Tonight's Movie: Lucky Jordan (1942) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review
The great Alan Ladd stars as LUCKY JORDAN (1942), just released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.We've been very fortunate to have some wonderful Ladd releases thanks to Kino Lorber, including CHINA (1943) and CALCUTTA (1947). I'm very glad to now also have LUCKY JORDAN available on Blu-ray.
In his first release after the star-making THIS GUN FOR HIRE (1942) and THE GLASS KEY (1942), Ladd plays a gangster who is unhappy about being drafted into the army.
Lucky (Ladd) eventually goes AWOL, kidnapping a lovely canteen worker (Helen Walker) in the process. Unbeknownst to Lucky, he also inadvertently leaves with some important military secrets worth a lot of money on the criminal market.
It might not be one of Ladd's strongest films, but the screenplay by Darrell Ware and Karl Tunberg, based on a story by Charles Leonard, has some nice punchy humor and sarcasm as Ladd navigates his precarious situation. Ladd has become one of my favorite actors, which makes the film particularly enjoyable for me; good or bad, he's always compelling.
Ladd has nice chemistry with Walker, in her film debut, and some fun sharp-tongued interchanges with Sheldon Leonard as his untrustworthy rival.
The cast also includes Lloyd Corrigan, Marie McDonald, Anthony Caruso, Clem Bevans, and many more familiar faces. Dorothy Dandridge is the maid at the "finishing school."
Disc extras are a commentary track by Samm Deighan; the trailer; and a gallery of five trailers for other films starring either Ladd or Walker. There is also reversible cover art; both designs are shown in this review.
For a bit more on this film, please visit my review from 2011.
Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.
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posted by Laura @ 7:30 PM
3 Comments:
This is such an enjoyable little romp! I agree, the parts with Jordan and his "mom" are the best -- there's one moment where she says something and Ladd smirks, then starts to laugh and covers it up, and it just gets me every time. Was he not supposed to laugh there? I don't know, but I have to laugh aloud myself over it.
Yes, this may not be top Ladd but it's still got a lot of good stuff in it! I've enjoyed it a couple of times now and I'll watch it again in the future -- and will be watching for that moment you describe next time.
Best wishes,
Laura
You call him the great Alan Ladd, something I would not have agreed with a few years ago, but not now. He was great, and he is the glue, but Mabel Paige sticks as well. Something along the way must have been troubling him. You can't tell in his Paramount pictures, they vary, but he is always happening. On the other hand, his work at Warners and beyond seems in sharp decline, slow but clear. The Carpetbaggers, back at Paramount, has some of that old Ladd, on the other hand, although a relatively young man he was ready to leave us. Very sad, but a man and artist to salute.
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