User Reviews

H.C. Potter's "Mr. Lucky" is a film that should be seen more often. This comedy gave Cary Grant a chance to portrait a different character from the ones his fans were expecting from him.

The story of Joe Adams, a draft dodger, who is involved in illegal gambling, makes great sense because at the end, when all was said and done, he does the right thing and redeems himself. Joe is a gambler at heart; it takes a beautiful woman to transform him into a caring man who will do good, in spite of what his original intentions were.

As a comedy, "Mr. Lucky", has some brilliant moments, especially those involving Joe, now Bascopolous, learning to knit to help make sweaters for the men fighting the war. The director imparted a light touch to this comedy, making us care for Bascopolous, when one should hate his intentions.

In finding love with the beautiful Dorothy Bryant, Joe realizes she is the woman for him, in spite of the differences between them. After having cheated her, he takes money to repay what he took from her, even before he is confronted by Mr. Bryant and the police. Disappearing and going straight is clear at the end of the film when one sees Dorothy waiting at the end of the pier for his appearance.

The film works because the tremendous performance Cary Grant gave in it. Even though he is supposed to be a bad guy, one never believes he is all that bad. Laraine Day is perfect as Dorothy Bryant, who doubted Joe's intentions from the beginning, but ends up falling for him because she sees a man who will do the right thing and will change his ways.

The supporting cast is one of the strengths of the movie. Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Alan Carney, Henry Stephenson, Paul Stewart, and the rest, are good following Mr. Potter's direction.

The great black and white cinematography by George Barnes,compliments the film well. The screen play by Milton Holmes was helped by other uncredited writers, among them, Charles Brackett and Dudley Nichols, two distinguished screen writers that knew about comedy.

Ultimately, this is a film carried by the sheer power of Cary Grant and the lovely Laraine Day and the inspired direction of H.C. Potter.

I will not provide yet another synopsis. However, the story is told by a sailor (who we learn is Swede) to a watchman late one night on a foggy wharf as a flashback. I thought the movie moved slowly, with none of the clever dialog necessary to sustain a high level of interest in this kind of "talky" plot.

The story has enough side plots to keep things interesting. After their falling-out Grant's ex-partner is clearly not to be trusted. But, until the end, the scheme that he has hatched is unclear. This subplot maintains a good level of dramatic suspense. Grant is forced to flee from his associates who try to break down a door to get at him. He then uses his old friend and shipmate, Swede, to convey to Laraine Day the gambling proceeds he has saved from the clutches of his old gang. Charles Bickford is quite good as the faithful friend, occasional medic and stoic but ultimately sentimental shipmate, Swede. (As an aside to another commentator: I have no idea how you conceived of Swede as ever being menacing! I think you must have seen another movie!)

It is the love story subplot that doesn't work well in this movie. Cary Grant and Laraine Day never seem to connect. I never really felt any chemistry between them. Consequently I was never gripped by the hope that they would get together - except possibly for the sake of Laraine Day's longing.

I am a fan of Laraine Day (whose eyes are mesmerizing, as has been observed), and she was never more beautiful than she is in this role. I liked her in this film.

I am a bigger fan of Cary Grant, and I found this role rather interesting. But the movie ultimately fails to satisfy because of Grant's acting (possibly due to the director). His role, Joe, is a male counterpart to the con artist played by Barbara Stanwyck in The Lady Eve. But Stanwyck's growing emotional involvement with her "mark," Henry Fonda is palpable. We see her struggle to reconcile her emotions with her other competing motives. By contrast Grant fails to convey any sense of GROWING emotional involvement with Laraine Day. Grant really appears to be concerned only with his fraudulent scheme to launch his gambling boat - ultimately at Day's expense. It is only when they arrive at Day's old Maryland family home and he hears her confession of love that he seems to suddenly convey any emotional involvement with her. Thus, it seems like a forced reaction. Later, at the film's climax he doesn't seem to dance with her at the "charity ball" with anything on his mind other than how to unweave the web he has spun. He doesn't convey any sense of emotion toward Day or any notion that it might be the last time he will ever hold her in his arms. He has other serious concerns, to be sure (which he conveys well), but there is no sense that she is also in his thoughts, much less in his heart. It is only in the scene toward the end when he pulls away from the dock (and away from the tearful Day) that he seems to express his emotional involvement in a very heart-felt way. By contrast, Day's involvement with Grant evolves gradually. We see her warm to him, even while rejecting his idea for a gambling night gala. And when he tells her the fabricated story about his family in Greece, struggling against the German invasion, we see Day's attitude shift. Her emotions begin to swell visibly for him after that.

As one commentator has noted, perhaps audiences in 1943 laughed at times during this film. I may have smiled a couple of times at those junctures. As a 53-year old viewer in 2007, I must disagree with the characterization of this film as a comedy. Perhaps people characterize it as such because they can only think in terms of comedy or tragedy. This is NEITHER - it is a drama. For my tastes, I didn't find it melodramatic in the least. Nor did I find it heavy or depressing. This is simply a light, romantic drama - full of more tense moments than comedic ones.

