A British-West German romantic comedy; A story about an international arms dealer who clashes with a liberated journalist. Screwball comedies require a good pairing: a female dominating the relationship and a male's masculinity challenged, and a humorous battle of the sexes ensues. Roger Moore is amusing as the urbane, slightly rakish neighbour making overtures to Susannah York's feisty, pacifist feminist. In support, Lee J. Cobb and Shelley Winters are another good pairing providing some funny moments. The love-against-the-odds theme is charming but plot gets in the way eventually and there is a second-rate farce in the final third and a stub of an ending. Art direction is first-rate thanks to the Academy Award-winning Jack Maxsted.
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shakercoola28 March 2016
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HotToastyRag29 November 2022In an odd premise, the two romantic leads in That Lucky Touch are an arms dealer and a liberal journalist. Who would think to put that combination in a comedy? Roger Moore, in a very un-Bond-like role, plays the arms dealer who has no qualms about arming bad guys for potential WWIII. Susannah York is his neighbor who accidentally get locked out one night after a party. Of course, he's very accommodating, offering her to spend the night in his place. He disconnects his phone and pretends it's out of order, but his seduction fails when Susannah finds out his occupation. The rest of the film has a little bickering, a few jokes, and a bit of a quirky feel to it. I stuck in there for the supporting cast.
Shelley Winters steals the show early on in the movie, as she talks Susannah into binge-eating with her. "You're far too skinny to sleep alone," she says with both envy and a twinkle in her eye. It's because of little moments like that why I'll watch any movie with Shelley Winters. In another hilarious scene, Shelley calls her husband, big military general Lee J. Cobb, while he's busy planning important war strategies. She accidentally uses the presidential emergency line and excuses her faux pas by insisting her reason for calling is an emergency: she needs an extra officer attending her party that evening. And finally, when Lee goes on a quail hunting outing, she waves him off with a cheerful, "Tally ho! I'll be rooting for the birds." She and Lee make a cute couple, probably helped by their friendship from their early New York stage days.
If you love the cast, check this obscure 1970s romance out. It's not really that great unless you're invested in the actors. And I'll admit, if some other character actress was cast instead of Shelley, I might have picked another movie to watch instead. -
TinTin-617 September 2000I was about 14 year old when my cousin told me he had seen a movie with my favorite actor, Roger Moore, set in Belgium. I would have believed him if he hadn't added that the end of the film was set in the castle of Rumbeke, the village my grand parents lived. That sounded just way to unreal. But he was right. 'That Lucky Touch' which was first going to be called 'Heaven save us from our friends' was shot entirely in Belgium (most of it in Brussels) and it's climax was shot in the forest of the castle of Rumbeke. I like this film. Living in the states, it gives me a warm feeling each time I see it. It makes me feel like being home again. My favorite scene is the one in which Roger Moore and Suzanne York are sitting in a cozy pub on the famous grand place in Brussels. Moore tells York that he wants to show her what Belgians do in the early morning hours ... they eat onion soup!?!?!? Hmm, what movies can teach you about your own national traditions.....
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sgw55520 March 2005Perhaps when it came out, this movie could be watched as a light-hearted romantic comedy, but 30 years later, it's hard to buy a story about an international arms dealer selling automatic weapons to Saudis - and the 'spunky' feminist investigative reporter who loves to hate him - as a 'comedy', let alone a 'lighthearted' one.
The movie is marketed as an 'international adventure with Roger Moore', so you think you're getting a James Bond-type film with lots of action; instead, what you get is a slow-moving, heavy-footed piece of cheese - Swiss cheese, in fact, given the number of plot holes.
Moore plays arms dealer Scott, who finds himself living next door to an investigative journalist (played by Susanna York) in Brussels. He's in town to sell some hard-core weapons to the US military; she's in town to cover war games. I think he is supposed to be a charming-but-insincere international playboy, while she is supposed to be a highly principled feminist (!) just trying to get ahead in a man's world.
Unfortunately, the whole thing never really gets past the level of farce: it's just one stereotype after another. Her portrayal of 'feminism', for example, seems to consist entirely of shrieking about how terrible men are and storming off in a huff. And we never actually see her doing any 'reporting' at all, unless putting a piece of paper in a typewriter just before getting distracted by something (a phone call, a daydream) counts as 'reporting'.
Now this kind of stereotyped farce works fine when you've got lots of action, a fast-moving plot, evil villains, stylish art directing, great music, etc. But this movie hasn't got any of that. On top of which, the supporting actors don't seem to know whether they are in a comedy, a drama, or an action film.
