Everything Happens at Night

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.

Like all of Sonja Henie's vehicles, this fun-filled 1939 Fox whimsy works like a cheery blend of comedy, romance, and ice skating dances. The main difference is that the plot is less focused on the skating scenes than the suspense and romance concerning Henie and her two leading men, Robert Cummings & Ray Milland.

I was surprised to see "Everything Happens at Night" has only one skating scene for Henie, quite an aberration considering that most of her movies are fraught with dances and skating. Cummings and Milland play two competing reporters that are sent to a small Swiss town to investigate a Nobel Prize winning commentator who is believed to be dead. Both find themselves falling for his daughter played by Henie. Cummings is a bit eccentric and rowdy while Milland comes off as a serious and straight-forward sort of fellow. They exchange roles courting her. Their scenes are irresistibly funny, charming, and merry. Then all of a sudden the movie becomes a spy thriller when a band of Gestapo villains arrive in the Swiss village to wreak havoc.

"Everything Happens at Night" is my fourth Henie after "Sun Valley Serenade"(1941), "One in a Million"(1936) and "My Lucky Star"(1938) and all rank as her very best.

Previous Sonja Henie vehicles had comedians doing their shtick, some songs meant to possibly become hits, and many skating routines from the star. This one's different in that the humor comes from the characters-in this case, a couple of reporters (Ray Milland, Robert Cummings) looking for her father while romancing her. Actually, that father figures in a more dramatic shift later in the narrative that I won't reveal here. Let's just say it's a reason there are no songs or slapstick comedy that had been in previous Henie movies and Henie herself only performs one skating dance in a dream sequence this time. It's a nice change of pace so on that note, I recommend Everything Happens at Night. P.S. Among the supporting cast is one William Edmonds as the hotel clerk. If you're familiar with my IMDB reviews, you know I always like to cite when players from my favorite movie-It's a Wonderful Life-are in something else and in IAWL, Edmonds appeared there as Mr. Martini.

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'.

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.