Lucky Lady

I was 12 years old when this came out Christmas of '75 and wasn't allowed to see it. My parents used to check the ratings from the Legion of Decency before we were allowed to see a movie and this one probably didn't pass the mustard. I wasn't allowed to see "Jaws" but that's another story. I was allowed to see "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" which I found to be very strange. My only recollection of it is the endless television campaign for the flick that seemed to saturate the airwaves for months. Surfing the Amazon site I stumbled upon "Lucky Lady" purely by accident and my interest was piqued. I've always been a big fan of both Gene Hackman and Burt Reynolds not so Liza Minelli. I found "Cabaret" boring and her performance overrated. That said, I found "Lucky Lady" immensely enjoyable...to a degree. For at least the first half of the film it's a rollicking fun screwball farce and all the principal actors are terrifically entertaining. Director Stanley Donen perfectly captures the Depression Era's sights and sounds. Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz's script crackles with wit. It's in the film's second half where it starts to break down. It devolves into a boring menage-a-trois between the three stars and there's semi-graphic violence that's more at place in a Peckinpah film than one of this nature. On the whole, though, there's more to recommend here than not so I have no problem giving "Lucky Lady" my qualified endorsement.

Anyone that expects the typical Stanly Donen movie will be in my opinion disappointed. On the other hand, if a fun movie is what you want, this covers fun in spades! It is easy to see that this trio of stars had a blast making this film and I for one enjoyed it tremendously years ago when it was first released. Now I got the opportunity to see it once again and no surprise my enthusiasm remains intact. Silly, sexy, an irreverent romp!

I loved the movie. The headline is a line delivered by Liza Minelli in the film that had me dying laughing. Also her dispatch of the villain is hilarious. Director Stanley Donen was known mainly for his musicals such as Singing In The Rain, but I have always liked his non-musical films such as Charade, Arabesque and this one.

It seems that more and more movies are damaged in shipping... as was this one. The case was awkwardly broken, as if by a boot, or a baseball bat... but the shipping bag shows no hint of how this happened. The DVD case is unusable, but the disc itself was not damaged.The movie itself is mediocre at best, somewhat entertaining if you suspend your disbelief upside down in a dark closet... who knows what another re-write could have done. It seems to me that we have a better chance to tell that story right today... if it is remade.This makes me wonder if I've bought items from this seller before... and it makes me think that if I noticed this seller in a potential future purchase, I would not proceed. First of all, it is sometimes a hassle to return stuff... I would rather avoid the sellers that step on their DVD cases...What if there was a notice at checkout that reminded you of your experiences with a particular seller?I know that sometimes it is the shipper that tap dances on your packages...

1975's "Lucky Lady" was probably hoping to make an equally successful film out of what was obviously inspired by "The Sting." So they had the two rogues perhaps a little oddly matched and figured they could even add spice by making the film about a menage a trois, make it a quasi-musical with a few Kander and Ebb songs for Liza as a prohibition cabaret girl (cashing in a on those who still believed in her performance in "Cabaret") in a film about rum runner buccaneers. Believing in the three stars could have counted for something, except that Burt Reynolds was one of them and he was getting near his irresponsible non-acting performances in the "Smokey and the Bandit" films and numerous others where mugging for the camera substituted for acting. Gene Hackman, usually a good actor, seems almost to have surrendered to the impossibility of this film coming out afloat. Liza gives the most professionally competent performance as she probably felt a little responsible with the title and all but she is not good enough an actor to survive with a great performance. Written by the duo who brought us "American Graffiti" in 1973, Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz and a usually great director, Stanley Donen, but Donen had prior brought us the gawking spectacle of Richard Burton and Rex Harrison as two stereotypical homosexuals in "Staircase." There was probably more of a reason why "Staircase" and "Lucky Lady" were never on home video until Shout Factory brought us "Lucky Lady" recently than just oversight. In "Lucky Lady" the three stars bombard us with "irascible" charm that embarrasses us as we are played for stooges who do not need believability in our stories more than the stars laughing and mugging and saying lines about "fish farting." The movie is so expensive and indulgent that there is a log as an extra that counts down the enormous budgetary delays from filming on the sea (with no miniatures) that becomes just another one long joke. With all the hoopla about how the movie was a gross miscalculation by 20th Century-Fox and a huge flop that went through three endings before the one that, because you just have to watch it twice, it really is not as bad as that. Yes, the film is lucky that it can survive that first viewing successfully as almost entertaining despite the bad reviews. But then, it really is a lot unfunny as it expects us to be wowed by, even with an extraordinary budget, really so little. John Hillerman is pretty good as the villain, too, but Robby Benson is completely wasted, or then just too much a talent to see do so little and perhaps thereby mis-cast. The photography has a kind of haze about it as if filmed through some kind of gauze filter, which is sort of nice. The make-up jobs are generally not so good, as are hairpieces or lack of them (Gene Hackman needed some help in some scenes considering the magnitude of their star billing). There is only luck in "Lucky Lady" to be had, no tears, no real laughs, no suspense, nothing like that. You just can't believe your eyes what you had just seen.

