Double chance

A romantic comedy along the lines of 'It Happened One Night' (1934) but Ronald Colman is the incognito one. Ginger Rogers isn't in the know but agrees to take a Platonic road trip with him even though she's engaged to someone else. This is pretty risqué material for 1940 and there's a bit at the end which could be interpreted as a jab at the Hays Code (thanks to Equinox23 for that insight). Directed by Lewis Milestone ('All Quiet on the Western Front', 'Of Mice and Men') with a story that keeps one intrigued thanks to its unpredictability, it is a perfectly delightful piece of entertainment guaranteed to leave a warm fuzzy feeling. Several other reviewers here are rather harsh on this film, citing lack of plausibility, chemistry, etc. If you want plausibility see 'Judgment at Nuremberg' but if you enjoy romantic comedy don't let the nitpickers here dissuade you from seeing this charming film.

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.

Ginger Rogers and Ronald Coleman are "Lucky Partners" in this 1940 film, also starring Jack Carson and Spring Byington.

Rogers plays Jean, a young woman walking down the street when she passes Dave (Coleman), whom she doesn't know, and he wishes her "good luck." She delivers a box of books (her mother owns the book shop The Book Nook) to a client. The client is in the midst of getting a divorce and doesn't want a $200 dress chosen by her soon to be ex-husband. So her mother gives it to Jean.

Jean thinks back to Dave's "good luck" and wonders if he just might have something there. She goes to Nick & Nick's, a local store, and decides to buy a sweepstakes ticket with Dave, who's right across the alley. They introduce themselves to one another and after a lot of back and forth, they go in on the ticket.

Jean is engaged to an insurance man (Carson) and plans on moving to Poughkeepsie with him after they're married, with no honeymoon. The condition of Dave going in on the ticket with her is that, if they win, Dave will take her on a trip, platonically of course, before she settles down. This somewhat surprises her fiancée but he agrees to it.

They win, and it's one of those European sweepstakes where if you draw a horse, you either sell the ticket for $12,000, or bet that the horse will win, in which case you will win something like $150,000 American money. They gamble on the race and lose. However, Jean's fiancé, unbeknownst to her, has sold her half of the ticket for $6000. She gives Dave 3000, and he still wants to take her on the trip. She goes.

Ronald Coleman...Jack Carson...now, what do you think happens? This is a slight movie enlivened by the two wonderful stars, Coleman, so dashing and charming, and Rogers, a somewhat naive young woman with a hidden sense of adventure. Rogers always did well playing opposite classy men, Fred Astaire being an excellent example.

Some funny scenes, some sweet scenes. It's not earth-shattering, but I liked it.

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.

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.