HotToastyRag After you watch Lucky Me, you'll realize that Doris Day didn't only make silly movies in the 1960s. Luckily for us-pun intended-the silly movies of the 1950s aren't that bad. This one has one cute song in it, "The Blue Bells of Broadway". The other ones are pretty mediocre, and you'll join good company-yours truly-if you get this one confused with Starlift and The West Point Story, two other Doris Day movies with similar play-within-a-play plots.The story is pretty similar to the delightful comedy Happy Go Lovely, starring Vera-Ellen and David Niven. A wannabe actress in a struggling, small-time theater group meets a rich playboy and doesn't know who he is. As the pair falls in love, her theater friends try to milk him for all he's worth. Happy Go Lovely is a much more endearing movie, but if you liked it, you'll probably be drawn to watching a similar flick.Co-starring Phil Silvers, Robert Cummings, Eddie Foy, Jr., Nancy Walker, and Martha Hyer, you'll have plenty of entertaining moments to carry you through. However, I doubt Lucky Me will reach the top of anyone's favorite movie list.

TheLittleSongbird 'Lucky Me' is very much like another Doris Day film 'The West Point Story' (or 'Fine and Dandy as it's credited here) in that great talent was involved and that it should have been a good film and shouldn't have gone wrong, even if it wasn't an instant classic.Not so luckily, 'Lucky Me' is sadly a misfire, though not an unwatchable one, that somehow did go wrong. It's worth seeing if you're a Doris Day completest, speaking as one right now on a quest to see all her films including the ones that have been watched many times and are favourites, but not much else. Although it actually does not show that Day didn't want to do 'Lucky Me', she did deserve better and it is one of her weaker films. 'The West Point Story' had a lot of faults, was cheaper looking and had no show-stoppers when crying out for them, but it utilised its cast better and had slightly better songs.With that being said, she is the best thing about it. Her singing is delightful, as it always was regardless of the quality of the song (although there are no hits), and she has a bright natural charm and breezy gusto that livens things up when desperately needed.She's not the only good element fortunately. 'Lucky Me' needed Technicolor and gets it with lavish and vibrantly colourful treatment. Didn't think much of the songs overall, but "I Speak to the Stars" and "I Wanna Sing Like an Angel" are sublime, the former the only one deserving of minor hit status though, and "The Superstition Song" is catchy. Phil Silvers is an acquired taste, still don't know what my overall stance is because it is always dependent on the material, but has some amusing and likable moments, though he has been much funnier (as well as more grating).Unfortunately, the rest of the songs are not that memorable and a couple not worth mentioning. Personally myself cringing my way through "Men" despite the presence of Day. The choreography is every bit as uninspired, with the ensembles having an under-directed and indifferent feel, it was crying out for a show-stopper and it never came.Day and Silvers aside, the cast disappoint. Robert Cummings is more than capable in comedy and drama but is completely out of his depth here. Nancy Walker and Eddie Foy are criminally underused, especially Walker, who is a hoot when the material is good (which it wasn't here and there wasn't enough of it). Martha Hyer wildly overplays and comes over as irritating, even in a role that was meant to be on the annoying side (but you can still do that while being funny and charming at the same time, here you want Hyer to shut up and go away).The direction is going through-the-motions-like. The script is as limp as soggy cucumber sandwiches and has humour that is both under-cooked and overdone that it feels bland and grating. Worse is the threadbare, ridiculous and often forced story that lacked focus and kept going off in under-explored tangents.In conclusion, despite being a fan of Day it was a not so lucky experience. 4/10 Bethany Cox

vincentlynch-moonoi This film has quite a few things going for it. Doris Day is her typical breezy self and a few decent production numbers are executed very well. The film is nicely filmed with great color, and lots of wonderful scenes from the Miami Beach of the 1950s.However, this film never quite makes it. Bob Cummings is always pleasant, but at age 44, he looks just a little old for this role (it's too bad that he went into television, because he was a fine actor in either comedies or dramas). It's nice to see Nancy Walker and Eddie Foy, Jr., both of whom are entertaining...and underutilized here. Although there are a number of nice songs, none are memorable. And worst of all, the plot is rather threadbare. For example, this isn't the first time Phil Silvers portrayed a down-in-the-luck head of show business troupe...he did it back in "If I'm Lucky" with Perry Como in 1946. And, comedy ensues as his cast is forced to work in a hotel to get out of hock. Okay, been there, done that, many times over. And why exactly is Doris Day playing hard to get? Martha Hyer and Bill Goodwin deserved better in their supporting roles.It's not a bad film, but it's not a memorable one. Good for Doris Day fans (she was never more beautiful), but overall, a disappointing musical.

moonspinner55 Warner Bros. certainly skimped when it came down to choosing the latest leading man for a Doris Day movie. Didn't they have any handsome, charismatic actors on the payroll besides Robert Cummings? There are no sparks between Day and Cummings in what amounts to nothing more than a staid and stale musical romance with corny comedic asides. A superstitious chorine down Miami way gets stuck washing dishes while waiting for her big break; she happens to meet a popular songwriter while dodging black cats and sidewalk cracks, but he's courting her under an alias as a car mechanic (!). Comic deceptions are always good material for a Day picture--and when she finds out the truth, her slow-burn is something to behold--but Cummings really has no reason to be deceiving this girl, and the plot starts coming apart before the picture even gets going. Doris is supported by a vaudeville-styled trio who travel together (Phil Silvers, Nancy Walker and Eddie Foy, Jr.), and they seem just a bit mature and stodgy for her, which weakens the musical numbers. Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster are responsible for the lackluster song score (they must have used up all their natural resources on "Calamity Jane" the year before--there's not a "Secret Love" in the bunch). Some color and frivolity, much of it forced. *1/2 from ****