Happy Go Lucky

To get rich, Marjory Stuart, a gold digger, goes to Trinidad and poses as a debutant. The beach boy, Pete, immediately reveals it, but offers to help catch his enemy, Alfred Monroe, on a sailboat. Turns out Marjory's buddy, Bubbles, is Pete's old flame, Wally's buddy. Every well-planned effort to land Monroe ends in slapping simplicity; then Wally's voodoo priestess gives her a love potion that works ...

This is clearly a cast-off Crosby-Hope script with a couple of additional songs for Hutton and Martin. Panama and Frank do their regular "Road" story and the color is nice. All it needs is a patty-cake routine.

I like all the actors who appear in "Happy Go Lucky," but not much in this film. This movie bounces all over the place, the plot is a jumble of small plots, and the screenplay is lousy. Even the musical numbers don't go over well. Betty Hutton as Bubbles Hennessy is way overboard, especially in her singing. She could make some ugly faces with her facial contortions in songs. I think it was poor directing that let stuff like that get through. I'll bet she shuddered if she saw the film and how she appeared in her songs.

Mary Martin as Marjory, Dick Powell as Pete and Rudy Vallee as Alfred don't seem to have any energy. In Alfred's case, it may be intentional; but with few others showing any zip for their roles, this film soon becomes a ho-hum. Eddie Bracken is OK, and I like to see Eric Blore in his supporting roles. But they don't have enough to lift this film above poor. What little humor there is can't save the film either.

It appears to be a lavish production from the opening scene with many people in costume and the boat landing setting. But it soon turns out to be a very poor film. This was a Paramount picture, and I wonder if this wasn't one of its "B" level films. I had a hard time staying with it. It just isn't that interesting or entertaining.

In 1942 Dick Powell signed a contract with Paramount Pictures on condition that he vary his roles and would occasionally do some dramatic films which Warner Brothers had refused to cast him in. But his first film for them was Star Spangled Rhythm and his bit part in that wartime musical was with Mary Martin doing probably the best number in the film, Hit the Road to Dreamland. They certainly seemed well suited for each other.

With that in mind Powell got to do his first color film Happy Go Lucky with Martin the following year. But for some reason Mary Martin never quite clicked with film audiences. I'm at a loss to know why myself because she certainly had a sparkling personality.

Powell did this one with Martin with the hope that dramatic parts would eventually come his way and Happy Go Lucky is certainly amusing enough. Powell and Eddie Bracken play a pair of beachcombers on a tropical island in the Caribbean created nicely on the Paramount sound stage. Martin is a cigarette girl pretending to be a débutante hoping to land a rich husband and her sights are set on Rudy Vallee who is reprising his role from The Palm Beach Story replete with glasses and all. Also along for the ride is Betty Hutton who is a fellow cigarette girl traveling with Martin and an old flame of Bracken's.

Certainly Bracken and Hutton seemed to team well together as they had in The Fleet's In and Star Spangled Rhythm and both would be used again to even bigger acclaim by Preston Sturges in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek and Hail the Conquering Hero. In fact Hutton stole the film right out from under the leads with her rousing rendition of Murder He Says.

As long as Rudy Vallee and Dick Powell were appearing in the same film it would have been nice if they had sung together, but Rudy did not sing a note and an opportunity was lost.

I don't think I have to talk about the plot too much more with the ingredients I've given you, I'm sure you know exactly how this will all come out. The only other item involved in this film is a voodoo love potion that apparently is spread to victim like you were spraying your garden for pests.

Happy Go Lucky is an amusing average comedy from Paramount that led to nothing for its leads, but it's supporting cast did just fine.

This mediocre film mostly wastes the comic talents of the cast. It's instructive to compare the terrific comic performances of Bracken, Vallee, and Hutton in Preston Stuges films, and their so-so or worse performances here -- few laughs, no wit. Vallee especially is a completely charmless oaf in this film, while he is very funny and charming in a very similar role in The Palm Beach Story. Eric Blore is completely wasted, given almost nothing to do and is photographed in partial shadow in a couple of shots.

There are a couple of good songs, Murder She Says, a Hutton classic with lyrics by Frank Loesser, and Let's Get Lost, a pleasant ballad that has had a modest life beyond this film.

Mary Martin does a good job with her songs, she's energetic and sings as well as she did in her later Broadway shows. But she's a bit weak on charisma and star quality. Dick Powell is competent, but seems bored. It's no wonder that both stars were dropped by Paramount or visa versa soon after this movie. Of course that worked out great, as Martin and Powell did their best work in the years that followed.

Interesting that one of the reviewers here mentioned this movie might have been orignially written as a Crosby-Hope Road picture. I can really understand that that might have been the case.