SO glad this movie is finally available! It has been on our wishlist forever, and rates as a "guilty pleasure" film. The all-star cast ain't bad either!

Despite its dire reputation implying it sank with all hands, Lucky Lady was more a case of a would-be blockbuster struggling to make its money back than being a massive box-office disaster, and as a film it's accordingly one of those pictures that's neither as terrible as it could have been nor as good as it needed to be. Having a trio of stars not exactly known for their quality control making up its central ménage a trois in Gene Hackman, Liza Minnelli and Burt Reynolds helps dial down expectations to a more manageable level now than it did in 1975, but this never makes as much of its romantic comedy and rum running shenanigans during Prohibition as it could. One of those throwbacks to the 20s and the kind of film the studio churned out in the Golden Age that were so strangely popular with studio chiefs (but rarely audiences) in the early 70s, albeit with looser morals and slacker censorship, it's certainly a flabby film. Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz's script isn't terrible even with the kind of snappy dialogue and energetic pacing it aspires to being almost completely absent but it needs a firmer hand on the tiller than it gets from Stanley Donen's cluttered direction. Some setpieces work, other bits of business feel dragged out while a decent supporting cast with the likes of John Hillerman, Michael Hordern, Emilio Fernandez and Geoffrey Lewis deliver the goods as best they can despite not being half as well showcased as they might be. Throughout, nothing ever makes that much impact.Perhaps that's in part due to the nightmarishly prolonged production, with the scenes with the Lucky Lady dodging coastguards and bigtime operators alike before ending in a chaotic sea battle plagued by logistical problems that reputedly more than doubled the budget to a then astronomical $22m. (The problems began before shooting even started, with an injury forcing George Segal's last-minute replacement by Hackman.) Certainly in the two vintage featurettes on Shout Factory's DVD, Donen is clearly exhausted and frustrated, giving the impression that just finishing the film became more important than making it good. The desperate studio re-editing becomes very noticeable towards the end as one sequence is clearly brought forward from the middle of the picture to try to lighten up the rather out of tone original dark ending, working on the assumption that test audiences liked the characters too much for anything but a happy ending when the problem was probably more likely that they didn't care for them one way or the other. Sadly while Shout Factory have come up with an impressive extras package for a film its own studio has pretty much disowned - alongside the featurettes, they dug up three theatrical trailers and a TV spot - they haven't included the two alternate endings from when 20th Century Fox was desperately trying to re-edit the film into a smash hit (without giving anything away for those who haven't seen it, they've gone with the happy and young one). It's at its best when dealing with the tricks of the rumrunning trade, but ultimately it's a rather mediocre movie that never makes the most of its resources or subject matter and just washes over you without causing offence. Still, you have to admire Hackman's unfaked ability to hit a specific part of a fast moving boat with a Molotov Cocktail in rough waters and at least it's no At Long Last Love, the other long-buried Burt Reynolds picture Fox like to pretend they never made....The widescreen transfer is extremely good considering the limitations of the original, which was often shot with that diffused soft filtered look that lost so much detail even on the big screen that was so inexplicably popular in the 70s. The extras show some print damage, but that's to be expected on a film as forgotten as this one.

Best of the flops. Should have been a top movie but somehow doesn't make it. Great acting by Burt Reynolds, Liza Minelli and Gene Hackman. Excellent final battle between the 'good' local rum-runners and the 'bad' gangland organisation headed by McTeague (John Hillerman from Magnum PI) who poses as a particularly dangerous accountant. Essential addition to any serious light comedy collection.

lucky lady brought no luck to liza, being her first film after cabaret but failing to achieve success, either critically or at the box office. yet i love her musical number, devastatingly sexy, and also the 1920's setting. reynolds and hackman, of course, give their usual professionalism to the roles and are enjoyable. probably stanley donen had lost some energy and couldn't handle this one with his directorial talent of yore, but it's a watchable film and a curiosity for younger liza fans.

good period comedy

Seen this film around 20 years ago 👍