Support Trailers From Hell with a donation to help us reduce ads and keep creating the content you love! Donate Now
Trailers
From Hell.com

Mr. Lucky

by Glenn Erickson Jan 18, 2025

Whoa — RKO’s wartime hit is a bright spot for mainstream filmmaking: major studio talents turn an unpromising idea into a sweetheart film everyone loved. Cary Grant has total control of his ‘bad’ gambler-grifter, while the unsung but wonderful Laraine Day gives him a reason to reform. The Damon Runyon-inflected tale is frequently hilarious, with a cute romantic angle that saves the day. It’s also beautifully designed … by none other than William Cameron Menzies.


Mr. Lucky
Blu-ray
Warner Archive Collection
1943 / B&W / 1:37 Academy / 100 min. / Street Date December 17, 2024 / Available at MovieZyng / 21.99
Starring: Cary Grant, Laraine Day, Paul Stewart, Alan Carney, Charles Bickford, Henry Stephenson, Emory Parnell, Florence Bates, Gladys Cooper, Kay Johnson, Lloyd Ingraham, J.M. Kerrigan, Max Linder, Erford Gage, Paula Corday.
Cinematography: George Barnes
Production Designer: William Cameron Menzies
Art Directors: Albert S. D’Agostino, Mark-Lee Kirk
Costumes: Renié
Film Editor: Theron Warth
Original Music: Roy Webb
Screenplay by Milton Holmes, Adrian Scott (and Dudley Nichols, uncredited) from the story Bundles for Freedom, From Here to Victory by Holmes
Produced by David Hempstead
Directed by
H.C. Potter

World War II brought some big changes as to what a mainstream Hollywood hit could be. RKO’s biggest hit of the war was … no, not this picture. It was  Hitler’s Children, an exploitative exposé of Hitler Youth oppression that attracted crowds with scandalous promises of Bonita Granville being stripped, whipped and who knows what. After Orson Welles, RKO did say it wanted to emphasize Showmanship, Not Genius!

RKO’s second-biggest hit of the war is this New York tale of a shifty crook who aims to fleece a war relief charity, to finance his gambling ship. What could have been a strained morale-booster is great entertainment — witty, suspenseful and more than reasonably intelligent. The director is H.C. Potter, a craftsman without a strong style, but who had years of stellar Broadway experience. Actors trusted him, and he didn’t ruin good screenplays. He did a lot of workhorse assignments, but also couple of decent Astaire musicals and the marvelous  Hellzapoppin’, which is still a frantic whirlwind of a comedy. His  The Farmer’s Daughter has a good reputation, while his  Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House is an enduring classic that keeps on giving after multiple views.

Behind its generic poster art, Mr. Lucky soon gets us on its side. Cary Grant is said to have asked RKO to purchase Milton Holmes’s original story. Grant sometimes found himself in shows that weren’t a good fit for his talents, but this one lets him play to his strengths, showing exactly what makes him one of the best-ever Hollywood stars. His self-assurance is breathtaking.

 

Never give a sucker an even break, but never cheat a friend.

 

Gambler, confidence man and shifty crook Joe Adams is a quick thinker who uses his personal charm to bilk people. He wants to relocate his illicit gambling ship ‘Fortuna’ to Florida but is short $50,000 dollars to grease the way. Both he and his number two man, the more conventionally crooked Zepp (Paul Stewart) receive draft notices. Zepp apparently prepares to be processed, but Joe swaps identities with a crewmen who has just died. As Joe Bascopolus, Joe decides that the perfect way to raise his cash will be to cheat a mostly female-run war charity, led by the socialite Dorothy Bryant (Laraine Day). Joe easily hoodwinks Dorothy’s colleagues (Gladys Cooper, Kay Johnson, Florence Bates) but Dorothy isn’t so foolish: she assigns him to learn to knit.

Dorothy fools Joe almost as much as he fools her — she uses him to get through some tough negotiations, even as she doubts his commitment to anything except himself. Going against her conservative father, Dorothy allows Joe to put on a semi-legal gambling operation to raise charity funds for medical supplies to be shipped to Greece. What she doesn’t know is that Joe’s ‘pal’ Zepp is convinced that Joe has gone soft, and is making plans to take both the gambling receipts and Joe’s racket.

This is not a screwball farce, as pure silliness doesn’t enter into the comedy. It’s instead a nice balance of romantic comedy and homefront drama. Smooth cookie Joe and his gambling-ship buddies talk a made-up gang jargon somewhere between Damon Runyon and old-fashioned cockney rhyming slang, which between Joe and Dorothy becomes a courting device. By the time they’re partners, she’s using the funny phrases to protect him from the cops.

The clever story structure uses flashback bookends, set on a foggy NYC waterfront, and given a major boost by the film’s elegant production design. Joe’s ship’s captain Hard Swede anchors the serious end of the story, explaining to a night watchman why the swank Ms. Bryant is waiting on the end of a pier. Subsequent scenes soon turn lighter. A dying sailor sets up the relationship between Joe and Zepp, crooks perpetually working angles — keeping illegal gambling going, evading the draft. Zepp doesn’t hold with Joe’s ‘chivalric’ underworld code — he withholds news that Joe’s new identity, Joe Bascopolus, is wanted by the law.

 

Joe’s invasion of the charity organization has the film’s most adept scenes. Joe jumps through hoops trying to prove himself to the wary Dorothy. She buys none of his soft soap but can’t her own attraction. Their relationship grows, thanks to the good script and the combined charm of Grant and Day.

