Lucky Night starts off as a great screwball comedy. Then just as it starts to get really funny and you think more great scenes are to come it becomes serious and the dialogue becomes a bit confusing.
Cora Jordan (Myrna Loy) is a wealthy young woman who can have anyone and anything she wants but is very bored with her life. A guy named Joe she has been seeing tries hard to win her love but she just does not love him. After Joe leaves her father asks if she is happy because he seems to think she wants to find love. But she says she wants more than love she wants to do something on her own. Her father suggests moving out and getting a job. Cora likes this idea and tells her father she is doing everything by herself and heads off to the city to look for a job.
Unfortunately this takes place in 1939 when the Depression was still in full force and jobs are scarce. Every employment agency has turned Cora down. In one office she meets a young man who is in the same boat as her. At the end of the day Cora meets the man again in the park when she shares a bench with him. His name is Bill Overton (Robert Taylor) and they get to talking. They both have nowhere to go and nothing to eat. Bill starts to ask people is they have fifty cents so they can get something to eat. A police officer comes over and he is the nice man to give them money for food because he asks if they are married and Cora says they are engaged.
When Bill goes to pay for the food he realizes that he must have dropped the money in the street. He has Cora take a quarter the man next to them left and tells her to play the slot machine. She plays it and hits the pay day! Bill takes Cora out on the town gambling that night and they win pretty big both in money and a new car. While celebrating their fantastic night they get drunk and want to get married.
The next morning they wake up in a hotel room unable to remember how they wound up there. All they can remember last is they were eating dinner at a restaurant. When they look at the paper they see that they got married the night before. They are both upset especially Cora because up to this point she had always been responsible. Cora and Bill go to see her father who is very upset with his daughter. Bill stands up for them both and Cora decides to make a go of the marriage. After they leave Bill goes to a paint store that is looking for help and by being a smooth talker gets himself a job as a paint salesman.
The marriage goes alright for a while. Bill wants to constantly have a good time and spend money but Cora is practical and does all the budgeting. Over time their differences create some strain on them both.
Luck does come back to Bill and Cora in the end when they realize they could not live without each other.
Myrna Loy and Robert Taylor were adorable together. They looked so good together. Loy and Taylor were just so talented they were great at doing comedy or drama which definitely came in handy for them. My favorite scene was after Bill and Cora get married, they are talking about something and she kicks him in the shins and he retaliates by slapping her behind, she chases after him and he runs and locks himself in the bathroom. Taylor looked like a little boy he was so cute. The whole scene was just nice and light.
As I said at the beginning Lucky Night starts off like a screwball comedy and then turns serious when the marriage and the relationship hits reality. Towards the end the dialogue gets really confusing, a few times I had no idea what the hell was going on it just did not make any sense. But for the most part the film is entertaining and has some really nice moments. Sit through Lucky Night only if you are a fan of either Myrna Loy or Robert Taylor.
No comments:
Post a Comment