Coração de Pedra

This is one of my favorite wartime crime/espionage/comedies. It's played mostly straight, but a few of the comedy sequences are priceless. Ladd plays Lucky Jordan, a man who makes his living in the rackets. He is a bookie and also makes money in slot machines. Basically letting the saps gamble away their dough. Business is good, but there is a problem. Jordan has been drafted into the army. You know the film isn't taking itself totally serious when Lloyd Corrigan plays Lucky's lawyer.

Jordan looks out for number one and thinks the government should look after itself. He finds nothing but trouble in the army and decides to skip and hide out until the war blows over. He gets away but inadvertently comes into the possession of some blueprints of a new tank design. Spies are after the documents and so is Slip (Sheldon Leonard), his old partner. His main nemesis however, is a spunky idealist (Helen Walker), who wants to see Lucky suffer for his unpatriotic attitude.

Also in the cast is Mabel Paige, who is hired to play Lucky's long lost mother. This is where most of the best laughs are found. But also it becomes quite touching, when the two loners find they have someone they can trust. The spies end up with the blueprints, but they have to beat up Paige to get it. This makes Lucky decide to join the fight. As Lucky says in the film, "I don't want to see my country run by a bunch of guys who beat up old ladies."

Jordan gets a tip that Slip has a connection to Kilpatrick Gardens, a high end garden nursery. This is where the final fireworks will start as we learn that Kilpatrick's is a front for the spies. It's all breezy and filled with snappy patter. The two leads, Walker and Ladd, are beautiful and work well off each other. Ladd's role is very physical here and he's up to meet the challenge. He was a star athlete in high school and you can see it here.

Lucky Jordan is an entertaining movie, and it highlights the many talents of Alan Ladd. His deadpan comic delivery of funny lines was one of his great strengths as an actor. There are several of those instances in this production.

There is a romantic interest, of course, but it does not complicate the basic premise; Lucky is a wise guy hood who wants to beat going into the Army during WW2. Initially, he is willing to do anything to achieve that goal; even sell out his country to spies. But, we all know by this time, that Ladd will eventually see the light and make his past mistakes a thing ro forget. An entertaining hour and change of fantasy.

I never really rated Alan Ladd but he's quite decent in this wartime thriller. He's the gangster "Lucky" who finds himself drafted! Despite the best efforts of his lawyer "Higgins" (Lloyd Corrigan) to get him off, he is duly posted - and promptly absconds. Not before, though, he encounters "Jill" (Helen Walker) who disapproves heartily of his unpatriotic attitude. She ends up his hostage and the briefcase she was carrying becomes the hottest property in town. We discover it contains some top secret army designs and that there's a group of Nazi fifth columnist's out to retrieve it. Now "Lucky" has to make some tough choices (and a fairly impassioned speech at the end) before their secrets fall into enemy hands. The drama itself is quite well put together and decently paced. There's a solid, if unremarkable, effort from Walker and a few scene stealing quips from Mabel Paige's rather astute "Annie" - the sharpest, shrewdest and wittiest of the bunch. It's all fairly standard fayre, but is an easy watch as it sows the seeds for US involvement in WWII.

This is a very entertaining movie. A lot funnier upon repeated viewing (dialogue is very witty and fast). Alan Ladd (underrated actor to begin with) has made very few comedies and shines here in both delivery, mannerisms and excellent timing. Helen Walker is holding her own and has just about as good an on-screen chemistry with Ladd as Veronica Lake in his noir movies. The plot is pretty stupid because of introduction of Nazis (in US ?!), secret plans, treason, etc. The whole patriotic hullabaloo, in my opinion, only gets in the way of otherwise interesting idea of a wise guy trying to dodge draft by any means necessary (especially as the movie was released in 1942). It's a pity Ladd got "pigeonholed" by his studio (Paramount) into tough guy, action hero and/or tragic roles. He would have been a winner in an intelligent, dialogue based comedy, or even romantic comedy (dare I say: the caliber of Cary Grant?!). I'm buying this one for my collection of Ladd's movies. :D

Paramount had enough confidence in ALAN LADD (after THIS GUN FOR HIRE and THE GLASS KEY) to give him solo star billing above the title for LUCKY JORDAN. He fits the role of the cynical, wise-cracking Jordan, every inch the cocky wise guy who keeps getting into one scrape after another until the fadeout.

Instead of Veronica Lake, we have HELEN WALKER as the WAC he's forced to kidnap when she threatens to report him to the authorities for minor infractions. It's Walker's first film and she handles her chores with great assurance.

But the scene-stealer is MABEL PAIGE as an old wino who is chosen to act as Ladd's mother, so he can call her a dependent and avoid the military draft. Trouble brews when Ladd's own henchman (SHELDON LEONARD) is part of a scheme to turn over military plans to the enemy during World War II. Ladd gets back at Leonard on a few occasions but really throws the book at the mob when they beat up "his old lady."

All of it is directed at a fast pace by Walter Tuttle. The script is full of one-liners that draw a laugh, most of them delivered in crisp style by Ladd himself. It's easy to see why his popularity as the hottest male star at Paramount was cemented with this film. He's very believable as the cynic with a heart of gold. It's an energetic performance that made the studio realize they had a good prospect for stardom on their hands.

Only quibble: The print shown on TCM was a poor one needing restoration.