Iceland
Brief Synopsis
Cast & Crew
Bruce Humberstone
Sonja Henie
John Payne
Jack Oakie
Felix Bressart
Osa Massen
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When womanizer Corp. James Murfin lands with the other U.S. Marines at Reykjavik, Iceland, he immediately starts chasing the local girls, including naïve, pretty Katina Jonsdottir. Katina, who is bored by her persistent beau, Sverdrup Svensson, tries to get rid of him by telling him that two years earlier, she let a man kiss her at a sports carnival in Switzerland. When Sverdrup sees Katina dancing with James at the popular Hotel Jorg later that evening, he assumes that James is the man Katina kissed. Katina is completely taken in by James's smooth talking, and when she returns home that evening, she allows her father, younger sister Helga, grandmother and aunt Sophie to believe that she and James are engaged. The family has been pressing Katina to marry Sverdrup, for Helga is engaged to Valtyr Olafson, whose wealthy father insists on adhering to an old tradition that the elder sister must marry first. Desperately needing the Olafson money to resuscitate their failing restaurant, the family wants to get Katina's marriage out of the way. Sverdrup glumly agrees to step aside so that Katina can marry James, who plays along with the charade when he meets her family. James's pal and fellow Marine, Slip Riggs, is angered by James's disregard of the seriousness of the situation and the potential consequences, and urges him to tell Katina the truth. Two weeks pass as James romances Katina, until finally he tries to tell her the truth at a Red Cross benefit carnival. Katina, by now believing that James really intends to marry her, does not understand, and so Slip arranges for her to meet Adele Wynn, a beautiful singer whom James jilted in America a few years previously. Adele is performing at the Hotel Jorg, and after meeting her, Katina becomes disillusioned about James and tries to tell her family that the wedding is off. James follows her home and attempts to apologize, saying that his flirtatious nature will never let him settle down. Determined now to win James, Katina registers for a marriage license, causing James to volunteer for special detail to escape her. When the family discovers that he is gone, they insist that she marry Sverdrup so that Helga can marry Valtyr. Katina claims that she and James were married by a Marine chaplain just before he left, and so Helga and Valtyr's marriage takes place two weeks later. On the day of the ceremony, James returns and is furious to discover the new lie that Katina has told. Slip learns that after the wedding, the family plans to serenade Katina and James on their way to their own bridal chamber, and informs James. The serenading begins, and a smug James accompanies the increasingly nervous Katina. Katina tries to escape James's kisses when they are left alone, and it is not until Slip arrives with Herr Tegner, the minister, that she realizes that James does indeed want to marry her. The couple are wed, and soon after, Katina stages a skating show to entertain the Marines.
Director
Bruce Humberstone
Cast
Sonja Henie
John Payne
Jack Oakie
Felix Bressart
Osa Massen
Joan Merrill
Fritz Feld
Sammy Kaye
Sterling Holloway
Adeline Dewalt Reynolds
Ludwig Stossel
Louis Adlon
Ilka Gruning
Eugene Turner
James Flavin
William Haade
James Bush
Carol Curtis-brown
Jody Gilbert
Walter Sande
Homer King
Peter Killiam
Robert Ballard
Paul Woods
Robert Elliott
A. Flaherty Harper
William Snyder
Geary Steffen
Chuck Deshon
Sol Haines
Alice Kirby
Gwen Stith
Paul Foltz
Bud Lawler
Joe Hickey
Roger Miller
George Stewart
Eleanor Counts
Jane Ray
John Coffey
Jean Ashton
June Earle
Mary Carroll
Edwina Gist
Eddie Buzard
Marilyn Kinsley
Ross Murray
Jerry Jarrette
Alyce Goering
Byron Poindexter
Mary Stewart
Cleo Hughes
Clifford Oddson
Dona La Barr
Patsy Perrin
Eleanor Peterson
Annabelle Brudie
James Notaro
Marianne Brudie
Virginia Davis
Louise Allen
Lynne Kelly
Teddy Blue
Nondas Wayne
Betty Bowen
Marny George
George Reading
Harold Gehl
Glenn Dennison
Tom Ladd
Bud Stark
Robert E. Beck
Norris Houser
Irving Gregg
Marcia Sweet
Margie Mckay
Clarice Evans
Cecil Ballerino
Jimmy Kelly
Carl Saxe
Nancy Lee Davis
Catherine Guy
Pat Merifield
Mary Erin Quirk
Iris Gordon
Nancy Rush
James Caesar
Myron Speth
Crew
R. Alex Anderson
Gordon Beecher
Sam Benson
Arthur Berthelet
Robert Hood Bowers
James B. Clark
Richard Day
Robert Ellis
Jacob Gade
William Goetz
James Gonzales
Mack Gordon
Eugene Grossman
Roger Heman
Wiard B. Ihnen
Sammy Kaye
Bowie Kennedy
William Koenig
William Lebaron
Leleiohaku
Liliuokalani
Thomas Little
Billy Livingston
Helen Logan
Arthur Miller
Emil Newman
Johnny Noble
Jacques Offenbach
Hermes Pan
Guy Pearce
David Raksin
Aaron Rosenberg
Harry Warren
Kenny Williams
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
According to a November 7, 1941 Hollywood Reporter news item, this film was originally intended as a "sequel" to the 1941 Twentieth Century-Fox production Sun Valley Serenade, which also starrred Sonja Henie and John Payne. Joan Davis, Lynn Bari, Milton Berle and Glenn Miller and his orchestra, who were featured in the first picture, were to appear in this one as well. In notes from a November 7, 1941 conference with studio production chief Darryl F. Zanuck, contained in the Twentieth Century-Fox Produced Scripts Collection at the UCLA Arts-Special Collections Library, the above-named players are not listed in the potential cast, although Cesar Romero is listed for the "Slip Riggs" role. Conference notes from February 2, 1942 reveal that producer William LeBaron was going to contact Claude Thornhill's and Harry James's bands "as to availability and prices," and March 10, 1942 conference notes indicate that Victor Borge was being considered for the role of "Sverdrup Svensson."
According to a October 29, 1941 Hollywood Reporter news item, the studio sent cameraman Bowie Kennedy to Iceland to photograph "backgrounds" for the film. Actor Felix Bressart was borrowed from M-G-M for the production. According to the MPAA/PCA Collection at the AMPAS Library, the PCA rejected a March 24, 1942 version of the script because of "the comedy characterization of a minister [Herr Tegner]" and "the offensively suggestive lines and situations connected with the scenes in and around the bridal chamber." A revised script, dated April 1, 1942, was approved by the MPAA. According to a December 10, 1942 Hollywood Reporter news item, the studio decided to retitle the film Love on Ice for its foreign release "following protests from the OWI, representatives of Iceland and newspaper critics that the treatment of natives was an affront to the people of the country." The New York Times review also noted that "reports [were] coming in from Iceland" that people there were "feeling severe resentment" about the film, which they felt was "decidedly unflattering to their nature and national mode of life."
