''It's a Pleasure!'' is a 1945 American

Technicolor Technicolor is a family of Color motion picture film, color motion picture processes. The first version, Process 1, was introduced in 1916, and improved versions followed over several decades. Definitive Technicolor movies using three black-and ...

Comedy-drama Comedy drama (also known by the portmanteau dramedy) is a hybrid genre of works that combine elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. In film, as well as scripted television series, serious dramatic subjects (such as death, il ...

musical film Musical film is a film genre in which songs by the Character (arts), characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, but in some cases, they serv ...

directed by

William A. Seiter William Alfred Seiter (June 10, 1890 – July 26, 1964) was an American film director. Life and career Seiter was born in New York City. After attending Hudson River Military Academy, Seiter broke into films in 1915 as a bit player at Mack Senn ...

and starring

Sonja Henie Sonja Henie (8 April 1912 – 12 October 1969) was a Norway, Norwegian figure skating, figure skater and film star. She was a three-time List of Olympic medalists in figure skating, Olympic champion (Figure skating at the 1928 Winter Olympics, ...

, Michael O'Shea and

Marie McDonald Marie McDonald (born Cora Marie Frye, July 6, 1923 – October 21, 1965) was an American singer. She started her career at a young age, participating in beauty pageants and gaining attention as "The Queen of Coney Island" and "Miss New York Stat ...

Plot

Don Martin's career in ice hockey screeches to a halt when he punches a referee. Banned from the sport for life, he is consoled by Chris Linden, a lovely skater who performs for the crowd during the hockey games' intermissions. Chris has a crush on Don and introduces him to Buzz Fletcher, who runs an ice-skating revue. Don joins the show as a performer and marries Chris, but has a drinking problem. Buzz's bored wife Gail develops a romantic interest in Don and is furious when he resists. She gets him drunk and ruins his opportunity to perform a solo in the show. Complications arise and result in Chris leaving her husband and going away for two years on tour with the show. Gail's guilty conscience gets the better of her and she reunites Chris and Don in the end.

Cast

as Chris Linden * Michael O'Shea as Don Martin *

as Gail Fletcher *Bill Johnson as Buzz 'Buzzard' Fletcher *

Gus Schilling August "Gus" Schilling (June 20, 1908 – June 16, 1957) was an American film actor who started in burlesque comedy and usually played nervous comic roles, often unbilled. A friend of Orson Welles, he appeared in five of the director's films � ...

as Bill Evans *

Iris Adrian Iris Adrian Hostetter (May 29, 1912 – September 17, 1994) was an American stage and film actress. Life and career Adrian was an only child, born in Los Angeles, California, to Florence (née Van Every) and Adrian Earl Hostetter, who wed in 1 ...

as Wilma * Cheryl Walker as Loni *Peggy O'Neill as Cricket *

Arthur Loft Arthur Loft (born Hans Peter Loft;"Obituary: Arthur Loft"
''The Los ...

as Jack Weimar *

David Janssen David Janssen (born David Harold Meyer; March 27, 1931 – February 13, 1980) was an American film and television actor who is best known for his starring role as Richard Kimble in the television series '' The Fugitive'' (1963–1967). Janssen a ...

as Davey / boy referee (uncredited)

Production

Sonja Henie had made nine pictures for

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

ending with ''Wintertime''. In December 1943 she signed a contract to make a movie for the newly formed International Pictures which was run by

William Goetz William B. Goetz (March 24, 1903 – August 15, 1969) was an American film producer and studio executive. Goetz was one of the founders of Twentieth Century Pictures, and later served as vice president of 20th Century Fox after the studio's me ...

who had been head of production at Fox briefly while Henie worked there. The film was to be part of International's initial slate of four pictures costing $5 million being distributed by RKO, the others being '' Casanova Brown'', '' Belle of the Yukon'' and '' Once Off Guard''. Bill Johnson had been in '' Something for the Boys'' and was borrowed from MGM; it was his screen debut. International leased two ice skating rinks, at Westwood Ice Garden and the Polar Palace in Hollywood. Filming started August 1, 1944. Michael O'Shea was cast in August 1944, borrowed from

Hunt Stromberg Hunt Stromberg (July 12, 1894 – August 23, 1968) was a film producer during Hollywood's Golden Age. In a prolific 30-year career beginning in 1921, Stromberg produced, wrote, and directed some of Hollywood's most profitable and enduring films, ...

. In late August Hedda Hopper announced that Henie was refusing to talk to producer David Lewis and was only talking to designer Don Loper. In November 1944 International announced they would make a second film with Henie, '' The Countess of Monte Cristo''. It was not made until several years later, at Universal International.

Reception

The ''New York Times'' called it a "flaccid fable."THE SCREEN IN REVIEW New York Times 4 May 1945: 23.

References

{{Reflist

External links

''It's a Pleasure''
at

IMDb IMDb, historically known as the Internet Movie Database, is an online database of information related to films, television series, podcasts, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and biograp ...

It's a Pleasure
at Letterbox DVD
It's a Pleasure
at BFI 1945 musical comedy films 1945 films American musical comedy films Figure skating films Films directed by William A. Seiter 1940s American films 1940s English-language films English-language musical comedy films