It's a Pleasure!
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
William A. Seiter
Sonja Henie
Michael O'shea
Marie Mcdonald
Bill Johnson
Gus Schilling
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
After hot-tempered professional hockey player Don Martin slugs a referee during a game, he is barred from the game for life. Chris Linden, the starry-eyed figure skater who performs in the half-time show, has a crush on Don and believes that she can help the hard-drinking skater mend his ways. Impressed by Chris's skating ability, Buzz Fletcher, an old school chum of Don's and now the owner of an ice revue, offers Chris and her troupe a booking. Upon learning that Don has embarked upon yet another drunken spree, Chris visits the skater and his friend and manager, Bill Evans, and asks him to join her in Buzz's show. Meanwhile, Buzz's wife Gail, who is bored with her marriage and a life on ice, decides to make romantic overtures to Don to relieve her tedium. Gail's predatory behavior disturbs Chris's close friend Wilma and the rest of her troupe. Unaware of Don's romantic and drinking escapades, Chris continues to mother him and one day, he half-heartedly proposes to her. After the wedding, Gail, feeling rejected, snubs Don, causing Buzz to wonder if they had a disagreement. While on the train to the troupe's next engagement, talent scout and ice show promoter Jack Weimar questions Buzz about Don's reliability. Bent on revenge, Gail declares that Don is an unreformed drunk. When Buzz informs Don that Jack is interested in starring him in a show, the elated Don buys Chris an expensive emerald ring. Upon returning to the hotel that afternoon, Don encounters Gail waiting for him in the lobby. Determined to sabotage his career, Gail decides to get him drunk before his audition for Jack. When Don fails to appear for the performance that evening, Chris becomes frantic with concern. Don finally arrives drunk, and Buzz realizes that he has spent the afternoon with Gail at the Paradise Bar. As Bill valiantly attempts to sober Don up, Buzz angrily forbids him to perform, and the inebriated Don slips and knocks himself unconscious. Buzz then beseeches Chris to go on in Don's place. As Chris triumphantly comes off the ice, the emerald ring is delivered to her. Thrilled, Chris rushes to Don's dressing room to thank him, but he is not there. Impressed by Chris's talent, Jack offers her a spot in his show, but she refuses to go on without Don. Later, Buzz confronts Gail about her rendezvous with Don, and she admits to being in love with the skater. When Don learns that Chris has rejected her chance at stardom because of her refusal to break up their team, he decides to leave her, hoping to force her to accept Jack's offer. Upon learning that Don is leaving Chris, Gail informs Buzz that she is divorcing him. Although Don rejects Gail, he words his farewell letter to Chris to make her think that he is leaving her for Gail. Handing Buzz the letter to deliver to Chris, Don asks his old friend to give Chris the note once their train has left the station. Don's ploy works, and after reading the letter, Chris returns his ring and accepts Jack's offer. Two years later, Chris has become the star of the ice show. Bill has remained in touch with Wilma, and when he invites her and the troupe to see a hockey game involving a team of delinquent boys that Don has been coaching, she and Buzz eagerly accept. Inspired by the boys's spunk, Buzz suggests putting them in his show and invites them to a performance the following evening. Before going on that night, Chris is upset when she finds the emerald ring on her dressing room table. When she insists that Buzz return the ring to Don, Buzz finally tells Chris that Don did not leave her for Gail and is still in love with her. Claiming that Don has now matured, Buzz suggests that Chris meet him and his boys, and she eagerly accepts. Backstage, Chris and Don are joyfully reunited and Don slips the ring back on her finger.
