Il ponte dell'amore

It's not in the league of It Happened One Night or His Girl Friday. The story line is nonsensical and the pacing can be slow and ultimately, it just doesn't work. So why 7 stars? Because Ronald Colman is having a ball playing a sexy rogue and every romantic scene works perfectly. He drops some incredibly flirty dialogue and Ginger Rogers reluctantly being proper and locking the door to their adjoining rooms is ALL OF US (whew!). There's a scene that's a precursor to "Pillow Talk" that's just as romantic. This movie just doesn't really work, it should have been better, but it's worth it to watch just for Colman and his scenes with Ginger Rogers.

Lucky Partners was the first of two films that Ronald Colman together with director Lewis Milestone signed on to make at RKO Pictures. For box office sake he was lucky to get Ginger Rogers who was their top moneymaking female star to be the leading lady. Though their styles don't quite mesh, it's a pleasant enough bit of viewing.

Colman is a reclusive artist and Ginger is a bookseller in Greenwich Village of the Forties, then as now a home and haven for non-conformist spirits. Maybe in another neighborhood a story like this just couldn't happen.

Just one fine day as Colman passes Rogers on the street he wishes her a casual 'good luck'. When she gets the gift of an expensive coat that someone is discarding, Ginger decides that Colman apparently has a lucky streak going. What to do, but bet on the Irish Sweepstakes and take him in as a partner. That does not sit too well with fiancée Jack Carson who is playing a typical Jack Carson blowhard type.

The whole business arrangement in fact the whole business eventually winds up before Judge Harry Davenport who sorts out the legal and romantic complications for all concerned. Very much like Judge Granville Bates does in My Favorite Wife which also came from RKO the same year and is a much better film.

With possibly a different director like Preston Sturges or Mitch Leisen, or Leo McCarey, someone who is known for comedy Lucky Partners might have been a better film. As it is it's pleasant enough viewing for the fans of the leading players, but that's about all you can say for it.

Lucky Partners, released in 1940, paired Ginger Rogers with Ronald Colman. The movie starts with Colman (Dave Grant) wishing a stranger "Good Luck!" as he passes her (Rogers playing Jean Newton) on the sidewalk, catching her off guard. After a brief exchange, they continue on their ways. Right away, the director is letting us know that this is a whimsical story, so criticisms about its implausibility should be few.

It turns out that Jean, who is engaged to Freddy (played by Jack Carson), crosses paths with Dave again, sending the story of this romantic comedy on its way. I was pleased to find this film uses both broad humor and comedic subtlety, with elements of farce. Director Lewis Milestone uses a deft touch to keep us guessing at the next plot twist and to keep the chuckles coming. I'm afraid I was not cognizant of Milestone's accomplishments before seeing Lucky Partners. He won the Academy Award for All Quiet on the Western Front, and directed the excellent Front Page, and the quirky Hallelujah, I'm a Bum. Milestone was known for his innovative filming techniques and his quirky sense of humor.

Ronald is his usual smooth self (does anyone else think Hugo Weaving was copying his voice in V for Vendetta?); Ginger, who I am partial to, plays her vivacious, funny-face persona. She would win the Academy Award for her role in Kitty Foyle, also released in 1940.

There are some humorous supporting cast portrayals, particularly the hotel maid who is the victim of Ginger's curious behavior.

Before it ends, the story morphs into a mystery that resolves in a courtroom setting.

Watch how the director creates viewer interest by allowing action to occur off-screen; he is very good at that. When the two men go into the back alley to fight (off-screen), watch Ginger's face. And you can see the moment (crossing the bridge)when Ginger realizes how much she cares for Ronald, accomplished without words--evidence of Milestone's silent film experience.

I really enjoyed this film.

"Lucky Partners" has a very good, very funny ending that alone makes this film worth watching. It's not the best courtroom comedy scene, but it's a very good one. And, it brings in the last supporting actor, whose presence helps lift this comedy a notch. That's Harry Davenport as the Judge.

A couple of reviewers commented that there is no chemistry here between the leads, Ronald Colman as David Grant, and Ginger Rogers as Jean Newton. Rather, they seem to me to be stand-offish which is part of the plot and roles they are playing. David is a quirky character, after all, with a very strange idea. And Jean is very naturally suspicious of this guy. In any real-life setting of such a situation that brings these two together for the whole movie, I can't imagine that any respectable woman wouldn't be the same way. So, Ginger plays that part very well.

