Just My Luck

A pretty average vehicle for Wisdom. The story about betting on a horse race and winning a fortune doesn't really seem to go anywhere so the resultant narrative feels episodic at best, a little tedious at worst. Our star certainly makes plenty of effort and it's as nice as ever to see the likes of Margaret Rutherford co-starring, but this one just lacks a certain magic.

I first learned of Norman Wisdom -- who died last year -- a few years ago when I watched some of his movies dubbed in Russian. I could have turned the sound off and they still would have been funny as hell.

I didn't like "Just My Luck" quite as much as "Up in the World" or "A Stitch in Time", but I certainly laughed throughout it. Wisdom returns as Norman, the inept but goodhearted underdog. In this case, he works in a jewelry workshop and wants to be in a relationship with the shop window dresser across the street, and decides to give her a diamond necklace. So, he takes up gambling on horse races.

I didn't really understand any of the stuff about the races. It was just a pleasure to watch the guy get himself into a series of embarrassing situations, including one that probably gave millions of boys their first carnal experience.

Wisdom's movies are really popular in Albania. Enver Hoxha, who was president of Albania from 1945 to 1985, interpreted them as proletarian parables and so he widely distributed them throughout Albania. The Albanian people found them just plain funny. I couldn't agree with them more.

I caught this movie on TV on night many years ago, and I still remember laughing so hard I had a stomach ache! Norman Wisdom is one of the funniest men in film. Just the eclair eating scene alone is worth renting this or catching it on the late, late show one night. If you see it, don't miss it. You will go to bed giggling!

We are starved for British comedies of this era. We love movies with Ian Carmichael, Terry-Thomas, of course Peter Sellers & Alec Guinness, and way up on our list, Margaret Rutherford.

Which brings us to why we watched this movie--she got second billing. Had never seen Norman Wisdom, but he's well-known, so why not give it a chance? Plus, we are big horse racing fans, & that's the main subject.

Sad to say, we were highly disappointed. No captioning for the film, so we struggled to understand some of Wisdom's Cockney dialogue.

A couple of the stock characters were mildly amusing: the battle-axe mother, also the battle-axe-in-training girlfriend.

Happy finally to see the wonderful Margaret Rutherford, but much too little & too late in the movie.

Mainly saw a succession of pratfalls and low comedy, very little Brit-wit.

The first & last time we'll watch Norman Wisdom--save him for the music halls.

Norman is on top form with this splendid tale of the turf. Dreaming of the shop girl he sees each day, Norman borrows a pound from his Mum and backs a six horse accumulator. Against the odds, each horse keeps winning and an increasingly excited Norman dreams of riches. There are delightful cameos from Leslie Phillips and Margaret Rutherford (bathing a chimp!?) and see if you can spot the uncredited Stringer Davis. This is one of Normans best films simply because it has all of the ingredients. The scenes when he is 'drunk' on chloroform gas are priceless.