Mr. Lucky (1943).

Mr. Lucky (1943). Directed by H.C. Potter. Cast: Cary Grant and Laraine Day.

A night watchman stops and talks to a sailor who has rowed up to the dock from the fog. The sailor then stops him from questioning a lonely young woman who seems to be waiting for someone. The story now begins in a flashback:

Gambler Joe "the Greek" Adams, has a couple of problems. First, he and his friend Zepp have received draft notices to join the army to fight in World War II. One of his other friends, Joe Bascopolous, who has just died had been declared unfit to serve. So, one of them can dodge the draft by taking his identity. They gamble for it and Joe wins.

The next problem is, he does not have the money for his gambling ship. He comes up with an idea to run a "charity" casino, despite the suspicions of socialite, Dorothy Bryant.

Eventually, Joe wins her over by teaching her, Australian rhyming slang, for example "tit for tat" (hat), "twist and twirl" (girl), and "trouble and strife" (wife). Later, he renames his gambling ship in her honor.

On the day of the charity ball, Joe receives a letter addressed to Bascopolous, written in Greek. Curious, he takes the letter to a Greek Orthodox priest for translation. It turns out to be from Bascopolou's mother, who wrote to tell her son about Germans invading their village.

At the charity ball, Joe's men come up with a plan to steal the money. Joe has a change of heart and tells "Crunk", that all the money is going to war relief. But Zepp, overhears what he says and forces him at gunpoint to keep the money. Dorothy, catches them red handed and to protect her, he knocks her out. Joe, then kills Zepp, but.. not before getting himself shot and escapes through a window.

Joe, sends the money back to Dorothy, then loads up his ship with war relief supplies.

Later, Dorothy is shocked when a policeman informs her that Bascopolous is dead. Then she sees the photograph of the dead man and it isn't Joe. When the name of the ship Bascopolous is mentioned, she knows where to find him. She rushes to the dock, just as the ship is leaving for Europe. She begs Joe to take her with him, but he turns away. The ship, is torpedoed and sunk on the return trip. Dorothy visits the dock each night, waiting for her Joe to return.

Fun Fact:

Writer Milton Holmes said that his story was inspired by a real 1936 event, where a nightclub owner staged a one-night gambling benefit at the Beverly Hills Hotel to raise $40,000 for a church. In his original story, the character of Joe dies at the end.



I really wanted to see a noir type movie with Cary Grant, starring in it. It is hard at first to see Grant play a heartless gambler, but.. he plays the part perfectly. The love story maybe a little fluffy at times, for a film noir, but.. it was still enjoyable to watch.

Florence Bates (April 15, 1888 – January 31, 1954) was an character actress who often played grande dame characters in her films.

In 1939 she was introduced to Alfred Hitchcock, who cast her in her first major screen role, Mrs. Van Hopper, in Rebecca.

Bates performed in more than sixty films over the next thirteen years. Among her credits are Kitty Foyle, The Moon and Sixpence, Mr. Lucky, Heaven Can Wait, Mister Big, Since You Went Away, Kismet, Saratoga Trunk, The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Winter Meeting, I Remember Mama, Portrait of Jennie, A Letter to Three Wives, On the Town, and Les Misérables.

Keep Your Powder Dry(1945).

Keep Your Powder Dry(1945). Drama starring Lana Turner, Susan Peters, and Laraine Day. The film was directed by Edward Buzzell and written by George Bruce and Mary C. McCall, Jr.

One sunny morning Valerie Parks, is told by the family attorney, that she will not receive her trust fund until she proves that she deserves it, so she decides to join the WACS. Next.. on the list to join, Ann Darrison, who decides to enlist after her serviceman husband John is sent overseas. Last, but not least is Leigh Rand, the daughter of a military family, who also decides enlists.

The three new recruits, meet on the way to the Ft. Des Moines training camp and Leigh and Val, instantly develop a dislike for each other and Darrison becomes the mediator, when all three are assigned as mechanics, in the same unit. Leigh challenges Val, saying she never will complete basic training. Val, proves her wrong and does very well in class. Val and Leigh, eventually become friends and all three girls are accepted into Officers' Candidate School.

One day, Capt. Bill Barclay, a friend of Ann's husband, arrives at their base to visit Ann. Later, Bill meets Val and asks her on a date, Leigh, who is attracted to Bill herself, reminds them that enlisted WACS are forbidden to date officers. Leigh arranges for Val, to be assigned to duty that night to prevent them from meeting. Which angers Val and so ends their friendship.