The supporting cast in this film are all very good. Spring Byington has a small part as Aunt Lucy. Two brothers who own a neighborhood bistro as Nick #1 and Nick #2, are Leon Belasco and Eddie Conrad. A small part by Fern Emmett as the hotel chambermaid is very funny in the courtroom. She is testifying about the strange practice of Jean. The maid says she would go to one room after another in the hotel to turn down the beds and, on opening the door she would find Jean sitting in a chair, facing the door and "waiting to POUNCE on me."

But the best supporting role overall is played by Jack Carson. Some people may not like Carson for his part, but he was a consummate actor who played whatever part he got very well. Here, his Freddie is something of a blowhard and long-time boyfriend of Jean's. That they've only been engaged five years says something about their relationship in the movie. Take Carson's part out and the movie loses the basis for a significant amount of the humor.

Perhaps the one thing that sets this film back slightly is the persona of Colman's David Grant. It's not that he doesn't play it very well. Indeed, Colman was known for a specific persona in many of his films where his delivery was rather matter-of-fact and sometimes bitingly clever or huge understatement. But, with Jean's more lively, sprightly persona, I think the film would have been lifted a notch if David had been a little more down to earth and ordinary - as someone who is obviously attracted to Jean early on. Instead he does come across as somewhat snooty. But, to me, that's not "chemistry," where otherwise the two show keen interest in the other person at the right times.

Here are some favorite lines from this film. The Quotes section under this IMDb Web page on the movie has loads of funny lines, mostly from the court scenes.

Jean Newton, "Oh, Aunt Lucy, will you never grow up? People could walk in here and take your entire stock and you'd never know the difference."

Jean Newton, "And, the passion you've acquired for French novels, shame on you." Aunt Lucy, "Yes, darling, I know they're not entirely moral. But the French always seem to make everything so logical."

Freddie, "He's harmless. Look at him."

Freddie, "Very strange duck." Jean Newton, "Just what kind of a duck does that make you?"

Bride in elevator, "Did you just get here, honey?" Jean, "Yes." Woman, "We've been here a week." David, "How are the falls?" Groom in elevator, "Uh, we're seeing them tomorrow."

Freddie, "If you think you can take my girl and... " Jean, "And, what?" Freddie, "That, I don't know."

Freddie, "I used to think he was just crazy. Now I don't trust him." Jean, "That means you don't trust me either."

Hotel maid, "I tell you, your honor, it got me so nervous, I've been ascared (sic) to open a door ever since, for fear I'd find her sitting there, waiting to POUNCE on me."

Judge, "I've never heard that celebrities are any more to be trusted in their relations with women than anyone else."

Jean Newton, "Oh, it wasn't that kind of an experiment. I was to be a guinea pig."

Judge, "I see. He made love to you, he kissed you, and then he drove away in your automobile without a word. Is that right?"

Jean, "Your honor, this isn't fair. You said you were gonna protect me. He's only trying to make me talk to him now because I wouldn't talk to him outside."

Judge, "And now, Mr. Somerset." To the bailiff aside, " I have a lot of questions to ask this Casanova."

Judge, "Now that we've heard the witnesses in this case, it seems to me that we're in even deeper confusion than we were before."

Passing on the street, caricaturist Ronald Colman wishes complete stranger Ginger Rogers good luck. When luck comes her way, she decides Colman is her lucky charm, and suggests he go into an Irish Sweepstakes ticket with her. She is scheduled to marry bespectacled "insurance engineer" Jack Carson and move to Poughkeepsie, without a honeymoon. She wants her own money. Colman agrees, if she will take all the money, save for enough for a honeymoon. Insulted, Miss Rogers fetches Carson, expecting him to thrash Colman. Instead, Colman convinces him that she will marry him win or lose, and the chances of winning are millions to one; any trip with Colman would be as brother and sister. Convinced he is in on a cinch, Carson agrees. Instead, they draw a horse. Carson surreptitiously sells "her" half of the ticket. When she gets her money, she tells Colman, and they go on a trip. Complications ensue.

It's carried on the charms of the two leads, of course, but I always thought there was something odd about the rhythms. I've just done some digging and discovered it's based on a movie written, co-directed and starring Sacha Guitry. Of course! I can just see Guitry in the Colman role, talking nonsense a mile a minute; there's even a moment in which Colman's manner suggests Guitry.

The considerable charms of the leads overwhelm me, of course, but the best realized characters are in support: Carson's dull but suspicious "insurance engineer"; Spring Byington's bookstore owner; and Harry Davenport's judge who provides a third-act deus ex machina.

Guitry's original version doesn't seem to be easily available, much as I would like to see it for comparison. What we have here is a rather sniggering crazy comedy that doesn't quite work, however much I enjoy watching it.