Bottom line: Only for die-hard fans of Roger Moore or British films set in European countries during the 1965-75 period. -
seveb-2517918 July 2023Another Roger Moore movie that can't make up its mind whether it's meant to be serious or humorous and which also left me lamenting that Roger Moore didn't manage to appear in more com-coms instead of a string of half-baked action movies. Type-caste as the Saint / James Bond I suppose, even though such rare acting praise as he did receive is generally for his affable charm rather than for his steely resolve.
Coming in cold I found it hard to work out what sort of movie this was trying to be, at first it seemed like it might be a political thriller, as Roger tests weapons in the darkness at some deserted spot and makes deals to purchase more. Shady Arab characters pop up from time to time, without ever being involved directly with any of the other characters. Meanwhile there is another thread involving a crusading investigative reporter (and solo mum) Susannah York, who is in town to cause mischief at a NATO exercise. General Lee J Cobb and wife Shelley Winters appear to be there for comic relief, which is all well and good. Also scattered through the movie are otherwise irrelevant scenes of Roger watching horses win bets for him at the races and Roger winning at poker, in order to provide some ephemeral connection to the title of the film.
By this time the audience is wondering how Roger and Susannah fit into the same picture, when suddenly we find out, as it turns out they are living on the same floor of a palatial apartment building and later she manages to lock herself out just as Roger arrives home. Here is where the movie comes alive, now that we are in familiar rom-com territory, and remain there for an extended period. Although the script is pretty ropey, the charm of the two leads almost carries the day in this middle phase of the film, which manages to be mildly amusing. Watching Roger operate in this setting is to see a performer clearly in his element and is what made me ponder how he didn't get more Cary Grant / Rock Hudson style opportunities. I guess one reason would be that this movie was a failure.
The fundamental underlying problem with the whole premise is that Roger is an arms dealer, a profession which is never likely to win over an audience's sympathy. Now I can comprehend that in the real World even the good guys make use of arms dealers, but it's a hard sell, and an even harder sell in the context of a rom-com, and probably an impossible sell when the other side of the equation is an anti-war investigative journalist.
Unfortunately, all too soon we return to the other main plot thread of the movie, events relating to the NATO exercise. Just why General Cobb is so tolerant of Susannah the anti-War reporter is eventually explained, but far too late in the day and even then remains unconvincing. The rest of the film decends into half baked farce, which makes less and less sense as it unravels. More importantly it also failed to engender any laughs on my part.
In the end Roger decides not to sell arms to the Arab gentlemen, who have been hanging around throughout the movie without a line of dialogue, someone mentions this to Susannah, who then decides that Roger isn't such an unprincipled scoundrel after all, that it's ok to fall for him, and they walk off into the airport travellator sunset.
So Roger gets to display his natural talent for comedic acting, Susannah York is vivacious, Lee J Cobb, Shelley Winters, Raf Vallone and Donald Sindon all ham it up (in a good way), in fact all the performers do their best with a poor script and unimaginative direction, but it's just not enough to save the film from being a disappointing debacle. -
Ffolkes-318 October 1999I guess that the film wasn't so popular but I may be wrong. The fact is that many people have dislike to "That Lucky Touch" because it's not an action movie (as many of viewers had thought before watching this) but very light and "likeable" romantic comedy featuring Roger Moore, Susannah York, Shelley Winters and Lee J. Cobb.
The plot of the film isn't complexed. Arms dealer, Michael Scott (Roger Moore) prepares weapon transport for NATO. The whole operation is of course top secret, but one very inquisitive journalist, Julia Richardson (Susannah York) discovers what's going on and accidentally gets to know Michael. The problem begins when they fall in love with each other ...
Anyway, I suggest you watch "That Lucky Touch" and that's not only because of a fantastic performance given by Lee J. Cobb, and real good-looking pair Moore-York (they both had played together before in Peter Hunt's "Gold" (1974)) but also because it's a good "lonely-Friday-night" movie and Christopher Miles' gentle direction will make you feel relaxed. -
Teaming York and Moore together again a year after 'Gold' must've seemed like a good idea at the time, but the people behind this film certainly didn't have 'that lucky touch' (ho ho).
This is a lame comedy, that veers from sentimentality to farce and goes all over the place in between. It is, at times very funny, but for the most part it is just dull. The performances go some way to saving it, but frankly it would've been a much better (and much funnier) film if the two lead characters had just got on together and left us to watch Lee J Cobb and Shelley Winters, who are both wonderful.