Don't Believe the Hype

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

In other words,this film is a surreal ride.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

I found this movie on DVD at my local public library. I wanted to watch it for two stars of yesteryear, Doris Day and Martha Hyer.The simple story involves four small time entertainers barely drawing audiences in Miami and wanting to hit it somewhat bigger. They find out famous songwriter Dick Carson is in town and make attempts to meet him. Quite by accident, a car accident that is, Candy (Doris Day) meets Carson (Robert Cummings) but assumes he is a mechanic for the loaner car he is driving from a prior accident. This goes on long enough that when she finds out who he really is, she vows that she will never talk to him again. But he is smitten with her and also wants her to play the lead in the show he is writing.To complicate things Carson needs funding for his planned Broadway show and needs help from Ms Thayer's wealthy Texas oilman father. Ms Thayer (Martha Hyer) has a deep crush on Carson and threatens to sabotage the whole thing if he keeps pursuing Candy for the lead role.It is a rather simple and silly rom-com but all the actors are in good form. Especially Cummings, the impact of the whole story depends on the way he plays Carson and he nails it. Phil Silvers has a role as Hap Schneider, very similar in style to the Sgt. Bilko character he started playing on TV shortly after this movie came out.All in all a worthwhile 100 minutes to see some of the stars of yesteryear. Day and Hyer were about 30 and lovely. Day was quite a good singer, even better than I thought I remembered.

'Lucky Me' is very much like another Doris Day film 'The West Point Story' (or 'Fine and Dandy as it's credited here) in that great talent was involved and that it should have been a good film and shouldn't have gone wrong, even if it wasn't an instant classic.Not so luckily, 'Lucky Me' is sadly a misfire, though not an unwatchable one, that somehow did go wrong. It's worth seeing if you're a Doris Day completest, speaking as one right now on a quest to see all her films including the ones that have been watched many times and are favourites, but not much else. Although it actually does not show that Day didn't want to do 'Lucky Me', she did deserve better and it is one of her weaker films. 'The West Point Story' had a lot of faults, was cheaper looking and had no show-stoppers when crying out for them, but it utilised its cast better and had slightly better songs.With that being said, she is the best thing about it. Her singing is delightful, as it always was regardless of the quality of the song (although there are no hits), and she has a bright natural charm and breezy gusto that livens things up when desperately needed.She's not the only good element fortunately. 'Lucky Me' needed Technicolor and gets it with lavish and vibrantly colourful treatment. Didn't think much of the songs overall, but "I Speak to the Stars" and "I Wanna Sing Like an Angel" are sublime, the former the only one deserving of minor hit status though, and "The Superstition Song" is catchy. Phil Silvers is an acquired taste, still don't know what my overall stance is because it is always dependent on the material, but has some amusing and likable moments, though he has been much funnier (as well as more grating).Unfortunately, the rest of the songs are not that memorable and a couple not worth mentioning. Personally myself cringing my way through "Men" despite the presence of Day. The choreography is every bit as uninspired, with the ensembles having an under-directed and indifferent feel, it was crying out for a show-stopper and it never came.Day and Silvers aside, the cast disappoint. Robert Cummings is more than capable in comedy and drama but is completely out of his depth here. Nancy Walker and Eddie Foy are criminally underused, especially Walker, who is a hoot when the material is good (which it wasn't here and there wasn't enough of it). Martha Hyer wildly overplays and comes over as irritating, even in a role that was meant to be on the annoying side (but you can still do that while being funny and charming at the same time, here you want Hyer to shut up and go away).The direction is going through-the-motions-like. The script is as limp as soggy cucumber sandwiches and has humour that is both under-cooked and overdone that it feels bland and grating. Worse is the threadbare, ridiculous and often forced story that lacked focus and kept going off in under-explored tangents.In conclusion, despite being a fan of Day it was a not so lucky experience. 4/10 Bethany Cox

During the hey day of her career at Warner Brothers (1948-1957), Doris Day had some odd moments on film, whether it be "The Chantacleer" in "By the Light of the Silvery Moon" or her duet of "I Can Do Without You" with Howard Keel in "Calamity Jane". But she really took the cake here, and added a fruity topping to it with "The Superstition Song" which opens this fiasco which she admits was a mistake. Playing a perky vaudeville star (who poses in front of her own cut-out for passers by), she performs to a practically empty audience with a horrible number (without a doubt the one that killed vaudeville) with Phil Silvers, documenting "Horrible Men" throughout history. Along comes a ridiculous plot of the troop (which also includes an underused Nancy Walker and future "Pajama Game" co-star Eddie Foy Jr.) being stranded in Miami and her romantic issues with Robert Cummings, a songwriter who keeps that from her. This stereotypical plot line also includes Martha Hyer as Cummings' current girlfriend, the typical bitch who stands in the way. The songs (with the exception of "I Speak to the Stars") are really second rate and even in Cinemascope, the production seems rushed to become the very first musical in wide screen. The performers all do their best, and it's nice to see Silvers and Walker together long before they became a team on stage in "Do Re Mi" and "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". But this is way beyond their talents, and if a song called "High Hopes" can't give this film hope (it's far from the later Oscar winning song of the same name), nothing can. Considering the entertainment level of most of Doris's films of this time, this one falls in the category of the really bad comedies she was forced to do by contract towards the end of her film career.

With regard to the earlier contributor to this thread, "LUCKY ME" most certainly WAS the FIRST MUSICAL in CinemaScope to be released.Of the two examples he quotes, firstly: "How to Marry a Millionaire" was NOT a musical. Can he name any songs from it, or tell me who sang them? I think not!Secondly: "A Star is Born" was not released in the States until September, 1954. "Lucky Me" was released in April, 1954.Twentieth Century Fox's own musical entry in the CinemaScope stakes - "There's No Business Like Show Business" was not released until December, 1954.Therefore, "LUCKY ME" was most definitely the first musical in CinemaScope.What a pity this one didn't go into production before "Calamity Jane", then we might have had a much worthier movie as the first!