Most people regard Sun Valley Serenade as the best Sonja Henie film - it's got Lyn Bari, the Nicholas Brothers, Glenn Miller - but this is pretty good too. It's very silly, has terrific production values, good comedy and some excellent support performances.
Big band leader Cesar Romero, manager Don Ameche and their crew crash in Norway en route from New York to Paris (which is really getting off track). They wind up at a village where Henie, a local hirl who doesn't want to marry the guy her father's lined up, has seen a psychic who tells her true love is on its way. She assumes it's Romero, an egomaniac who falls in love at the drop of a hat, so he romances her then leaves. She tracks him down to New York City.
I liked this movie. Henie is awkward but the story is well constructed about her and I believed she'd be silly enough to be a psychic; also at least she's active here going to New York. She also has some of her best numbers - a really spectacular one with 84 skates in Norway and another strong one at the end.
Ameche is a strong leading man and Romero is great fun; I love how he is motivated being a womanizer because every new love inspires a different song. Ethel Memran is fun as well as a temperamental singer - Henie films often had very strong support casts.
There is some tiresome comic ethnic schick from some guy who plays a diner owner. But this is one of Henie's best films.
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