Synopsis
"You're society. I' m just one of the mob. To you a guy like me is poison!"
A conman poses as a war relief fundraiser, but when he falls for a charity worker, his conscience begins to trouble him.
1943 Directed by H. C. Potter
A conman poses as a war relief fundraiser, but when he falls for a charity worker, his conscience begins to trouble him.
Cary Grant Laraine Day Charles Bickford Gladys Cooper Alan Carney Henry Stephenson Paul Stewart Kay Johnson Erford Gage Walter Kingsford Florence Bates Sam Ash Edwin August Walter Bacon John Bleifer Don Brodie George Calliga Charles Cane Rita Corday Joseph Crehan Kernan Cripps Hal K. Dawson Jack Deery Helen Dickson Edward Fielding Budd Fine Sam Finn Ray Flynn Mary Forbes Show All…
La dama e l'avventuriero, Aventureiro de Sorte, Dl. Norocos, Hasardspelaren, Містер Щасливчик
“Mr. Lucky” might as well refer in title to its creator, more than its only sometimes serendipitous main character. The film was the result of a pitch to Cary Grant; concocted by a coach at the actor’s Beverly Hills tennis club.
The project is a lob for Grant, playing to the ease with which everything seemed to come to him in real life. As the owner of a gambling boat, he never seems to be at risk of losing anything, except moments of his blessed time.
Time, though, is the most precious commodity given the movie’s setting in the prelude to the Second World War.
Milton Holmes, the tennis pro, was no such pro at screenwriting, however, and Grant set…
Cinematic Time Capsule
1943 Marathon - Film #14
Welcome to Cary Grant’s HOUSE OF GAMES!
He’s a cheater, he’s a scoundrel, and a mighty spiteful knitter.
”You call that purling? You dropped a stitch!”
That’s right, Grant’s a fast talking gambler who’s running a long con on the local war relief. That is until he winds up locking horns with its head "twist and twirl”… Now he can’t even gauge which way is up, or who’s conning who.
”You don’t mind if I double-cross myself do ya?”
Sure, this flick’s tones are all of the genre map and Grant’s third act moral conversion plays sappier than waffle house syrup bar. But I gotta tell ya that when push comes to…
“goddamn, man child. you act like a kid even though you stand six foot two. you’re fun and you’re wild, but you don’t know the half of the shit that you put me through“ - me to cary grant in every movie he’s in
Referring to Cary Grant’s emergence as a major star in some of the great screwball comedies of the late-1930s, Pauline Kael once observed, “After 1940, he didn’t seem to have any place to go — there were no longer Cary Grant pictures” due to WWII causing Hollywood to explore much darker themes than it had before. Grant’s response anticipated that of other stars after WWII: Grant began to “go dark,” most notably in Alfred Hitchcock’s Suspicion (1941), where he played a man contemplating killing either his wife or himself. That Grant understood what Hitchcock was doing with his image is apparent in the fact that he spearheaded this project, convincing RKO to buy the rights to the story from Milton Holmes,…
"Never give a sucker an even break, and always keep an eye on a pal."
I always wondered where that quote came from. While this wasn't the most exciting Cary Grant movie ever, he was charming and suave, and I'll let it slide. And it's always nice to see him play a devious character in a way that clashes with his debonair screen persona.
In the early 1940's, Cary Grant was subtly exploring class division between the haves and the have-nots, and experimenting with his screen persona. Key roles in this vein include the sociopath in Suspicion, the working class philosopher in The Talk of the Town and the amoral gangster in this picture. He portrays Joe Adams, who swaps identities with a dying gang member in order to escape the Draft. His new identity is Greek, from a country newly occupied by the Nazis, which leads to opportunities to reflect on the Nazi terror in Europe, which in turn reflects poorly on his decision as a draft dodger. On top of this, he's trying to scam a bunch of sweet old ladies running…
One has to love those bizarre tonal shifts of war time movies, on this case gangster comedy and paatriorric romance which doesn't really fit. As long as it can coast on Grant's charms as a conman this is pretty good if unambitious star vehicle and his far from pure motivations do offer some different energy from his scenes with Day even if country ande love reforming him is a given. The third act predictablyloses a footing, There's some good pros on the supporting cast.