Starring Cary Grant stars with Roosevelt, Utah native Laraine Day
Cary Grant stars with Roosevelt, Utah native Laraine Day in the breezy 1943 romantic comedy “Mr. Lucky” to be shown on Friday, Feb. 25, at 7 p.m. at the Harold B. Lee Library Auditorium at Brigham Young University.
James D’Arc, curator of BYU’s Motion Picture Archive, will host the screening and will provide background information on the making of “Mr. Lucky.” An episode of the 1942 serial “Spy Smasher” will be shown prior to “Mr. Lucky.”
Doors open at 6:30 PM and admission is free, but early arrival is encouraged as seating is limited. Children ages 8 and older are welcome. No food or drink is permitted in the auditorium.
Grant stars as a mildly larcenous gambler looking to take advantage of war relief worker Laraine Day in order to raise money to move his gambling operation to Cuba. The comedy was hailed by Variety as “expertly devised to provide top entertainment as a romantic drama of unusual and breezy tenor.”
Laraine Day, under contract to MGM to play nurse Mary Lamont in the popular “Dr. Kildare” series, was borrowed from the studio by RKO to appear with Grant in “Mr. Lucky.” It became one of the biggest hits of the year.
Day went on to co-star with Gary Cooper, Robert Mitchum, Burt Lancaster and even John Wayne before retiring from films in 1960 when she married television and theater producer Michel Grilikhes. In 1985, Day donated her papers, films, and memorabilia to BYU’s L. Tom Perry Special Collections.
The BYU Motion Picture Archive Film series is co-sponsored by L. Tom Perry Special Collections, the Friends of the Harold B. Lee Library, and by Dennis & Linda Gibson.
Contact James D’Arc at (801) 422-6371 for further information.
Writer: Mel Gardner
