I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

Kind of unusual to have Cary Grant learning to knit while heading a mob trying to squeeze money out of a charity. Sounds a bit different as Grant is a draft dodger as well. The movie does work well though.After all, Grant pulls off being a con man. Loraine Day pulls off being the heiress that eventually becomes Grants target for the swindle. No matter how hard he tries to get away, Day keeps after him.Charles Bickford is excellent in support here. This movie ages better than many of the films from this period. You can tell RKO does not have a huge budget here but there is enough cast. There is a solid script though the ending gets a little muddled at one point.This does have the happy ending for Grant and Day and frankly she comes off very well in this movie.

Cary Grant plays a gambler and con artist who dodges the draft and takes on a dead man's identity. Under this new identity, he tries to rip off a war relief charity. But falling in love with pretty Laraine Day and getting a letter from the dead man's mother in Greece stirs his conscience and makes him want to do the right thing.Wonderful wartime dramedy with Runyanesque touches. Love the rhyming "Australian" slang and the knitting gags. Cary Grant is terrific and has great chemistry with charming Laraine Day. Gladys Cooper, Alan Carney, Henry Stephenson, and Charles Bickford are all good support. This is a very underrated movie in Cary Grant's exceptional career. Most lovers of older films can probably name a dozen classics of his they cherish but many have probably never heard of this one. Definitely recommended, especially for Grant fans.

Cary Grant is "Mr. Lucky," a 1943 films also starring Laraine Day, Charles Bickford and Gladys Cooper. Grant plays a self-serving swindler named Joe who takes the identity of a dying man who's 4F so that he won't have to go into the service. The name he takes is that of a Greek man, Joe Bascopoulos, but the name will bring him more than just a 4F classification. Needing money to get his gambling ship started, he sees an easy mark in Dorothy Bryant (Day), one of the administrators of a War Relief Fund. He uses his considerable charm to persuade her to let him run a casino night as part of the organization's big fundraiser. The plan is to use cash boxes with false bottoms and take off with nearly all of the money. Just one hitch - Joe has fallen in love with Dorothy.This is a slightly different role for Grant - he plays a real low-life and at that, one with no style. One of the running jokes is his rotten ties and inability to tie them right. Grant is perfect in the role, as well as incredibly handsome. But it's only a slightly different part - like Tyrone Power, who tried so hard to change his image in 1947 with "Nightmare Alley," Grant tried too, and like Power, was sabotaged by the producing studio. In Power's case (who actually would have done well had Zanuck let him have more traditional Cary Grant type roles), he was allowed to make the film and play a low character, but his studio, 20th Century Fox, did not publicize the film nor release it widely. In Grant's case, he'd happily accept a role - such as this one or his part in "Suspicion" - only to have the script changed so that he's not a total heel. It had to be frustrating for these actors who were capable of so much more than they were allowed to do. Lovely Laraine Day is just right as the young, rich Dorothy who passionately believes in helping the war effort. Day had an air of sophistication that lent itself well to these wealthy society girl roles. "Mr. Lucky" is beautifully photographed in black and white, with lots of interesting shadows and fog. The film also has some very funny moments - Grant learning to knit is just one.This is a very good movie and somewhat of a departure for Grant, a cousin to his role in "Suspicion."

Unavailable on DVD, but found on VHS at Blockbuster, "Mr Lucky" is a Cary Grant vehicle, even more than a morale boosting, "keep the homes fires burning" war movie. Grant gets to play a wide range of roles here: fashion plate, grifter, romantic lead, war hero and (most notably) knitter of sweaters. Look, I've seen them all: North By Northwest, Bringing Up Baby, To Catch A Thief, and on and on.This has many moments that match the very best that Cary Grant had on offer. Most notably, there's an extended sequence of Grant riffing in Cockney to Laraine Day. Now Cary Grant liked to identify himself as a Cockney (which is usually termed as an East Londoner), but here he gets the rare opportunity in his movie career to play one (also in Gunga Din), and when asked where he picked up the rhyming slang that makes Cockney so annoying (charming to Americans) he says: Australia ! Ah Hollywood... You've also got to admire the sartorial splendor which Cary maintains throughout the film, even though he 's supposedly a poor kid from the wrong side of the tracks who left home at nine. Apparently there's a finishing school on Skid Row, and Cary was voted Best Dressed. Of course, one of the perverse running gags of "Mr Lucky" is that our hero wears absurdly garish ties, and does not know how to tie a Windsor knot. All he needs is Laraine Day to bring him the appropriate conservative necktie to complete him. Bless him he fights her off ... On a fifth viewing (over a lifetime), I have to admit the last twenty minutes drips with melodramatic sentiment out of step with our modern times (hey, I still tear up-don't tell anyone) but this is still a classic: funny, fast paced, easy on the eyes, and with a great supporting cast.