Tourbillon blanc

Sometimes, you look back at something that was popular in Hollywood in the old days and you find it hard to understand it. A great example is the career of Sonja Henie. Henie was an Olympic champion figure skater who was signed to a multi-film contract by Twentieth Century-Fox...and she starred in about a dozen pictures even though she was Norwegian and didn't seem at all the movie star type. Another inexplicable Hollywood decision was to put the Ritz Brothers in films, as they were about as appealing as syphilis.

"One in a Million" is one of Henie's films....and unfortunately she was given the god-awful Ritz Brothers as supporting actors. While this might sound like hyperbole, I consider them the absolute worst comedy team in movie history...and only marginally less annoying than a case of ringworm! Most of their schtick consisted of being annoying, brash and singing humorous (???) ditties. Fortunately, the team never was that popular and they only made a few more movies than Henie.

Tad Spencer (Adolph Menjou) is a theatrical manager traveling through Europe with a bunch of talented folks...as well as the Ritz Brothers. When they stay at a small hotel in Switzerland, Tad discovers a very talented lady practicing for the upcoming Olympics. Soon, a lonely newspaper man (Don Ameche) arrives and discovers her as well...and the two work together to make Greta (Henie) a star.



Today, you wonder how folks could enjoy and even love Henie and her films. It was simply a product of the times...much like the Esther Williams movies of the 1940s and 50s....hard to understand now but which really clicked with audiences. And, while Henie's films were odd, they also were likable...and Henie's non-threatening smile and 'nice girl' looks endeared her to folks. Overall, I found the film a mildly enjoyable films...even with the Ritz Brothers doing their best to make me want to stop watching the picture!

This first Sonja Henie film was a surprise hit in 1936 and launched her onto a successful film career. Not bad considering how rare it was for those coming from successful sports careers to sustain such a thing (Johnny Weissmuller and Buster Crabbe possibly the only others---Esther Williams' sports background was negligible). This film's release coincided with her third straight gold medal performance at the Winter Olympics (she was champ in 1928 and 1932). (As a side note, it should be remembered that not only were the 1936 Summer Olympics held in Nazi Germany, so were that year's Winter Olympics. Granted this has nothing to do with Ms. Henie, but reviewers are bringing up the subject, so this note may quell any potential confusion over the Olympics issue.) As for "One in a Million" it is a light concoction that features Don Ameche in only his third film role and the Ritz Brothers in only their second feature film. So, lots of early work here. The results: miserable to okay. Ameche already shows his easy charm, here playing a reporter tracking an anarchist bomber story to Switzerland where he meets up with hotel proprietor Hersholt and his "gifted amateur" ice skating daughter Henie. The anarchist story fizzles but Ameche moves on to romance with Henie and her shot at the Olympics. Menjou is the brassy (maybe too much so) wheeler-dealer showman who gets Henie to perform in his show and nearly costs her the amateur standing that she needs in order to qualify for the Olympics. Along for the knockabout ride is the inimitable Ned Sparks, as Ameche's photographer partner, doing what he does best: providing that Buster Keaton-lookalike face and steely foghorn monotone delivery. Also, as part of Menjou's show, we get the Ritz Brothers who provide some strenuously awful comedy (Harry Ritz mugging so ferociously he looks as if he's herniating himself). Henie acquits herself adequately. Strangely enough, she was Norway's golden girl athlete, yet the film makes her Swiss for no apparent reason. Couldn't she be a Norwegian hotel proprietor's daughter? The other interesting aspect is her skating. We see the Olympic caliber work of a 1930's era skater, which is far simpler and less dazzling than what we've grown accustom to. Her "show-stopping" number at the end would be a warm-up for today's super-skaters. So, as a time capsule involving Henie this film is worth watching, but otherwise it's mostly light-headed knockabout nonsense not worth your time.

It's the stuff of Hollywood legend how shrewd a businesswoman Sonia Henie was. She had just won her third gold medal for figure skating in the 1936 Olympics and was an international superstar, not to mention a national heroine in her native Norway. Darryl F. Zanuck beat off competition from the other studios for her and she made him pay dear because she was well aware of her star status. Very much like that other international sensation from Scandinavia, Jenny Lind in the previous century.

Zanuck hedged his bets a bit on her. One In A Million did not quite have the budget that Sonia's succeeding vehicles did. You can tell by looking at it. What he didn't cheapen was her skating routines because that purportedly is what the movie-going public was paying to see. He also gave her good support with a cast that included Don Ameche, Jean Hersholt, Ned Sparks, Arline Judge, the Ritz Brothers, Montagu Love, and Adolphe Menjou.

Sonia's life was destined to change dramatically in One In A Million. Adolphe Menjou, a Barnum style promoter is stranded in a small Swiss town after a mysterious fire burns down the town's leading hotel. That owner's bad luck is good luck for Jean Hersholt who owns a small inn and suddenly finds himself booked with Menjou's troupe. A pair of reporters, Don Ameche and Ned Sparks, also arrive smelling a story about that hotel fire. Their appetites for a story are whetted with the presence of a mysterious stranger also at the hotel, Montagu Love.

Hersholt is a former Olympic champion who is training his daughter for the 1936 Olympics. He was disqualified like Jim Thorpe for being a professional and he's worried about his daughter's amateur status. That's not of concern to Adolphe Menjou who sees a meal ticket as a professional. Ameche gets sidetracked from his hotel fire story to follow Henie's progress when he finds out who she is.

Arline Judge gets some of the best sharp shooter lines in this film as Menjou's wife, constantly deflating her ego ridden husband.

As was known to the world Sonia Henie won her third gold medal and this film was raced into production to capitalize on the event. The only mention of the German location is the presence of someone in a Nazi uniform in the crowd behind Ameche and Sparks. Also the Ritz Brothers get into an argument with some folks in the stand and one of them tells the other two very obviously Jewish looking siblings that 'we're not in Brooklyn'.

With the success of this film, especially in the European market, Sonia got bigger budgets for her succeeding films at 20th Century Fox. She was a bona fide movie star like no other the figure skating world ever produced. I do recall Carol Heiss the champion from the 1960 Olympics trying, but failing in a film career. Somehow I can't envision any of today's figure skaters doing what Henie did.

I could be wrong though.

Having first watched this on American Movie Classics back in the '90s, I just rewatched this first Sonja Henie starring feature just now on YouTube. The upload seemed a bit chaotic with some zooms I don't remember from my previous viewing. Since this was her first real time being showcased on film, Ms. Henie doesn't dominate the proceedings with her ice dancing and scenes which are shared with leading man Don Ameche, comedians The Ritz Brothers, supporting players like Adolphe Menjou, Arline Judge, Ned Sparks, and Jean Hersholt as Sonja's father. There's also an all-girl band and a harmonica player who is later joined by likewise players who do some good slapstick. The Ritzes are also pretty amusing if not completely hilarious. In summary, One in a Million is entertaining fluff.

"You don't need a phone!" complains Arline Judge to screen husband Adolphe Menjou, and she's right - he bellows many of his lines in a state of high excitement in the musical comedy that introduced Olympic ice skating champion Sonja Henie to moviegoers. Henie's a little wooden off the ice rink, so 20th Century Fox called in big guns like Menjou and a young Don Ameche, who not only sports a naked philtrum but sings (or possibly mimes) for his Norwegian co-star. Supposedly comical interludes are provided by the woeful Ritz Brothers. It's ok, but completely unmemorable.