Lucky Partners (1940) - film review

Bookseller’s assistant Jean Newton is taken by surprise when, whilst walking down the street one day, a perfect stranger wishes her good luck.  She is even more surprised, when on delivering books to a client, she is given a beautiful new dress.  Thinking the stranger, a struggling artist named David Grant, will bring her even more good fortune, she invites him to go halves with her on the price of a lottery ticket.  David agrees, but on condition that he uses his half of the winnings to pay for a luxury honeymoon, in which he will be accompanied by Jean.  The latter is outraged by this offer and immediately confronts David with her athletic fiancé, Frederick Harper.  Not only do the two men fail to come to blows over a woman’s honour, they agree to put David’s proposal into effect...

This clumsy remake of Sacha Guitry’s 1935 film comedy Bonne Chance is just about redeemed by the inspired pairing of Hollywood legends Ronald Colman and Ginger Rogers, appearing together for the first time in a whimsical rom-com that amply caters for their comedic talents.   Whilst Lucky Partners is far from being Lewis Milestone’s greatest hour behind the camera, it is an enjoyably daft film, the absurdity of its plot beautifully accentuated by the unlikely pairing of Colman and Rogers, a chalk-and-cheese match that works far better than anyone might have imagined.  Colman smoothes over the few moments of tacky sentimentality with his inimitable charm and Rogers makes the film’s ridiculous final sequence (the maddest court room scene ever to feature in a Hollywood comedy) a lot funnier and cuter than it deserves to be.  Not a great film but a pleasurable enough time waster.

© Alex Sullivan 2011

Write a review for this film...

What do you think of this film?