moonspinner55 Review of Lucky Me

Lucky Me (1954)

Lucky to be blessed with Doris Day...otherwise, a wheezing, old-fogey musical

[4/10 · 26 September 2009]

Warner Bros. certainly skimped when it came down to choosing the latest leading man for a Doris Day movie. Didn't they have any handsome, charismatic actors on the payroll besides Robert Cummings? There are no sparks between Day and Cummings in what amounts to nothing more than a staid and stale musical romance with corny comedic asides. A superstitious chorine down Miami way gets stuck washing dishes while waiting for her big break; she happens to meet a popular songwriter while dodging black cats and sidewalk cracks, but he's courting her under an alias as a car mechanic (!). Comic deceptions are always good material for a Day picture--and when she finds out the truth, her slow-burn is something to behold--but Cummings really has no reason to be deceiving this girl, and the plot starts coming apart before the picture even gets going. Doris is supported by a vaudeville-styled trio who travel together (Phil Silvers, Nancy Walker and Eddie Foy, Jr.), and they seem just a bit mature and stodgy for her, which weakens the musical numbers. Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster are responsible for the lackluster song score (they must have used up all their natural resources on "Calamity Jane" the year before--there's not a "Secret Love" in the bunch). Some color and frivolity, much of it forced. *1/2 from ****