Wanna Get Lucky

Been re-watching (& re-membering) the 1959 – 1960 Blake Edwards TV drama Mr. Lucky.

The pilot, "The Magnificent Bribe" has Lucky & Andamo running a successful casino in Andamo's homeland, the South American Banana Republic island nation of Chobolobo (un-named until episode 2). Although they must pay a weekly bribe of $1000 (late 50s $$$) to the country's corrupt president (played by Nehemiah Persoff), they are still rolling in the dough as is said. Unknown to Lucky, Andamo decides to aid an anti-government revolutionary group. He uses Lucky's yacht, Fortuna, to smuggle guns to the revolutionaries & helps a beautiful female assassin (played by Ziva Rodann) get into position to kill the president. When Andamo’s role in the uprising is uncovered, he & Lucky are forced to flee the island. The episode ends with Lucky & Andamo escaping in a small boat with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

In the second episode, "They Shall Not Pass", Joe 'Mr. Lucky' Adams & Andamo arrive by freighter at an unnamed American port city. They meet up with a notorious conman & the two help save his life. Lucky wins enough money in a crap game to buy another yacht along with a truck full of gambling equipment. He renames the yacht Fortuna II ( 'Fortuna the Second' ). They anchor her outside the three-mile limit to operate as a floating casino. This leads to the episodic adventures that follow.

In episode 16, "The Brain Picker" Mr. Lucky decides Fortuna II will no longer be a gambling ship but will instead become a Private Member, ultra-fine dining restaurant & night club. Thus it remains to the end.

The show had some cool aspects of vagueness. Mr. Lucky's name is never really revealed other than his Joe Adams freighter false identity. The port city where Lucky & Andamo operate is never mentioned by name although various episodes give conflicting clues as to its identity. The city's police cars (black & white four-door 1959 Plymouth sedans) are marked simply "POLICE", not with any city's name or seal.

An a really cool personal item to me was that Mr. Lucky drove a 1960 Chrysler New Yorker convertible, the exact same car my father owned at the time (though a sedan not a convertible).

All this rambling TV talk is leading to this fantastic soundtrack by none other than the great Henry Mancini. You can probably find this elsewhere, but I ripped this personally from the better sounding of two copies of this record I own at 320Kbps.

Henry Mancini – Music from "Mr. Lucky", RCA Victor Living Stereo series, 1960.
decryption code in comments

Side 1 –

Mr. Lucky

My Friend Andamo

Softly

March of the Cue Balls

Lightly Latin

Tipsy

Side 2 –

Floating Pad

One Eyed Cat

Night Flower

Chime Time

Blue Satin

That’s it & That’s All

Do ya feel Lucky, punk?

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