One in a Million Reviews

This was the movie that served to introduce Norwegian skating whiz Henie to America and it was a smash debut. She'd taken the Olympic medal in Germany the year before and was hot news. The big surprise was that she could speak as well as she skated, without tripping over her tongue. She never did become an actress, but her smile and her athleticism were winning on the screen. (Off-screen, she was a shrewd businesswoman who amassed a fortune in investments and as the producer-star of her own touring ice shows, in which she performed until retiring at the age of 57 in 1960.) The ice is thicker than the plot in this picture, which features Menjou as a two-bit Ziegfeld touring Europe with his troupe, which includes the Ritz Brothers, Dunbar, Minnevitch, and more. They're short of money and food and on a train to do a show in Switzerland when Menjou spies Henie practicing her craft on a frozen lake. She's about to go to the Olympics to see if she can bring home the same medal her father, Hersholt, won many years before. She wins, signs on with Menjou, has a flirtation with newsman Ameche (who is trying to protect her from Menjou's profit-making schemes), and winds up at Madison Square Garden, where she delights America. There's good comedy from the Ritz Brothers, Minnevitch, and Ned Sparks, but the unquestioned star is Henie, who skated as beautifully as Fred and Ginger danced. Tunes include: "One in a Million," "We're Back in Circulation Again," "Who's Afraid of Love?" "Lovely Lady in White," "The Moonlight Waltz" (Sidney D. Mitchell, Lew Pollack). Jack Haskell earned an Oscar nomination for his choreography.