Mr. Lucky (1943)

Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Sick Product of a Sick System

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

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.

In my opinion, "Mr. Lucky" is one of Cary Grant's finest pictures. Grant (Joe Adams) Stars as a Gambler looking to make a buck. Joe is a man with no scruples. He is willing to walk over anyone for a chance at a quick score. However his cold hearted ways begins to melt when a beautiful woman comes into his life. Laraine Day, (Dorothy Bryant) gives a strong performance as a volunteer for a war relief organization. She offers Grant a chance to help raise funds for the group when he suggests a casino night. However Joe intends to use Dorothy as a pawn in a fixed game. That idea quickly changes when he falls for Dorothy. Joe must choose between his loyalty to his gang or his love for Dorothy.Mr. Lucky is a wonderful mix of comedy and drama. One of the best moments is where Joe is learning to knit. Very funny! This is a picture that display's Mr. Grants full range of talents. The cast included Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Alan Carney, Henry Stephenson, and Paul Stewart. It was expertly Directed by H.C. Potter. The wonderful black and white cinematography was by George Barnes. I highly recommend this picture.Fun Facts. -Laraine Day was on loan-out from MGM. -Mr. Lucky was RKO's second biggest hit of 1943 -Writer Milton Holmes said Mr. Lucky was inspired by a real event in 1936. A nightclub owner put on a gambling benefit at the Beverly Hills Hotel to raise money for a church.

As Leo Durocher noted, rotten guys wind up with the best looking women - or something to that effect. It has been said of this minor film effort that Cary Grant had no on-screen chemistry with his co-star, the gorgeous Laraine Day...hmmn...trying to think of one of his films, in which he did have chemistry, biology or any other natural science, with his female counterpart. Maybe he should have been in some westerns with Randy Scott and we would have seen the missing rapport. Day's eyes are like shimmering jewels - I wonder what she saw in old Leo? A few distracting head-scratchers: why does the G.O. priest not find it strange that Joe's mother would write to him in Greek if Joe can't read the language? Why does Joe flee from the gambling parlor with the stolen loot if he only wants to make sure that it is returned to the charity? Why does Dorothy need to show him how to knot his tie? The muddled character development makes for some unneeded confusion.

It's entertaining enough to sit through, and it offers a light on a problem that would forever plague it's leading man, but let us face facts: MR. LUCKY was a World War II moral boosting propaganda film, and as such it is dated. It is set in a mindset for 1942/43 when the actual destiny of the war effort was unresolved, and an Axis victory was still possible. Keeping that in mind we can forgive the character change that the script forces - but posterity lost a second chance of seeing Cary Grant play a rat.After his quasi-rat wastrel Johnny Aysgard in SUSPICION, Grant made the film TALK OF THE TOWN with Ronald Colman and Jean Arthur. His character of Leopold Dilg is suspected of arson/possibly felony murder, but we realize that he is being railroaded by Charles Dingle on those charges. A few years passed and in 1943 Grant agreed to play Joe Adams, gambler and con man, who decides to get involved in the charity racket to make a real killing. And I am sure that Grant chose the part because Joe was a rat - as bad and violent in his way as Johnny was in his.We see this in Joe early on - he has to raise some capital for his scheme, and goes to collect the money that is owed to him. As always Grant is dapper and soft spoken, but here he demonstrates what is underneath all this: his Joe gets the money by beating up the man who owes it. To make the scene more effective, we never see Grant beat the man, but the scene is shot from the legs down, where the man is whimpering on the ground and willing to give up the money. It was a unique moment in the film, only duplicated towards the end when Grant kicks his partner in the face in a final confrontation about the swindle. That is shown performed by Grant - far more visibly than the first scene.Yet the effect of this violence is shattered by changes in the screenplay. Grant's Joe meets the capable and suspicious Dorothy Briant (Laraine Day) at the organization that is creating the charity. She is antagonistic to him at the start, but subsequently they fall in love. At the same time one of her assistant/friends is "Swede" (Charles Bickford), and he starts working on Joe's conscience regarding the war effort and the need of the money for the purposes it is supposed to push. So when Grant beats up his partner he is actually doing it to prevent their plans for the theft of the charity money to come to fruition.Again the studio (RKO again) and the actor's agent refused to countenance a negative image for Grant. So we have to be satisfied with two scenes where Grant uses his muscles to beat people up. One should be thankful for small favors - Grant would try again in 1944 when he appeared in NONE BUT THE LONELY HEART to play a criminal type, but there too the screenplay would prevent him from playing a total rat again.