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An eccentric Norwegian millionaire & his ice skating niece attempt to make a WINTERTIME success of Quebec's Chateau Promenade.

Sonja Henie was Norway's ice queen when she won Olympic gold medals for skating in 1928, 1932 & 1936. After going professional, she began a celebrated movie career at 20th Century Fox in 1936 with her American film debut, ONE IN A MILLION. Beautiful & talented, as well as being a natural in front of the cameras, she carved out her own special niche during Hollywood's Golden Age. Although Miss Henie's ice routines may look antiquated by comparison to modern champions, there was nothing antique about her dazzling smile or sparkling personality. In this regard, some of today's snowflake princesses could still learn a great deal from her.

As her career progressed, it became increasingly difficult for 20th Century Fox to find decent stories for Miss Henie and the excuses for the lavish ice dancing numbers were often implausible. No matter. Audiences did not flock to her films to watch Sonja recite Shakespeare. The movies were meant to be pure escapist fantasy, plain & simple.

WINTERTIME is no exception and its story is often quite ludicrous. However, the skating episodes are pleasing and there is a generous amount of band music supplied by the Woody Herman Orchestra.

Cornel Wilde, far down the cast list & still two years away from major stardom, plays Sonja's love interest, but he's not given much to do. As the Chateau's promoter, Jack Oakie comes across as loud & rather annoying; however cuddly S. Z. Sakall is very amusing as Sonja's harried uncle. Cesar Romero, doing quite well as a big band singer, once again gets to showoff his considerable flair for comedy. (Mr. Romero & Miss Henie make a dynamite dancing duo.)

Movie mavens will recognize an uncredited Dick Elliott as an enraged husband chasing Romero.

Ultimately, though, this is Sonja's show. She glides effortlessly into the viewer's heart, while balancing on a thin edge of silver, suspended over frozen water.

This is such a fun little movie - I'm thrilled Fox is finally putting it on DVD! Sonja Henie is the star so of course there's plenty of amazing ice-skating numbers but the real treat here is the supporting cast. Cesar Romero and Carole Landis are hilarious as a bickering couple and their musical duet of "I Like It Here" is one of the highlights. I'm a huge Carole Landis fan and it's always a treat to see her doing comedy and she has great chemistry with Cesar Romero. The costumes are beautiful too especially the gowns Carole wears and the Sonja's skating costumes. Cornel Wilde and Jack Oakie also give great supporting performances. Although it was made as a b-movie Wintertime is a really good romantic comedy with some fun musical numbers and a wonderful cast!

Nora and her uncle spend the night in a run-down Canadian hotel. After Nora falls in love with the handsome owner, she persuades her uncle to invest in the inn and modernize it. After the hotel opens, Nora's uncle faces financial bankruptcy and her romance stumbles in the form of a pretty reporter.

Musical movies in the 1930s and 40s were generally a string of musical numbers linked together by enough dialogue to fill out 90 minutes. The major studios usually made at least an effort to provide a plot that was not embarrassing and that more or less made the musical numbers fit.

Twentieth Century Fox didn't bother here. Henie gets some nice skating numbers, but the plot, such as it is, is pretty lame.

It hits a surprising low when it tries to motivate Henie's efforts to enter the U.S. by using the German invasion of Norway. That was very serious business, of course, and a real tragedy. It seems very strange to see it used here, almost completely unmourned, as an excuse for a plot twist.

The secondary roles here are well played, especially by Cesar Romero, who was very talented. But the only real interest here is Henie's skating. The rest is pretty much a waste of time.

As the last of Sonja Henie's movies for 20th Century-Fox, Wintertime was a very entertaining way to go out for her, that's for sure! As always, her skating talents are front and center but there's also a nonsense slapstick plot that hits on all corners especially with a supporting cast that includes S. Z. (Cuddles) Sakall, Carole Landis, and welcome returning players Jack Oakie and Cesar Romero. The leading man is Cornel Wilde who wasn't established at this point in his career and doesn't get to make too much of an impression compared to previous men cast opposite Ms. Henie. Much of the musical entertainment is provided by Woody Herman and His Orchestra with fine vocals from both Ms. Landis and Romero in a few of their numbers. So on that note, Wintertime is highly recommended for any Sonja Henie fans out there.