One in a Million (1937)

Redundant and unnecessary.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

The movie really just wants to entertain people.

Fox carefully hedged their bets in their first attempt to showcase Sonja Henie by surrounding her with a fine supporting cast (although few - with the notable exception of Jean Hersholt giving a touching performance as her father - are seen to best advantage; and Ned Sparks is particularly underused) and padding out the proceedings with the egregious Ritz Brothers and Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Rascals (who make the Ritz Brothers look restrained).Henie, however - although her dialogue is kept to a minimum as Don Ameche conducts a very perfunctory romance of her - remains the film's most memorable component. She beams like a hamster and proves incongruously athletic when let loose on the ice, in the process revealing a shapely chassis when she performs her fast spins.

This talkative Sonja Henie musical comedy is saddled with a cornball script by Leonard Praskins and Mark Kelly. In addition to its so-so comedy routines, it also features a number of musical numbers directed by Jack Haskell. Other credits are likewise inviting, but don't actually amount to anything much, even though Sidney Lanfield was the director and Raymond Griffith, the producer. Alas, for some unknown reason, this movie is well below their best work. In fact, it could justly be described as a completely undistinguished programmer, that manages to end up as a really terrible waste of a talented support cast led by Adolphe Menjou, Arline Judge, Don Ameche, Ned Sparks, Dixie Dunbar and Montagu Love.

I am a long-time, huge Sonja Henie fan. In the figure skating world, she was an innovator and a champion; she also had a wonderful personality which always shone through. Today, the art of ice skating has progressed to the degree that almost any young figure skater can easily replicate what she did and more. But that's beside the point. Unfortunately this, her first movie, was not a good vehicle for her, and her subsequent movies for 20th-Century-Fox were very much better. I think OIAM would have been so much better without the childish shenanigans of the Ritz Brothers and the silly antics of Borrah Minevitch who happened to be a first-class harmonica player and should have been allowed to play his music without the comedy.The rest of the cast was all right, but nothing to rave about.The songs were instantly forgettable and I'm pretty sure that no one came out of the cinema whistling the title song – or, for that matter, any of the others.I don't think this was a marvelously entertaining movie and cannot recommend it to any but the most die-hard Sonja Henie fan. By all means, go for any of the others.

A pretty ice skating Swiss Miss has a ONE IN A MILLION chance to become a road show star, but she will jeopardize her chances for competing in the 1936 Winter Olympics. Will a young American reporter help woo her into making the right decision?Sonja Henie was Norway's ice queen when she won Olympic gold medals in 1928, 1932 & 1936. Quickly going professional, she began a celebrated movie career at 20th Century Fox in 1936. ONE IN A MILLION was her American film debut. Beautiful & talented, as well as being a natural in front of the cameras, she carved out her niche during Hollywood's Golden Age. Although Henie's ice routines may look antiquated by comparison to modern champions, there was nothing antique about her dazzling smile or sparkling personality. Some of today's snowflake princesses could still learn a great deal from her.The Studio surrounded 24-year old Miss Henie with an experienced supporting cast: Jean Hersholt as her gentle father; Adolphe Menjou as a penniless, brash road show impresario & Arline Judge as his plain spoken wife; Don Ameche as the American reporter who falls for Henie; acerbic Ned Sparks as a cantankerous photographer; and Montague Love as a mysterious stranger. Fans of the Ritz Brothers will appreciate their routines; Russian Borrah Minevitch and His Harmonica Gang are zany enough to almost make you forget how talented they were.Ultimately, though, this is Sonja's show. She glides into the viewer's heart, while balancing on a thin edge of steel over frozen water.