One big surprise is Joe’s helper Crunk, played by comedian Alan Carney, who we’d previously seen only in an unfunny comedy,  Zombies on Broadway. An excellent foil for Joe’s slick moves, Crunk brings in a streetwise attitude and a good disposition. The ‘comic antics’ around things like being taught to knit are excellent. Both Joe and Crunk become very nervous when their knitting practice draws a crowd of fascinated men — which makes a funny statement on masculine insecurity.

The romance builds on a couple of emotional misunderstandings — Joe looks truly hurt when Dorothy accuses him of cheating at everything. Joe uses Dorothy’s guilt to get the Charity casino idea going again. They’ll use the gambling equipment from the ship … and Joe and his gang will steal the proceeds.

The sentimental machinations that spin Mr. Lucky to its happy ending may be the most elegant of any wartime movie charged with delivering a morale-building message. Joe gets a Greek Orthodox Priest to translate a letter from the mother of the real (and dead) Joe Bascopoulos, relating the horrors visited by the occupying Germans. It’s enough to motivate Joe to go straight. His reformation and the rosy ending verge into fairy tale territor — the Fortuna becomes a medical supplies relief ship in just a few hours?  Such things don’t matter, with the focus on the romance between the ritzy charity lady and her newly patriotic beau.

 

Hey, these visuals have a real graphic sensibility.

 

Contributing mightily to Mr. Lucky is the work of Production Designer William Cameron Menzies. It is likely that Menzies storyboarded the whole movie — director H.C. Potter may have delegated the film’s entire visual aspect to Menzies and cinematographer George Barnes. That includes placing the camera and calling the shots. As noted above, the flashback bookends on a murky dock made good use of RKO’s crack optical printer shop. The production never went near the water. Numerous shots are almost entirely matte paintings and miniatures, perfectly arranged. Menzies’ bold graphics make the opening of a dock warehouse door into an elegant transition ‘wipe’ effect. Menzie’s designs can be seen in odd compositions that push important information high or low in the frame. Joe’s slot machines are seen only once, in an almost abstract angle. A tight group of gamblers is compared to a tight group of ladies in a knitting bee, with a befuddled Cary Grant in the middle.

The show is packed with clever details, from Joe’s various betting tricks, to his whistled signature melody,  Something to Remember You By  by Arthur Schwartz.  *  Dorothy employs Rhyming Slang to fool the cops. The substitution of ‘briny marlin’ for ‘darlin” also figures in the transformation of the gambling boat into a war relief ship.

The oddest detail looks like a William Cameron Menzies storyboard setup. After a certain villain is on the floor and unconscious, we get a shot of Joe stomping down at the camera. The implication is that he’s killing his foe, crushing him with his shoe. We imagine that audiences cheered in 1943, but today it seems more than a little bloodthirsty. For some war-effort movies the Production Code went out the window … just what criminal charges might Joe face when he eventually comes out in the open?

 


 

The new Blu-ray of Mr. Lucky is more good news from the Warner Archive Collection: a picture we’ve seen for ages in so-so TV prints is revealed as a real beauty. We admire the impressively designed visuals, but also the strikingly beautiful B&W images of Cary Grant. By this time the actor knew well how to maximize his on-screen appeal. We immediately understand why America’s women were in love with him. Laraine Day is gorgeous, but our eyes are mostly on Grant!

The B&W contrast is rich, the picture sharp and the surface texture very smooth. Perhaps some repair was needed, but the film’s elements appear to have been in perfect condition. RKO may not have had the clout of MGM, but their pictures always looked classy.

No cartoons or short subjects are included for this WAC disc.  The extras are two separate radio adaptations, from 1943 and 1950. Both star Cary Grant and the first stars Laraine Day as well.

Reviewed by Glenn Erickson


Mr. Lucky
Blu-ray rates:
Movie: Excellent
Video: Excellent
Sound: Excellent
Supplements:
Lux Radio Theater broadcast with Cary Grant and Laraine Day (1943)
Screen Director’s Playhouse broadcast with Cary Grant and H.C. Potter (1950)
Original Theatrical Trailer.
Deaf and Hearing-impaired Friendly? YES; Subtitles: English (feature only)

Packaging: One Blu-ray in Keep case
Reviewed:
January 17, 2024
(7260luck)

*  For no good reason, I keep expecting Henry Mancini’s Mr. Lucky Theme to be part of the movie. It’s of course attached to a short-lived 1959 TV show I barely remember, but it’s one of Mancini’s best-orchestrated main title tunes. The easy-listening lushness doesn’t fit the NYC vibe of the 1943 movie — to me the tune has always been an anthem for the Californian Good Life … sunshine, swimming pools, movie stars.CINESAVANT

Final product for this review was provided free by The Warner Archive Collection.

Visit CineSavant’s Main Column Page
Glenn Erickson answers most reader mail:
cinesavant@gmail.com

Text © Copyright 2025 Glenn Erickson

About Glenn Erickson

Screen Shot 2015-08-24 at 6.51.08 PM

Glenn Erickson left a small town for UCLA film school, where his spooky student movie about a haunted window landed him a job on the CLOSE ENCOUNTERS effects crew. He’s a writer and a film editor experienced in features, TV commercials, Cannon movie trailers, special montages and disc docus. But he’s most proud of finding the lost ending for a famous film noir, that few people knew was missing. Glenn is grateful for Trailers From Hell’s generous offer of a guest reviewing haven for CineSavant.

3.5 4 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
guest
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x