Director
William A. Seiter
Cast
Sonja Henie
Michael O'shea
Marie Mcdonald
Bill Johnson
Gus Schilling
Iris Adrian
Cheryl Walker
Peggy O'neill
Arthur Loft
Alice Fleming
George Brown
George Stewart
Jack Chefe
Bill Murphy
Don Loper
Tom Hanlon
Lane Watson
A. F. Johnson
John Mcdonald
Nils Althin
Harold Griffin
Howard Smith
Sig Burley
Bob Meyer
Bud Reiser
Tom Mccormick
Vern Kuntzman
Dominic Nacerine
Jerry Paige
Bennie Novicki
Irving Gregg
Clem Harnedy
Ray Biss
Frank Melton
Dave Willock
Suzanne Rhodes
Evelyn Mackert
Hazel Dohlman
Katherine York
Stephen Barclay
Frank Billy Mitchell
Kenneth Scott
Donald Kerr
Carol House
Virginia Wave
Virginia Haralson
Betty Cadwell
Kay Morley
Diana Mumby
Roy Darmour
Douglas Carter
John Benson
Paul Bradley
Thad Swift
Brooks Benedict
Bess Flowers
Edward Earle
Emmett Vogan
Alphonse Martel
John Roche
Geraldine Farnum
Louise Illington
Ruth Valmy
Nelson Leigh
Jimmy Conlin
Lane Watson
Danny Shaw
Fred Chapman
Shelby Bacon
John Arnold
Myron Tobias
Mary Gordon
Nina Campana
Buddy Gorman
Alma Carroll
Dorothy Koster
Mickey Malloy
Ruth Valmy
Georgia Lange
Amanda Dieterich
Mary Ann Kramer
Elizabeth Kennedy
Mary Taylor
Dorothy Dewolf
Ethel Stout
Louise Allen
Carol Brinckman
Lorraine Brinckman
Marianne Brudie
Arlene Burger
Shirley Davies
Clarice Evans
Pamela Ewing
Marilyn Frasche
Alyce Goering
Iris Gordon
Mary Hadlett
Lynne Kelly
Lita Lane
Terry Lovelace
Margie Mckay
Shyrle Martinson
Corrine Raines
Joanne Rupp
Nancy Rush
Helen Smith
Louise Snyder
Jeanne Sook
Kathleen Stark
Marcia Sweet
Mariann Tucker
Marilyn Telfer
Naomi Wold
Ann Wood
Clair Wallace
Mollie Dryden
Frank Chase
Harold Gehl
Walter Hedberg
Bud Issacs
Jimmy Kelly
Bud Moore
James Oetzel
Tom Lynn
Buck Pennington
Harlan Spencer
Tim Taylor
Jerry Thorpe
Bill Udell
Al Cooper
Alan Lovell
Tom Ladd
James Hawley
John Jolliffe
Crew
Ann Barr
Mel Berns
Art Black
Tom Branigan
Walter Donaldson
Cecil Eveland
William Goetz
Julia Heron
Wiard Ihnen
Gordon Jennings
Arthur Johns
C. J. Jowett
Natalie Kalmus
Arthur Lange
Paul Lerpae
Edgar Leslie
David Lewis
Harold Lewis
Don Loper
Don Loper
Don Loper
Paul Neal
Joseph Neff
Ernest Nims
Morgan Padelford
Elliot Paul
Ray Rennahan
Ray Rennahan
Nina Roberts
Lynn Starling
Videos
Movie Clip
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to a pre-production Hollywood Reporter news item, Lola Lane was originally cast as the female heavy in this picture. Although Hollywood Reporter production charts credit Joseph Neff as film editor, Ernest Nims is listed as editor onscreen. Production charts also list Ray Walker in the cast, but his appearance in the released film has not been confirmed. Although onscreen credits and SAB attribute the screenplay to Lynn Starling and Elliot Paul, a CBCS list dated October 2, 1944 credits Paul Gangelin with screenplay and attributes the story idea to Billy Wilder. A October 16, 1944 pre-release ad for the film in Daily Variety also credits Wilder with the story idea, but the extent of his and Gangelin's contribution to the released film has not been determined. According to a New York Times news item, the ice sequences were filmed at the Westwood Ice Rink in Los Angeles, and rehearsals were held at the Polar Palace in Hollywood. The decision to film at public rinks rather than on a studio sound stage was made because of problems involving the multi-colored ice used in the production.
