Lucky Lady

Stanley Donen's Lucky Lady is set during American Prohibition, when smuggling alcohol across the Mexican border was a profitable trade. After a bootlegger is killed in Mexico, his widow Claire, a nightclub singer, takes over his affairs. She teams up with Walker, a man close to her, and later with Kibby, a loner with a boat called the Lucky Lady, and the three begin running liquor into the United States. Their operation brings them into conflict with McTeague, a gangster who tolerates no competition.

The film stars Liza Minnelli as Claire, Burt Reynolds as Walker and Gene Hackman as Kibby, with Geoffrey Lewis, John Hillerman and Robby Benson in supporting roles. It was directed by Donen from a screenplay by Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck, and produced by Michael Gruskoff. It was released in December 1975, and was the fourteenth of the sixteen features Donen directed, arriving between The Little Prince and Saturn 3.

Made for a budget of 13 million dollars, Lucky Lady took in about 24 million dollars worldwide, a return that left it short of a strong profit given its cost. On IMDb it holds a rating of 5.3 from roughly 1,500 votes, and on TMDB 5.6 from a much smaller number of votes, indicating a modest audience response.