Just My Luck (1957 film)

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Just My Luck
Just My Luck FilmPoster.jpeg
Directed by John Paddy Carstairs
Written byPeter Cusick
Alfred Shaughnessy
Peter Blackmore
Produced by Earl St. John
Hugh Stewart
Starring Norman Wisdom
Margaret Rutherford
Jill Dixon
Leslie Phillips
Cinematography Jack E. Cox
Edited byRoger Cherrill
Music by Philip Green
Production
company
Distributed byRank Film Distributors
Release date
  • 14 November 1957 (1957-11-14)
Running time
86 minutes
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish

Just My Luck is a 1957 British sports comedy film directed by John Paddy Carstairs and starring Norman Wisdom, Margaret Rutherford, Jill Dixon and Leslie Phillips. [1] It was written by Peter Cusick, Alfred Shaughnessy and Peter Blackmore.

Contents

Plot

Norman Hackett is employed in a jeweller's workshop and is innocently preoccupied with dreaming of meeting the window dresser in the shop across the street from his workplace. He wants to purchase a diamond pendant for her and, after persuasion, gambles a pound on a six-horse accumulator at the Goodwood races. The bookmaker grows concerned when it appears Hackett, after winning on the first five races, could win over £16,000.

Cast

Production

The film was shot at Pinewood Studios near London with sets designed by the art director Ernest Archer.

Reception

Box office

Kinematograph Weekly listed it as being "in the money" at the British box office in 1958. [2]

Critical reception

Monthly Film Bulletin said "With a good script and firm, imaginative direction, Norman Wisdom might still be able to make an individual contribution to British comedy. This however is a rather thin "yes-it-is-no-it-isn't" affair, which shows little real appreciation of Wisdom's characteristic qualities." [3]

Leslie Halliwell said: "Flat star vehicle." [4]

According to BFI Screenonline, "Just My Luck is not a piece of comedic genius, nor even the best of Wisdom's films, but it's an amiable, well-constructed piece that recalls a gentler age". [5]

In British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959 David Quinlan rated the film as "good", writing: "Pleasant Wisdom comedy, if hardly tailored to his talents." [6]

See also

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References

  1. "Just My Luck". British Film Institute Collections Search. Retrieved 15 November 2023.
  2. Billings, Josh (18 December 1958). "Others in the Money". Kinematograph Weekly. p. 7.
  3. "Just My Luck". Monthly Film Bulletin . 25 (288): 6. 1958 via ProQuest.
  4. Halliwell, Leslie (1989). Halliwell's Film Guide (7th ed.). London: Paladin. p. 550. ISBN   0586088946.
  5. Innes, John (2003–14). "Just My Luck (1957)". BFI Screenonline. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
  6. Quinlan, David (1984). British Sound Films: The Studio Years 1928–1959. London: B.T. Batsford Ltd. p. 332. ISBN   0-7134-1874-5.