Czech born Vera Hruba (Ralston) was a Hollywood inside joke, sort of a poor man's Marian Davies and definitely no rival to 20th Century Fox skating actress Sonja Henie. Even if Ms. Henie was no actress, she was at least somewhat attractive and pleasant to see, while Ms. Hruba (Ralston) photographed strangely and was never even remotely believable even in the simplest of movie situations. I've only seen her in a handful of Republic movies (two with the "Duke") and each time was left rather cold by her. Like Marian Davies and William Randolph Hearst, and Norma Shearer and Irving Thalberg, she married extremely well (Republic head Herbert J. Yates), and love off screen didn't become magic for her on screen with movie audiences, staring in 15 years of critically maligned flops that today range between acceptable cinema and outrageously bad melodramas that would have been great material for the wise-cracking aliens of "Mystery Science Theater", the biggest mystery being why Yates thought he could crack her into the realm of movie star in an era when beauties like Lana Turner, Rita Hayworth and Betty Grable were packing in World War II weary audiences. Even after the war, he kept putting her into his biggest projects. Fortunately, when he made his biggest hit ("The Quiet Man"), he realistically put in a real Irish woman (Maureen O'Hara) in the film instead of her.
This literally is a Cinderella story, with Czechlosovakia's premiere skater discovering as the Nazi's are preparing to take over her homeland that she is the niece of a wealthy American (Eugene Palette). She is welcomed into his home and immediately causes a ruckus between handsome Robert Livingston and her spoiled cousins who are both in love with him. One's bitchy and calculating, while the other is an Eve Arden realistic wisecracker. It's clear that the two sisters hate each other, and at first, Vera's presence causes more conflict, especially when Livingston takes an instant liking to her and two promoters of an upcoming Ice Follies (Walter Catlett and William Frawley) recognize her and try to get Palette to allow her to sign up for their spectacle.
While there are a few elaborate skating numbers (plus the presence of none other than Roy Rogers singing "Winter Wonderland"), the film has a sort of cheap look about it with blury photography and long single shot scenes without any cuts and very few close-ups. The few Ms. Hruba does get are not very flattering, and unlike other actresses who were not great beauties but had on-screen magic, she fails to light up the screen except during her skating sequences, and then that only occurs when the camera isn't right on her. Surround her with great comic talent like Palette, Catlett, Frawley and Barbara Jo Allen (aka Vera Vague, playing a Gracie Allen like countess), and the audiences just might forgive her for not sparkling on screen. Her legacy today is that she had a career based upon true love from a much older movie mogul who saw something in her that unfortunately the movie going public did not.
This literally is a Cinderella story, with Czechlosovakia's premiere skater discovering as the Nazi's are preparing to take over her homeland that she is the niece of a wealthy American (Eugene Palette). She is welcomed into his home and immediately causes a ruckus between handsome Robert Livingston and her spoiled cousins who are both in love with him. One's bitchy and calculating, while the other is an Eve Arden realistic wisecracker. It's clear that the two sisters hate each other, and at first, Vera's presence causes more conflict, especially when Livingston takes an instant liking to her and two promoters of an upcoming Ice Follies (Walter Catlett and William Frawley) recognize her and try to get Palette to allow her to sign up for their spectacle.
While there are a few elaborate skating numbers (plus the presence of none other than Roy Rogers singing "Winter Wonderland"), the film has a sort of cheap look about it with blury photography and long single shot scenes without any cuts and very few close-ups. The few Ms. Hruba does get are not very flattering, and unlike other actresses who were not great beauties but had on-screen magic, she fails to light up the screen except during her skating sequences, and then that only occurs when the camera isn't right on her. Surround her with great comic talent like Palette, Catlett, Frawley and Barbara Jo Allen (aka Vera Vague, playing a Gracie Allen like countess), and the audiences just might forgive her for not sparkling on screen. Her legacy today is that she had a career based upon true love from a much older movie mogul who saw something in her that unfortunately the movie going public did not.