Lucky Lady

Might be called "Sally Bowles Comes Home And Runs Liquor." Her character is almost a parody of her "Cabaret" role. Hackman is Buck Barrow with a comedy twist and Reynolds is perfecting that moron-suave character that he took to such heights in "At Long Last Love."

The film has the distinction of having had, if memory serves, three different endings. I saw the first in previews. A real curve ball in which the male leads get killed and Minelli is left bereft. They went back to the drawing board and the movie premiered with a tacked on scene shot much later which involved the three stars, with the tackiest of make-up jobs, rolling around in a bed in their "elderly" years. From what I can tell by watching it recently, they dropped that entirely and simply cut together some outtakes which they ran under the credits which give us the impression that everybody ended up okay.

There was also this mid-70's technique of film "flashing" which involved pre-exposing the stock to give the film a lighter, airier look. Taken to ridiculous extremes here, it almost looks as if someone just scratched up the lens faces with a Brillo pad.

Interesting little comedy featuring 3 down on their luck folks who, during the depression, formed a coalition to run booze past the coast guard. Turns out the CG is the least of their woes as a psychotic rumrunner decides to take over the entire area and rub out any who stand in his path. Good shootout as a finale with a multitude of boats gunning it out in a Pacific cove. Good one.

I saw this many moons ago as a kid on a late night show fell in love with it then and still love it now.

It is a strange mix with some great comedy and then some downright mean moments of violence, but that was one of the films nice little quirks.

Minelli's Fish Fart line has stuck with me for years, and recently the film made it to cable where I was able to get a copy.

With all the dross being rereleased onto DVD it's well overdue a release.

One of those guilty little pleasures we all have.

Check out Nocturnal Pictures online. They sell Lucky Lady on DVD for $14.00 and some change. I have been looking for this movie on VHS or DVD for quite a long, long time, without success. All I have is an LP soundtrack. This may not be the best movie there is, but I collect Liza Minnelli movies, and this is one (of a few) are not available to buy anywhere. Liza Minnelli's musical numbers are a standout in this movie. I came across Nocturnal Pictures online. However, I am afraid this is a bootleg company that sells DVDs made in their kitchen. Some bootlegs copies are fine. However, I want to make sure this DVD is watchable. Nocturnal Pictures is probably the only company that carries it. Just the same I want to make sure it is a good purchase. If you own such a copy will you kindly email me? Thank you very much.

Liza Minnelli plays such a selfish harpy in "Lucky Lady" that it's easy to see why this film won her no new admirers. Fans of 1972's "Cabaret" were already softened to love Minnelli no matter what, but here director Stanley Donen seems intent on making Liza's character Claire as brittle and abrasive as possible. The lumbering plot, about a trio of rum-runners in the 1930s who outsmart the competition and fall into an oddly casual three-way love affair, isn't worked out cohesively in terms of the narrative (and the overlapping scenes of raunch, comedy, and mobster melodrama eventually cause impatience and resentment). At first it's a bit shocking to see Liza in bed between Gene Hackman and Burt Reynolds, however the movie isn't all about after-hours fun under-the-sheets; Donen turns the third act into a violent extravaganza (with a slapstick bent), including boats blowing up, guns going off, and dead bodies everywhere. The picture walks a shaky line between nostalgia and bloodshed, with echoes of "Bonnie & Clyde"'s jangly tone. Little of it jells, though the attempt is certainly a curious one. **1/2 from ****