When producer Warren Wilson wanted to find a vehicle for the Andrews Sisters, he made the $100,000 mistake of contacting Clyde Bruckman, who served up this script entitled "Her Lucky Night". Unfortunately -- according to Wilson -- Bruckman failed to identify the screenplay as a re-hash of material he had originally written for Harold Lloyd and for which Lloyd owned the copyright. When the movie was released, it didn't take Lloyd long to find out what Bruckman had done. So he asked Universal to pay him for the use of his material. Universal's management was stupid enough to refuse, so Lloyd took the studio to court and was awarded damages of $100,000. Universal was also forced to pay Lloyd's whopping legal bills -- in addition to their own -- plus court expenses. So the movie was already a loser even though it starred the super- popular Andrews Sisters. However, there was worse to come. Lloyd still refused to allow Universal to use his material, so the movie company's lawyers's came up with an amazing solution. As everyone knows, the point of a joke is the catch-line. Eliminate the catch-line and you have no joke. So that's what Universal did. They killed off all the Lloyd-owned gags in mid-stream. This gives the movie a very odd "feel" indeed. Most of the situations are obviously building up to a climax but that climax rarely comes. And the few gags that do build up to a punch-line are actually so weak they seem mistimed. Many critics, unaware of Lloyd's legal action, blamed the famous Broadway director, Edward Lilley for his "odd habit of cutting off the gags in mid-stream, and what ones he does manage to get across, he often mistimes. Clumsy film-editing by Paul Landres doesn't help either." Gross over-acting by George Barbier is another negative. Fortunately, the amusing situations cannot be entirely smothered. Maurice Cass's delightful portrait of a collapsible tailor gives some indication what the movie had been like before Harold Lloyd hauled Universal's uncooperative management to court. Would you believe, Universal's incredibly stupid management could have paid off Lloyd's initial complaint for peanuts and released the film as shot? And even after paying Lloyd his $100,000, plus his and their own legal expenses, Universal could still have come to terms with Lloyd. Instead they chose to release a management-mutilated movie and ruin the reputation of the acclaimed Broadway director, Edward Lilley, instead!
Review of Her Lucky Night