Later Val, receives a telegram from her attorney, telling her that he is in town, she goes to meet him. Instead, she is met by her old friends Harriet and a drunken Junior Vanderheusen. Val tells her friends, that she plans to stay in the military and gives them a piece of her mind. Insulted, Junior spills his drink on Val's uniform.

Knowing that she cannot return to the barracks smelling of alcohol, Val goes to see Leigh, who is on leave and staying in the next room. Val, begs her to bring her a clean uniform in the morning. Leigh agrees, but when she returns to the hotel the next morning with the clean uniform, she runs into Junior in the elevator.

After learning from Junior, that Val only joined the military to receive her inheritance. Leigh, launches into a campaign to get rid of Val. Two days before graduation, Val, unable to stand her abuse, slaps Leigh in the face and marches off the field.

Later when Val, refuses to stick up for herself to their commanding officer, Lt. Colonel Spottiswoode. The officer calls Leigh, before the board and informs her that her platoon has rated her unfit to be an officer. Leigh, takes the blame for Val's outburst.

Col. Spottiswoode goes to see Anne and informs her that her husband has been killed in combat. When Leigh and Val, hear about Ann's loss, her courage shames them into staying the corps.



I recently saw this classic movie on TCM for the first time. I would call it a female version of a WWII buddy movie. Agnes Moorehead, Natalie Schafer and June Lockhart have supporting roles.

Susan Peters (July 3, 1921 – October 23, 1952). Her first job was to read with potential actors in their screen tests. Before long she had impressed studio executives with her own talent, and they began casting her in films.

For the first two years she used her given name and played small, uncredited parts in the film, Meet John Doe (1941). Her first substantial role was in the film, Random Harvest (1942), which earned her an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress nomination. MGM, cast her in the starring role in the film, Song of Russia (1943).

Peters was married to the actor Richard Quine on November 7, 1943. A couple of months after performing in the film, Keep Your Powder Dry, Peters and her husband were duck hunting when a rifle accidentally discharged, causing a bullet to be lodged in her spine. The accident left her permanently paralyzed from the waist down. Peters attempted to continue her acting career.

MGM continued to pay her salary, unable to find suitable projects, Peters left the studio. She returned for the lead role in, The Sign of the Ram (1948). Unfortunately, her disability made her a difficult actress to cast.

Foreign Correspondent (1940).

Foreign Correspondent(1940). Spy/thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Cast: Joel McCrea, Laraine Day, Herbert Marshall, George Sanders, Albert Bassermann and Robert Benchley and Edmund Gwenn.

The film was Hitchcock's second Hollywood film, the first was Rebecca and had many writers: Robert Benchley, Charles Bennett, Harold Clurman, Joan Harrison, Ben Hecht, James Hilton, John Howard Lawson, John Lee Mahin, Richard Maibaum, and Budd Schulberg, with Bennett, Benchley, Harrison, and Hilton the only writers credited in the finished film. It was based on Vincent Sheean's political memoir Personal History (1935), the rights to which were purchased by producer Walter Wanger.

The film was one of two Hitchcock films nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1941, the other being Rebecca, which went on to win the award. Foreign Correspondent was nominated for six Academy Awards, including one for Albert Bassermann for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, but did not win any.

Foreign Correspondent tells the story of Johnny Jones, an American newspaper writer who travels to England to report on the war as, Huntley Haverstock for the New York Globe. The young reporter's, first assignment is at an event held by Fisher, in honour of a diplomat named Van Meer. On the way to the party, Haverstock sees Van Meer and runs to interview him. Van Meer invites him to ride along in his car. At the party, Haverstock meets Fisher's daughter, Carol . Later, after Van Meer disappears, Fisher informs the guests that the guest of honor, Van Meer, will not be attending the party, instead he will be at a political conference in Amsterdam.

At the conference, Van Meer is shot by a man posing as a photographer. Haverstock, wanting to follow the assassin jumps into Carol and reporter Scott's car. They follow the assassin to a windmill in the countryside. Carol and Scott decide to go for help, Haverstock searches the windmill and is surprised who he finds. Will he be able to escape the kidnappers?

In my opinion the cast is very good, the settings are wonderfully put together. It has everything I look for in a Hitchcock film: action, suspense and humor.


Fun Facts:

Director Alfred Hitchcock wanted Gary Cooper for the lead instead of Joel McCrea, but Cooper wasn't interested in doing a thriller. Which he later regretted.

Alfred Hitchcock had wanted either Barbara Stanwyck or Joan Fontaine for the female lead.

Alfred Hitchcock's eccentric marriage proposal to Alma Reville was written into the script.

