1h 18min | Comedy, Drama | 22 December 1939
Director: Irving Cummings
Stars: Sonja Henie, Ray Milland, Robert Cummings.
Nick Castle ... stager: skating numbers (as Nicholas Castle)
Gregory Ratoff ... director: skating sequences (uncredited)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031285/
bootleg, ok print
Ah, that explains it: this is NOT a musical. SH skates 1 fantasy number, but it's horrible: lots of cuts. Not MTV-style, but as though she skated on different days (with different lighting?) and they patched it together. [Note to self: next time watch for a 2nd(?) skating number based on the plural in the credits.]
This is a featherweight suspense dramedy. As though they took the story idea for Foreign Correspondent (8'40) and tried to beat Hitchcock to the box office. (I wonder if there was a real prize-winning peace advocate who was in danger, inspiring both movies.) Here we're in a small Swiss town the whole time, and SH is the primary focus, not the political intrigue.
As a completist, I'm glad to have a bootleg copy, but hope I never err and buy an official release.
If I were not expecting more skating, and if Hitchcock hadn't done such a good version of the story, I might have rated this higher. With the benefit of more information, the next time I see this, it should get a fair shake.
No idea what the title is supposed to mean.
No idea what the title is supposed to mean.
Fox, dir. Cummings; 5+
