Happy Go Lucky

This mediocre film mostly wastes the comic talents of the cast. It's instructive to compare the terrific comic performances of Bracken, Vallee, and Hutton in Preston Stuges films, and their so-so or worse performances here -- few laughs, no wit. Vallee especially is a completely charmless oaf in this film, while he is very funny and charming in a very similar role in The Palm Beach Story. Eric Blore is completely wasted, given almost nothing to do and is photographed in partial shadow in a couple of shots.

There are a couple of good songs, Murder She Says, a Hutton classic with lyrics by Frank Loesser, and Let's Get Lost, a pleasant ballad that has had a modest life beyond this film.

Mary Martin does a good job with her songs, she's energetic and sings as well as she did in her later Broadway shows. But she's a bit weak on charisma and star quality. Dick Powell is competent, but seems bored. It's no wonder that both stars were dropped by Paramount or visa versa soon after this movie. Of course that worked out great, as Martin and Powell did their best work in the years that followed.

Interesting that one of the reviewers here mentioned this movie might have been orignially written as a Crosby-Hope Road picture. I can really understand that that might have been the case.