Main Cast: Sonja Henie, Don Ameche, Jean Hersholt, Ethel Merman, Cesar Romero
Release Year: 1938
Country: US
Run Time: 102 minutes
Plot
Happy Landing was another Sonja Henie moneyspinner from the 20th Century-Fox film factory. The story gets under way when skirt-chasing bandleader Duke Sargent (Cesar Romero) pitches woo to Trudy Ericksen (Sonja Henie) while on a tour of Norway. To Duke, it's just another harmless flirtation, but Trudy takes him seriously and trails him back to the USA, where she finds enormous success as an ice-skating star. When Duke's manager Jimmy Hall (Don Ameche) falls in love with Trudy himself, he cooks up a scheme to marry off Duke to vocalist Flo Kelly (Ethel Merman). As always, the plot takes a back seat to the skating, with Sonja Henie at her professional peak. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
Happy Landing is a fairly typical Sonja Henie film, which means that her fans will love it and her detractors will simply shake their heads in wonder that such films ever existed, let alone were enormously popular. As with most Henie, the problem with Landing is that, as good as the ice skating sequences are -- and they are truly exceptional here -- there's still lots of time between them that has to be filled. When Henie is filling that time, Landing grinds to a halt, not helped by Don Ameche's surprisingly lifeless, half-hearted performance. Fortunately, Cesar Romero is around to add a little spice and, even more fortunately, Ethel Merman is around to add some real zip. Merman raises the roof with her sensational "You Appeal to Me" and "Hot and Happy," and her way with a would-be-snappy line of dialogue livens things up considerably. There's also a nifty Condos Brothers dance sequence that helps to make up for the annoying Al Brendel number. The script is ridiculous and the direction is perfunctory, but Happy Landing is opulent and eye-filling. And while Merman is onscreen or Henie is skating, it's enjoyable. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
Billy Gilbert - Counter Man; Wally Vernon - Al Mahoney; Marcelle Corday - Gypsy; Joseph Crehan - Agent; Eddie Conrad - Waiter; Leah Ray - Specialties; The Peters Sisters; The Condos Brothers - Themselves; El Brendel - Yonnie; Lon Chaney, Jr. - Reporter; Robert Lowery - Reporter; Alex Novinsky - Count; Ray Scott Quintet - Himself; Ben Welden - Rink Manager; Raymond Scott and His Quintet
Credit
Mark-Lee Kirk - Art Director, David Hempstead - Associate Producer, Harry Losee - Choreography, Royer - Costume Designer, Roy Del Ruth - Director, Louis Loeffler - Editor, Jack Yellen - Composer (Music Score), Louis Silvers - Musical Direction/Supervision, Walter Bullock - Songwriter, Raymond Scott - Songwriter, John Mescall - Cinematographer, Darryl F. Zanuck - Producer, Thomas K. Little - Set Designer, Eugene Grossman - Sound/Sound Designer, Roger Heman - Sound/Sound Designer, Boris Ingster - Screenwriter, Milton Sperling - Screenwriter
