her photograph is brought to the attention of Marcelle who uses Christina's name in a divorce scandal that soon gets her expelled from Plymouth. With college musicals commonly found in the 1930s, song interludes and skating numbers take precedence over typical football game finale. Composers Mack Gordon and Harry Revel provide such fine tunes as: "Plymouth Mountain Song," "This May Be the Night" "What a Well Dressed Woman Will Wear," "By a Wishing Well," "Could You Pass in Love?"; "I've Got a Date With a Dream" (sung by Art Jarrett); Victor Herbert's "March of the Toys"; and "This May Be the Night" (finale). The "I've Got a Date with a Dream" number is cleverly staged fantasy based on Lewis Carroll's "Alice in Wonderland." Interestingly, when MY LUCKY STAR used to air on public television back in the 1980s, this finale (now restored) was missing Victor Herbert's "March of the Toys" ice carnival sequence skated by Henie and assortment of "Alice in Wonderland" characters. Other members of the faculty consist of Buddy Ebsen and Joan Davis. Davis, as Henie's college roommate, who livens things up with her usual flair for comedy, whether it be through pratfalls or quipping out funny one-liners. She has her work cut out for her as Ebsen's girlfriend, who, as Plymouth's cab driver, shows more interest in his horse, Lulu, than with her. Joan and Buddy collaborate in the humorous "Could You Pass in Love" number, singing and dancing to good advantage. Arthur Treacher appears briefly as the Cabot's droll butler; while Elisha Cook Jr., shortly before his association in "film noir" mysteries in the 1940s, is seen playing a nerdy character named Wilmer. Hardly original though highly entertaining, any similarity between MY LUCKY STAR and Henie's previous HAPPY LANDING, is purely coincidental. The film returns Cesar Romero in a Mischa Auer type performance as the nerve wracking groom with women problems (ex-wife here), along with Billy Gilbert once again adding confusion with his double talk with his "Chocolate Sundae /Tootie Fruitie Sundae with Pistachio Nuts" routine opposite Greene in a malt shop. Formerly presented on American Movie Classics prior to 1993, and available intact on home video, right down to the reading of "This is One of the Movie Quiz $250,000.00 Contest Picture" before the closing cast credits, MY LUCKY STAR is silly at best, but highly commendable, especially with Sonja Henie skating her way through college. Watch for it next time it plays on the Fox Movie Channel(*** diplomas)
To enjoy this, it helps to be mentally disturbed or intoxicated.
publicity stunt makes no sense at all students resent Kristina In the 1930s and 40s, Hollywood made a ton of films set at college. Oddly, however, almost all of them had one thing in common...they never actually showed the students in class or studying!! One of the few exceptions, even more oddly, is the Marx Brothers' "Horsefeathers"!! "My Lucky Star" is yet another college film where students seem to do anything but go to class. In fact, in watching this film you'd assume all students do is sing, dance and ice skate!! It's all complete nonsense...the sort of nonsense audiences of the day ate up but which have aged poorly. I love old movies but must admit this to be the case. When the film begins, you learn that a big department store owner has an irresponsible playboy son (Cesar Romero) and the idiot just got himself married...and was served with divorce papers!! Soon, the plot becomes even more nonsensical and the son sends one of the department store's clerks, Kristina (Sonja Henie) to college as some sort of convoluted advertising campaign that makes no sense. The plan is to have her change clothes ALL THE TIME and thereby be a living model for the store's clothes. Huh?! In the process, Kristina goes through a few bumps here and there...such as the other students thinking she's a weirdo or snob since she changes clothes so often and dresses so extravagantly. So, she wins their hearts the way any red-blooded American would....with ice skating!! And, after she captures their hearts and she is forced to leave, the students, en masse, show up and sing her a tearful goodbye!!! Does any of this make sense to you? If so, then I suggest you make an appointment with a psychiatrist or psychologist as soon as possible or stop taking whatever intoxicant you are currently using! But it gets worse. To impress his papa, the son decides to throw an ice carnival at the store...in a department store!!!! The film has a few nice moments but is a waste of Cesar Romero's talent and the film is just bafflingly stupid. And, while you have to suspend disbelief for most 1930s musicals, here it goes much further...to the point of absurdity.