AllMovie

Happy Landing is a fairly typical Sonja Henie film, which means that her fans will love it and her detractors will simply shake their heads in wonder that such films ever existed, let alone were enormously popular. As with most Henie, the problem with Landing is that, as good as the ice skating sequences are -- and they are truly exceptional here -- there's still lots of time between them that has to be filled. When Henie is filling that time, Landing grinds to a halt, not helped by Don Ameche's surprisingly lifeless, half-hearted performance. Fortunately, Cesar Romero is around to add a little spice and, even more fortunately, Ethel Merman is around to add some real zip. Merman raises the roof with her sensational "You Appeal to Me" and "Hot and Happy," and her way with a would-be-snappy line of dialogue livens things up considerably. There's also a nifty Condos Brothers dance sequence that helps to make up for the annoying Al Brendel number. The script is ridiculous and the direction is perfunctory, but Happy Landing is opulent and eye-filling. And while Merman is onscreen or Henie is skating, it's enjoyable.