Themes: Opposites Attract, Going Straight, Cons and Scams
Main Cast: Cary Grant, Laraine Day, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Alan Carney
Release Year: 1943
Country: US
Run Time: 99 minutes
MPAA Rating: NR
Plot
One of Cary Grant's most financially successful 1940s vehicles, Mr. Lucky finds Grant atypically cast as a shifty, out-for-number-one gambler. Having dodged the draft by adopting the identity of a dead man, Grant sets his sights on purchasing a fancy gambling ship. To raise the necessary funds, he pretends to be working hand in glove with the American War Relief society. Once he meets Laraine Day, however, Grant is seized by an uncontrollable bout of honesty. It takes him awhile, but he finally does the right thing. The film is framed in flashback, as old seaman Charles Bickford explains why a tearful Laraine Day waits at the dock each evening for a certain ship to come in. Also in the cast is Paul Stewart as a cold-eyed but nonetheless semi-comic hoodlum, and Kay Johnson and Gladys Cooper as elegant but gullible society women. The best aspect of this breezy comedy-drama is Grant's cockney propensity for "rhyming slang," a running gag better heard than described. Mr. Lucky was later adapted into a TV series in 1959, with John Vivyan in the Cary Grant part and with Blake Edwards at the production controls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Albert S. D'Agostino - Art Director, Mark-Lee Kirk - Art Director, Renie - Costume Designer, Harry Scott - First Assistant Director, H.C. Potter - Director, Theron Warth - Editor, Roy Webb - Composer (Music Score), Constantin Bakaleinikoff - Musical Direction/Supervision, William Cameron Menzies - Production Designer, George Barnes - Cinematographer, David Hempstead - Producer, Claude E. Carpenter - Set Designer, Darrell Silvera - Set Designer, Vernon Walker - Special Effects, James G. Stewart - Sound/Sound Designer, Richard VanHessen - Sound/Sound Designer, Milton Holmes - Screen Story, Adrian Scott - Screenwriter, Milton Holmes - Screenwriter
