1938's Happy Landing stars Sonja Henie, Don Ameche, and Cesar Romero.
Romero plays Duke Sargent, a composer/bandleader, Ameche is his manager Jimmy Hall. While taking a publicity flight to Paris, the two get lost and end up in Norway.
There they meet the vivacious Trudy Erickson and her father (Gene Hersholt). Duke, who falls in love with every girl he meets, is smitten with Trudy and dances with her - twice. This, in Norwegian culture, means they are engaged.
Panicked, Duke takes off and heads back to New York with Jimmy. Trudy follows. When she realizes that at the moment, Duke is with Flo Kelly (Ethel Merman), she is devastated. Jimmy offers to walk her back to where she's staying through Central Park.
Now, let's see - what does Central Park have in the middle of winter? Once Jimmy sees Trudy on skates, he realizes she has star potential and begs the owner of a hockey team to put her on as a feature. He agrees, but only for intermission. Needless to say, she's soon bigger than everyone. She doesn't realize that Jimmy is falling for her; she's still concentrating on winning back Duke.
This film is a lot of fun, with Henie's skating, as usual, a highlight. She doesn't have the jumps of modern skaters as they were taught back then, but in every other way, she's brilliant - she skates with great speed, has amazing spins and is very graceful.
Broadway superstar Ethel Merman sings up a storm. Ameche and Romero are adorable.
Not much else eto be said. It's a musical, and it's entertaining.