IF this movie were a comedy, the scene in which the police detectives sent by Laraine Day's father (Henry Stephenson) to Day's office might have been very funny. Instead, it is played straight and serious, with Day and Grant transformed into a couple of spies communicating in impromptu code (actually "Australian" slang, which is really rather interesting).

The best scene is Cary's "repentance" in the church. The priest reads him a letter addressed to the dead man whose identity he has assumed. It is a scathing, heartbroken letter from the man's mother, and Cary listens to the priest, realizing it could have actually been written to him.

Decent story, decent acting, very good cinematography all under the guidance of a director who didn't seem to have a steady hand at the tiller. I really wanted to like this movie a lot. Instead, I found some of its elements interesting, but the movie as a whole disappointing - though definitely watchable. (I wasn't tempted to rush out and buy the DVD!)

Cary Grant is my favorite actor, but this is not my favorite Grant film. For most of the film, Grant plays a character you can't like -- a perpetual liar and fraud...not that he's not classy...although perhaps the better term would be slick. That's not to say his performance is anything but excellent, but it's simply difficult to want to like this thug who is willing to avoid the draft by taking a dead man's identity and sell out his country's best interests in the middle of World War II.

Of course, late in the film he is transformed into a more noble character...because he falls in love. Of course, he must suffer...so he is shot in the gut and forced to leave behind the first real love of his life...to go into the Merchant Marines. But, of course, this is Hollywood, so on a foggy night she comes waiting for him at the pier...and they are reunited. It sounds corny, and it is...but it works.

The best surprise in this film is not Cary Grant's acting. No surprise there...he's always good to great. But his costar -- Laraine Day -- turns in a fine performance as the high society do-gooder that falls in love with Mr. Lucky. There are some fine character actors here, as well, and each plays his or her part well: Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Alan Carney, the venerable Henry Stephenson, and Paul Stewart.

As I said, it's a good movie, but far from Grant's best. Very watchable, but in my view, not one for the DVD shelf.

Cary Grant shows his versatility in playing outside his usual breezy, comic roles, performing very well as a tough gambler. Laraine Day is most attractive as the War Relief leader who is absolutely smitten with him.

I enjoyed Cary Grant and the knitting scenes. That is the kind of comedy where he excels. I don't think Grant was in the military during WW2, and Mr. Lucky avoids the draft in this film by an identity swap.

Actually, the movie has a little of everything, romance, comedy,drama. It has an interesting beginning accomplished by a backward look into how it all began.

The ending was almost as cloudy as the fog. Grant, who was supposed to have been missing, suddenly appears to the delight of Laraine Day. It leaves you wondering whether she will soon be rebuffed once again.

I enjoyed it mostly because it is a pleasure to watch Cary Grant any time.

This was a good film for an actor to play an unreformed gambler and con man, and Cary Grant could pull it off with charm and sophistication. He also did it by taking on the guise of one Joe Bascopolous, one of his gang's underlings who was about to depart from this mortal coil. The mix included Joe's 50-50 business partner Zepp (Paul Stewart), who got flim-flammed by Joe using rigged poker dice. You knew that wouldn't sit well with Zepp, who had to bide his time to get back at Joe during the story's wrap-up.

I've never seen Grant give a bad performance, although I thought he was struggling a little here with the bad guy bit. He did a Cagney type grimace with his teeth a couple of times, and he sounded a bit forced with his speech pattern. That didn't seem to bother pretty Dorothy Bryant (Laraine Day), secretary and chief fund raiser for a wartime relief effort appropriately named 'War Relief, Inc.'. The group's mission was to raise cash in order to commission a supply ship to aid victims overseas. When Joe saw the opportunity for a major score under the auspices of the charitable organization, he proposed a gambling room to beef up the take of a proposed charity ball.

You can probably guess early on how this one was going to go. Grant and Day made for a handsome couple, and their mutual attraction came full circle at Miss Bryant's Maryland family home. If that wasn't enough to convince Joe what a cad he was, it was finally brought home when a Greek priest translated a letter from the mother of the real Joe Bascopolous to her son, describing the valiant effort of her other sons and neighbors to thwart an enemy advance in their home country. The realization forced Joe to shut down his rigged fundraiser, only to have his old crony Zepp send in the authorities to bust Joe for good. It didn't quite work out that way, and in the offing, it appeared that the expected romance between Joe and Miss Bryant would be forever doomed. That would have been too much for the era's audience to take, and a happy ending was assured when Joe returned for the patiently waiting Miss Bryant.

Only one thing about the story nagged at me as soon as the scene played out. How is it that once the Greek Priest (Vladimir Sokoloff) started reading the letter from a Greek mother to her son, it never occurred to him that Joe (Cary Grant), who brought the letter as if it was his, couldn't read or understand Greek?