Everything Happens at Night

Rival reporters compete for the love of a girl (Sonja Henie) and search for a Nobel Prize winner who's in hiding in "Everything Happens at Night," a 1939 film also starring Ray Milland and Robert Cummings.

The two men are hot on the trail of a Dr. Norden, a man supposed to be dead but actually alive in a small Swiss village hiding from various political factions who are after him. While there, they both meet pretty Louise, a young woman who's the caretaker for an old man. She also knows how to skate.

This is more of a dramatic turn for Henje. It only has one big number for the multiple Olympic gold winner. Today, Henje's skating may not look like much, but she was very musical, had great speed, excellent spins, and danced on her toes on ice like a ballerina. She was a dazzling entertainer.

The comedy is provided by Milland and Cummings, both of whom are very charming and funny. For some reason, a lot of people slam Cummings. He wasn't a compelling dramatic actor; his foray was comedy, which he did well.

Milland looks quite handsome and he flirts beautifully: "6'3, blue eyes, 28 years old" he murmurs in Henie's ear with that knockout accent - pretty sexy!

As for Henje, acting wasn't her thing; she was a specialty performer, and one keeps waiting for her to do her specialty. Instead, she spends a lot of time skiing up and down mountains.

I'm not even sure she skied - Otto Lang, who recently died at 98, donned a blond wig and skied for her in "Thin Ice," and in "It Happened in Sun Valley," her stand-in for skiing was a 14-year old boy. So someone kept busy, and it wasn't Sonja.

"Everything Happens at Night" isn't much of a movie. People expect a light, thin story from a Henje film since she'll be skating a lot. Well, the story is thin but it's a comedy that turns dramatic when the Nazis show up in the Swiss village looking for the doctor. I thought Switzerland was a neutral country - wouldn't this man be safe once he was there?

Sonja should have stuck to films like "Thin Ice," "One in a Million," and "Second Fiddle" which were more her speed. In short, not a great movie and not a great Sonja Henie movie.

The story is not even a paper thin one, it is ludicrous.

A famous scientist is killed by Gestapo, and in fact it was his secretary who had been, and there is no mention of his being look-alike, or even similar stature. But the whole world believed, including Gestapo, that it was he who was killed and the survivor to the shoot out was the secretary ! No one bothered to have a look at the survivor? It wasn't the iron curtain period, and even under the curtain, this type of replacement wasn't possible. For safety, the targets, if they are important, were provided body-double, by the state. But when the state itself was the gun wielder, that is simply ruled out.

This was one of the propaganda movies, sponsored by administration and executed by Hollywood, and followed the exact formula of those, ridiculously incompetent and stupid enemy, and virtuous 'countrymen'. This type of misrepresentations brings down the merit of movie, but on another angle, it was necessary to bring warm the blood of the people, before making it to boil. But once the period is over, these movies neither have any historical significance, and least of all artistic one.

Being a propaganda movie, it needed some additional attraction, and most of these, were from the 'imported' stars, who might have been more than ready to compromise, to get into good books. Sonja had been 'pawn'-ed on this angle, and unfortunately, except her name, her skills were not used. Though she didn't have wooden face like a few of the sport/ music celebrities used, but still she wasn't much of an actress. Her talent was the ice-routines, and in this movie, there was only one, and that too forced in. It was a dream sequence, but whereas in 'One in a Million' there was some context, here there were absolutely none, and that too, for a few minutes.

Both the leading men in her life were cads, to use it mildly, she knew and still fell and so much so, that she brought the enemy into the secret lair, where her father was kept hidden !

Well, with this infantile plot, Sonja without show-casing her talents (except a few minutes) it should go back to the can, once its purpose has ended (say December 1941).

I feel sorry for Sonja, but on the other angle, all the actor and actresses of those times were practically white slaves, only a handful could dare (even Bette Davis couldn't), and that too probably since their box-office values far more offset their 'rebellion'.

Sonja Henie is always watchable and a marvel at ice skating, but 'Everything Happens at Night' is one of her weaker films along with 'One in a Million' and 'It's a Pleasure'.

