Crapshoot Cinema: It's A Pleasure (1945)
And here we have the first installment in a new series: Crapshoot Cinema, in which I do blind reviews of stuff I know little to nothing about. Movies, documentaries, TV, whatever. Any era and almost any genre. It won’t be exactly regular—these reviews will come up when they come up, and some will be for paid subscribers while others won’t.
I’ll be honest, though: I’m not going into It’s A Pleasure exactly blind. I used to watch Sonja Henie movies on VHS with my parents when I was in high school, but I haven’t seen one since then. And also to be honest, I don’t remember that much about them.
If anyone’s not familiar with Sonja Henie, she was a champion Norwegian figure skater and gold medalist who entered her first Olympics in 1924 at age eleven (what?), became a gold medalist at fifteen in 1928, then won more gold medals in 1932 and 1936. She was a ten-time World Champion, a record that still stands today, and she was Beatles-level popular, as in, there had to be police at all of her public appearances.
After that Henie turned pro, which, for her, meant going to Hollywood and making movies, where she also became immensely popular. Her filmography isn’t huge, probably because it was often touch and go for her employer, 20th Century Fox, to come up with reasons to get her out onto the ice, and anyway, athletes tend to have short shelf lives. Still, Henie’s films were nothing if not unique, and she was an indirect catalyst for Esther Williams, a fellow champion, to also make movies, only as a swimmer.
The other reason Henie’s popularity took a nosedive was that it came out after World War Two that Henie had not only been way too chummy with the Nazis, but failed to support the Norwegian resistance during the war. Understandably, while people who knew her said she was an opportunist and not political, this did not go over well, particularly with Norwegians and Norwegian Americans.
It’s A Pleasure was Henie’s second-to-last film, and it follows the career of Chris Linden, a rising young skater and featured player in an ice dancing troupe that provides mid-game entertainment at hockey games. She’s got a bit of a crush on Don Martin, star hockey player and firebrand, who gets ousted for punching a referee. He’s also a wee bit fond of the drink, which doesn’t do him any favors.
Since Don is washed up, his friend, Buzz hires him for a new ice follies troupe he’s forming, and Chris puts Don through his paces, turning him into an acrobatic figure skater and dynamic performer. He’s a very impressive fellow, and Chris really reforms him. In fact, these two get married.
It’s too good to last, though. Don gets an offer from a big-time theater producer. Buzz’s wife, Gale has a crush of her own on Don and invites him to a bar, where Don gets good and stinking. Long story short, or more like, quick story even quicker, Gale and Don leave Buzz and Chris, respectively, the former because she’s a saucy minx, and the latter because he wants Chris to advance her career.
Will there be a happy ending? I hate to sound jaded and cynical, but Sonja Henie movies never ended badly. Ever.
Yeah, It’s A Pleasure is definitely predictable. The plot is thin as thin can be, and everything seems to bide its time until Henie can go tiptoeing onto the ice again. In some ways it seems as if it’s trying too hard, with Chris saying, “It’s a pleasure,” to Don one time as he walks her to an elevator in his bathrobe (don’t ask). It’s as if the movie is begging to be liked. And some parts are just awful, such as the scene when Chris and Don joke about husbands beating their wives. Uh. No.
I’m also iffy about Michael O’Shea as Henie’s leading man. He’s not terrible, and from what I’ve heard he was a nice, decent guy, but he’s not the leading man type. For one thing, his face screws up now and then as if he’s being punched. I’ve only seen O’Shea in one other movie, Something For the Boys, which was also made in 1945, and which, incidentally, sports what might be some of the ugliest costumes ever put on the screen.
None of this is to say that It’s A Pleasure doesn’t have its moments. The ice dancing sequences are pretty impressive, especially a snowy iteration of “Tico Tico,” a Brazilian song that was highly popular in the nineteen-forties. It’s easy to see why Sonja Henie was so popular. She’s fun, she smiles winningly and she’s light as a feather as she glides, spins, and balances on her toepicks as if her skates are pointe shoes. She makes it all look so easy.
Will I remember It’s A Pleasure tomorrow or a few days from now? I doubt it, but it was fun while it lasted.
It’s A Pleasure is currently streaming on Amazon Prime. Not rated.
My grade: C-
Principal Cast: Sonja Henie, Michael O’Shea, Marie MacDonald, Bill Johnson, Gus Schilling, Iris Adrian, Cheryl Walker, Peggy O’Neill, Arthur Loft, Donald Kerr, Nelson Leigh, Alphonse Martell, Louise Allen, Nils Althin, Shelby Bacon, Steve Barclay, Brooks Benedict, John Benson
Directed by William A. Seiter.
Written by Lynn Starling and Elliot Paul.