Ice-Capades

Ice-Capades

19/8/1941 1h 28m 5.5/10

Overview

Bob Clemens is a cameraman for newsreels. Assigned to shoot the Swiss ice skater Karen Vadja, he arrives too late, so decides to film a woman skating on a different New York rink and pass her off as Karen. The scheme backfires when promoter Larry Herman takes a look at Bob's film and decides to make the skater a star. Unfortunately, it's actually amateur (and illegal immigrant) Marie Bergin in the newsreel footage, not the great figure skater from Switzerland. Chaos ensues as Bob tries to straighten everybody out.

Director

Joseph Santley

Top Billed Cast

Dorothy Lewis

Dorothy Lewis

Marie Bergin aka Anderson

Jerry Colonna

Jerry Colonna

Colonna

Alan Mowbray

Alan Mowbray

Pete Ellis

James Ellison

James Ellison

Bob Clemens

Barbara Jo Allen

Barbara Jo Allen

Vera Vague

Phil Taylor

Phil Taylor

Ice-Capades Skater

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

7/26/2025

6/10

“Is that a moustache or are you wearing a squirrel?” … and that’s one of the better quips from this rather mixed up musical comedy. It centres around the cynical “Bob” (James Ellison) who was supposed to film some ice skaters, but missed the plane! Reckoning that one of those critters looks just like another, he heads to the local rink in Central Park where he encounters the versatile young “Marie” (Dorothy Lewis) whom he thinks will make perfect fodder for his film. Job done, he hopes to forget all about it but promoter “Larry” (Phil Silvers) sees the thing and reckons she has what it takes to star in his “Ice-capades” feature. A deal is duly done, but when he comes face to face with his signing, he discovers that she isn’t what he was expecting and the woman he was is on the wrong end of an issue with the US immigration authorities. With the big boss irked somewhat, he and sidekick “Pete” (Alan Mowbray) have to find a way to keep the real star in the country - and that can only be done with a few vows and a band of gold. That’s assuming she ever stays put long enough for anyone, who now also includes “Bob” as well, to actually woo her. Those are the bare bones of the plot, but they don’t really make so much impact on a film that is essentially just a vehicle for us to enjoy some amiably scored routines on the ice that marry some considerable skill, a little predicable slapstick and an impressive performance four foot off the ground on stilts! It’s probably half an hour too long and it does labour the joke a little, but there are enough redeeming scenes to make it worth watching, you'll just probably never recall it afterwards.

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