What there is of the ice skating is dazzling and full of grace, flawlessly performed by Henie, but there isn't enough of it. 'Everything Happens at Night' is saved mainly by the funny and charming performances of Robert Cummings and particularly Ray Milland. The humour is sporadic, but is entertaining when it's there.

The production values are suitably elegant and beautifully captured by camera and the music complements very well indeed.

Henie however, despite dancing/skating flawlessly, shows limitations as an actress, a big problem for a role heavier in the drama department than the ice skating. Apart from some nice humour, the script is very limp, while the direction is stodgy and the story is as thin as ice, sometimes pedestrian and implausible.

Overall, watchable but a lesser film with Sonja Henie. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Two rival journalists in Switzerland search for a missing Nobel Peace Prize laureate - but instead discover a lovely young nurse who teaches them that EVERYTHING HAPPENS AT NIGHT.

Sonja Henie was Norway's ice queen when she won Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932 & 1936. After going professional, she began a celebrated movie career at 20th Century Fox in 1936 with ONE IN A MILLION, which was her American film debut. Beautiful & talented, as well as being a natural in front of the cameras, she carved out her own special niche during Hollywood's Golden Age. Although Miss Henie's ice routines may look antiquated by comparison to modern champions, there was nothing antique about her dazzling smile or sparkling personality. In this regard, some of today's snowflake princesses could still learn a great deal from her.

As her career progressed, it became increasingly difficult for Fox to find decent stories for Miss Henie and the excuses for the lavish ice dancing numbers were often implausible. No matter. Audiences did not flock to her films to watch Sonja recite Shakespeare. The movies were meant to be pure escapist fantasy, plain & simple.

EVERYTHING HAPPENS AT NIGHT is no exception and its story is often quite silly. Also, unbelievably, Sonja is only given one skating sequence in the film. Incomprehensible omission! One has to wonder what the bosses at 20th Century Fox were thinking?

On the plus side, the movie must be credited as one of the first of Hollywood's films to depict the Gestapo as evil villains - a full two years before America's entry into the Second World War.

A couple of script inclusions may need a bit of elucidation. The BEN-HUR film which is suggested (and rejected) would be the silent 1925 MGM version starring Ramon Novarro; by 1939 it would be considered quite passé. Also, notice the sly reference to 'Ferdinand.' This would be an allusion to Ferdinand the Bull, the flower-sniffing hero of Munro Leaf's 1936 story (and made into an Academy Award winning cartoon by Walt Disney in 1938).

Ray Milland & Robert Cummings are very enjoyable as the ambitious reporters; viewers will be wondering which gentleman will walk away with Sonja at the fadeout - both are heroic, cunning and equally deserve her.

A smattering of familiar faces fill small roles (George Davis, Frank Reicher, Paul Porcasi, Christian Rub). Fritz Feld is especially humorous as an officious gendarme. Jody Gilbert steals a scene or two as an abundantly sturdy Swiss miss.

Ultimately, though, this is Sonja's show. She glides effortlessly into the viewer's heart, while balancing on a thin edge of silver, suspended over frozen water.

Not much can be said for SONJA HENIE's attempt to show her boss Darryl F. Zanuck (whom she couldn't tolerate) that she was an actress as well as a first class skater.

Result: The dullest of all the Henie vehicles--and quite the opposite of another commentator who says "typical Sonja Henie fluff." Nothing could be farther from the truth. This is definitely not a typical Henie vehicle. It's merely a dull story of two reporters (RAY MILLAND and ROBERT CUMMINGS) who seek the truth regarding a Nobel Prize-winning author and who vie for the affections of his daughter. The humor is sparse and the incidents involving Nazis during World War II falls flat.

Sonja does get a chance to act--with less than satisfying results. Furthermore, she only gets a chance to skate once during the entire film.

Milland and Cummings are competent enough but the script is a dull affair and no one comes out of this one smelling like a rose, most of all the writers who concocted this far-fetched story.