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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ClassyCo" data-source="post: 231915" data-attributes="member: 7">Lucille Ball is an interesting one to decipher. Her career in film is completely dwarfed by the continuing popularity of I Love Lucy, which still resonates in popular culture for its innovate behind-the-scenes techniques, and to a lesser extent, The Lucy Show and Here's Lucy. Her career on the small screen has morphed her into the First Lady of Television, which she quite deserves, but it undermines her work on the silver screen.Ball was one that was tossed around to several different studios before she finally found her niche, as in the television comedy. She spent her early movie career at RKO, who hopelessly misjudged her potential by casting her in a host of films, from the A-list melodrama Stage Door to the B-picture drama Five Came Back. In fact, she became particularly well-known for her roles in B-movies, that she was coined the "Queen of the B's", a title previously held by Fay Wray. Eventually, she found her way over to MGM, where her dyed red hair was used to great advantage in glossy musicals like Du Barry Was a Lady and Best Foot Forward. Her lack of singing talent, however, cut her career in musicals short, and she would later appear in films like The Big Street, a noirish melodrama co-starring Henry Fonda, and the romantic comedy Easy to Wed, appearing with Esther Williams and Van Johnson. Even though she continued to appear regularly in popular box office successes, her career at MGM was basically sidelined, and I seem to think she went more or less unnoticed by many moviegoers. After she made it big on TV, I've always felt Lucy's film work seemed to trap her in. What I mean is she seemed like she had grown use to performing in front the live audiences, and when her movies took that away, she seemed kind of like a fish out of water. I always get the feeling she's waiting for the audience to laugh when she spits out a joke, but is particularly wounded because her fans aren't physically there cheering her on. Of course, I understand that not everyone would share in this assessment, and I also understand that I may be being over-analyzing the situation, but I must write it as I see it. Her first film post-television success was The Long, Long Trailer, which was a major hit, which was followed by Forever Darling, which was less successful. She would do a few comedies in the 1960s, such as Critic's Choice and A Guide for the Married Man, but both struggled financially to recoup their investment. Lucy's film career had dwarfed in comparison to her small screen popularity. Her final theatrical film, a big-budget remake of Mame, released in 1974, actually offers one of my favorite performance of hers. Sure, she was raked over the coals for her work, but I find the movie thoroughly enjoyable, and not just in its camp ratio. It's really unfair that we don't give Lucy more credit for having some really good motion pictures on her resume. <img src="https://www.hometheaterforum.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Lucille-Ball-Mame-1974.jpg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="" /></blockquote>

Verification: Who played JR Ewing?