Herbert Marshall's, first film was, Mumsie (1927). The actor spent many years playing romantic leads opposite stars: Greta Garbo, Marlene Dietrich and Bette Davis, and starring in such classic films: Trouble in Paradise (1932), The Little Foxes (1941), and The Razor's Edge (1946). He was featured in both the 1929 and the more famous 1940 version of The Letter, first as the murdered lover, then the wronged husband.

Happy Birthday Laraine Day (1920-2007)

Happy Birthday Laraine Day (1920-2007)


Born into a prominent Mormon family in Utah on October 13th, 1920 Laraine Day's acting career began after her parents moved to Long Beach, California, where she joined the Long Beach Players. She appeared in her first film in 1937 in a bit part, then did leads in several George O'Brien westerns. Signing a contract with MGM, she achieved popularity playing the part of Nurse Lamont in that studio's "Dr. Kildare" series. An attractive, engaging performer, she had leads in several medium-budget films for various studios, but never achieved major stardom. She was married for 13 years to baseball manager Leo Durocher, and took such an active interest in his career and the sport of baseball in general that she became known as "The First Lady of Baseball".

Laraine Day

Laraine Day, a popular actress who performed in almost two dozen MGM movies during Hollywood’s Golden Age. One of my favorite moves that she did was, A Bride by Mistake(1944). Director: Richard Wallace. Cast: Laraine Day, Marsha Hunt, Phil Vernon and Edgar Buchanan.

At the La Playa Hotel in Santa Barbara, soldiers from the U. S. Air Force wait for their new reassignments. Officer Tony Travis, notices heiress Nora Hunter and wonders what it would be like to be rich. Nora's secretary, Sylvia Lockwood, who often impersonates her, informs Nora that she plans to leave for Washington with her new husband. Nora asks Sylvia to stay until she marries her fiancee Donald, who has just returned from the war. Sylvia agrees but when she meets up with Donald, he tells her that he has fallen in love with someone else. He tells Nora to marry a man who does not care about money. Sylvia suggests inviting the servicemen to a party and Nora agrees only if Sylvia pretends to be her. At the party, Nora, posing as Sylvia, is charmed by Tony, but he seems to be more interested in Sylvia. After Nora and Tony catch a cold after being trapped in the sprinklers, Tony gives them a alcoholic drink. Tony tells Nora that he would never marry without love. Nora decides to continue to test him and invites him for a weekend at her beach house with Sylvia...

I just finished watching A Bride By Mistake, for the first time, mostly to see Laraine Day. There certainly are not any surprises in thisfilm and you could guess the plot all the way through. Laraine Day, brings some wonderful energy to the story. I have not watched many of her movies, but in this film, I can see why she was so popular.



Laraine Day, began her acting career with the Long Beach Players. In 1937 her first onscreen performance was in a bit part in the classic film, Stella Dallas. Soon she landed lead roles in several George O'Brien westerns, in which she was billed as "Laraine Hays" and then Laraine Johnson.

In 1939 she signed with MGM, where she changed her name to, Laraine Day where she played the character, "Nurse Mary Lamont", the title character's fiancee in seven "Dr. Kildare" movies beginning with, Calling Dr. Kildare (1939).

Laraine Day roles, for other studios were sometimes better roles than those MGM gave her, including: My Son, My Son!

She also performed in the Alfred Hitchcock, Foreign Correspondent (1940) with Joel McCrea. A thriller film which tells the story of an American reporter who tries to expose enemy spies in Britain, a series of events involving a conspiracy that eventually leads to the events of a fictionalized Second World War.

She also performed in the suspense film, The Locket(1946), with Robert Mitchum, Brian Aherne, and Gene Raymond. It is told in a number of flashbacks from different points of view, this psychological drama tells the story of a bride-to-be who, as a child, was falsely accused of theft and grows up to become a kleptomaniac and eventually a murderess.






She performed in the drama/adventure film, The High and the Mighty(1954). Which starred and was co-produced by John Wayne. Director: William A. Wellman. Written by: Ernest K. Gann who was also the author of the novel on which the film was based. Composer: Dimitri Tiomkin won an Academy Award for his original score and his title song in the film was also nominated for an Oscar.

The film tells the story about the lives of the passengers and crew on board a Douglas DC-4 airliner while making a the flight between Hawaii and California. During which a prop failure and engine fire leads all to what could be a disaster. The High and the Mighty was one of the first "disaster" themed films: Airport series (1970-79), The Towering Inferno (1974), The Hindenburg (1975) and Titanic (1997).

Laraine Day, also hosted a TV show called, Daydreaming with Laraine or The Laraine Day Show (1951).

Grace Kelly, Elizabeth Taylor and Laraine Day.