Lucky Night

Back in the Thirties every studio was making a film or three a year about an heiress and the guy she eventually would marry in the film. Probably the actresses most identified with playing heiresses were Carole Lombard and Myrna Loy. In Lucky Night Myrna Loy teamed for the one and only time with Robert Taylor where she is another madcap heiress that movies loved back in those Thirties.

Probably the genre was overdone by the time Lucky Night came out because there certainly isn't anything original about it. It probably could have been put over a lot better had they done this at Paramount with Loy lent out over there to appear with Bing Crosby. With a couple of songs this film might have worked better because the part that Taylor has here, the footloose and fancy free charmer was something Crosby could do in his sleep.

As it is Loy is bored with the stuffed shirts that she sees in her social set, none of them quite do it for her including the last one Joseph Allen. So she meets Robert Taylor sitting on a park bench and the two have a madcap evening and wind up the next day hung over and married. That doesn't please Loy's father Henry O'Neill a bit.

It's when they try to make a go of it as an ordinary 9 to 5 average American couple that the film just bogs down. And it never really gets back on track by the time it ends.

In the Citadel Film series book on The Films of Robert Taylor Lucky Night is described as the first of three dud films that Taylor made, the others being Lady Of The Tropics and Remember. It's not that Lucky Night was as bad as the other two, but it never does gel after the first third is over. It certainly created no demand to team Loy and Taylor again.

Schizophrenic writing dominates "Lucky Night," a 1939 film starring Robert Taylor and Myrna Loy. Loy is Cora, an heiress who gives it all up for the excitement of looking for a job and living on her own; she meets up with unemployed and flat broke Dick (Taylor). The two of them embark on a wild night of gambling and winning, where everything they touch turns to gold. Pretty soon they're in love and, to the horror of Loy's father, tie the knot.

This film starts out like gangbusters, like a lost treasure - a fast- paced, deft comedy with wonderful dialogue and the two Golden Age stars playing off of each other beautifully. Suddenly, it all stops and gets very serious with bizarre dialogue. Cora wants to be safe and happy with home and hearth; Dick still craves the excitement. She leaves him.

The film picks up a little toward the end, but what a disappointment. Perhaps the marital problem storyline would have been fine, but not after the way this film started; it's too much of a let-down. Not only that, but Taylor's character starts talking in absolute riddles. Somebody at MGM was asleep at the wheel. This is the type of thing that under Thalberg would never have been released as it was.

Like Tyrone Power, Taylor gets short shrift in his acting because of those amazing looks, but jealous critics (mostly men probably) failed to notice that, like Power, he had a beautiful, rich speaking voice and loads of charm. Less ambitious and less complicated than Power, Taylor pretty much took what MGM handed him. "Lucky Night" is one example. Despite the script, he shows his affinity for comedy. Loy is lovely as the heiress, but thankfully, both these actors appeared in better films.

"Lucky Night" coulda been a contender; instead, it's that rarity in film history - a bad movie from the magic year 1939.

This comedy has about 15 minutes of charming banter between Myrna Loy and Robert Taylor. For a time, she displays some of the same light-hearted romping spirit that made her famous in the Thin Man movies. But the plot, which is silly to begin with (heiress decides to make it on her own, leaves wealthy home, meets a bum and they gamble and sweet talk their way into great fun), takes a somewhat dramatic ("is that all there is") turn in the end.

Actually, for 1939, the script identifies a pretty mature marital conflict: she longs for security and he longs for the spontaneous, irresponsible thrills that made them fall in love in the first place. How do you compromise? Well, after raising the question, this movie sure doesn't tell us! It should have stuck to the levity and the lunacy. Still, if you're a fan of Taylor or Loy, it's worth 90 minutes of your time.

The second half of the movie is all about applying the frolic of the first half to the reality of day to day life...and well worth looking forward to, much less sitting through. Bill's "idea" is to seize every opportunity, much less day, and Cora's "practicality" is the deadening effect being reasonable at all costs can have. Henry O'Neill was a great find, and you'll notice him more often than you'd think once you've identified him: as Bill's worst enemy at the beginning of the movie, it is he, as Cora's dad, who brings not only the couple but the theme together by the end of the movie. Deeper than it appears, it is charming through and through

Myrna Loy and Robert Taylor are cute together. This movie is about two people that meet and have one lucky night together and decide to try and make their luck last a life time. I saw this movie on cable one night and enjoyed it a lot. I would like to have it on DVD but can't even find it on VHS. Check out some of Myrna Loy's films you wont be sorry, watch The Thin Man collection, and The Best Years Of Our Lives. They are all great movies. If you have time watch Robert Taylor in Ivanhoe. Why can't Hollywood make them like they did back in the day when there were real "MOVIE STARS" in Hollywood. Where did the Class go in Hollywood. No more greats like Katherine Hepburn or Cary Grant, we are left with these mild at best actors. George Clooney which is one of the best ones we have now days is still not up to Cary Grant league.