The Lucy Thread: AKA Lucille Ball on Film

[Crimson]

Ball arranged to spend several days with the Beardsley family as a guest in their home in Carmel, California. Ball left for a hotel at the end of the first day, after telling Helen "keep that man (Frank) away from me!" Frank, a former boxer, was said to have a short temper.

The comment by Lucy has usually been framed as a quip in regards to Frank's, uhh, virility, since he had fathered so many children. Although Lucy, pushing 60, presumably needn't have worried about that.

If one can overlook that she's at least a decade too old for the part, I think YOURS, MINE & OURS is the last really good thing Lucy did. Even late in the game, with a good script she was still capable of giving both a good performance and being hilarious.

 

[ClassyCo]

If one can overlook that she's at least a decade too old for the part, I think YOURS, MINE & OURS is the last really good thing Lucy did. Even late in the game, with a good script she was still capable of giving both a good performance and being hilarious.

Yeah, I'd agree that YOURS, MINE & OURS is the last truly great thing Lucy did. Even though she continued on HERE'S LUCY for another six years, nothing on it could be called "great". (Even though I liked it.)

For a long time, I got the original YOURS, MINE & OURS confused in my head with WITH SIX YOU GET EGGROLL, the ill-fated family comedy that served as Doris Day's swan song to movies. They were both released in 1968, the former being a big hit, while they latter failed. Apparently both movies urged Sherwood Schwartz to at least think about doing a TV show about a blended family, which involved into THE BRADY BUNCH.

I believe I have both movies on DVD somewhere in the shuffle.

​

 

[Crimson]

YOURS, MINE & OURS is basically a cinematic sitcom, but it's a very good one: funny and heartfelt. It probably could have been a good framework for Lucy's third sitcom, if she hadn't been so set in her ways on TV. Being the mother of a brood of kids would have offered a lot more plots than once again being Gale Gordon's secretary.

 

[ClassyCo]

YOURS, MINE & OURS is basically a cinematic sitcom, but it's a very good one: funny and heartfelt. It probably could have been a good framework for Lucy's third sitcom, if she hadn't been so set in her ways on TV. Being the mother of a brood of kids would have offered a lot more plots than once again being Gale Gordon's secretary.

Yeah, HERE'S LUCY was basically the last three season of THE LUCY SHOW revisited. Lucy was a secretary and guest stars cluttered the episodes. It would've been a change of pace, and perhaps a step-up in quality, had her post-LUCY SHOW series taken a different direction.​

 

[Snarky Oracle!]

For a long time, I got the original YOURS, MINE & OURS confused in my head with WITH SIX YOU GET EGGROLL, the ill-fated family comedy that served as Doris Day's swan song to movies.

Not to get sidetracked, but little Charlie Herbert said Doris Day never talked to the kids for the 90 days they were making WITH SIX YOU GET EGGROLL, except on camera, of course.

 

[ginnyfan]

I actually love With Six You Get Eggroll. BTW, didn't someone say the same thing for some other Doris movie with kids?

Sorry, back to Lucy.

 

[Angela Channing]

Casting Lucy in Mame (1974) should have been a criminal offence punished by a long prison sentence. She couldn't sing and she couldn't dance and for me she make the film unwatchable. I love Lucy in I Love Lucy but in Mame she ruined what could have been a great screen adaptation of a great Broadway musical.

 

[DallasFanForever]

One of my favorites was The Long Long Trailer (1953). I haven’t seen it in quite awhile so I’m not sure how it holds up now but Lucy and Desi were both terrific in that movie.

 

[Crimson]

Lucy is TCM's Star of the Month for October, and the subject of the new season of the TCM podcast The Plot Thickens.

 

[ClassyCo]

Of all the not-quite-but-oh-so-close-to-great films that Lucy made, none is closer to great than DANCE, GIRL, DANCE (1940). The film also stars Maureen O'Hara, Louis Hayward, Ralph Bellamy, and Maria Ouspenskaya*; and was directed by Dorothy Arzner, Golden Age Hollywood's rare female director.

The film contains one of Maureen O'Hara's best performances, but Lucy is remarkable in the movie.

Rereading this post of yours today got me to thinking about the biography (I forget which one) on Lucille Ball I watched sometime ago. In this specific one, an individual said that Lucy always felt "inferior" (or words to that effect) when Maureen O'Hara walked in the room because O'Hara was "perfect".

And she was right... Maureen O'Hara was a stunningly beautiful woman. But Lucy wasn't too shabby herself.

​

 

[ClassyCo]

Browsing the web today and found this beautiful picture of a '40s-era Lucy:

 

[Crimson]

I'll standby this: in the late 30s / early 40s, there were few actresses more beautiful than Lucille Ball. Really amazing that the studios didn't figure out what to do with her.

 

[ClassyCo]

I'll standby this: in the late 30s / early 40s, there were few actresses more beautiful than Lucille Ball. Really amazing that the studios didn't figure out what to do with her.

She was very beautiful, especially when photographed in Technicolor. Her features, and especially after she dyed her hair, were beautifully photographed some of those '40s-style MGM glossies. But she was truly wasted as an actress in film. She had such potential if only a mentor had taken her under their wing and polished her talents.

 

[Crimson]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1555988372027592705

 

[Crimson]

If only this had been the cast of a film: Lucy, Astaire and Harpo Marx.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1557520339005050881

 

[ClassyCo]

From the 1977 telefilm LUCY CALLS THE PRESIDENT:

 

[Crimson]

LUCY CALLS THE PRESIDENT isn't very good, but it's been called "the last hurrah!" for Lucy's career. If nothing else, it's the last time she worked with Vivian Vance, Mary Wickes and Mary Jane Croft.

 

[ClassyCo]

LUCY CALLS THE PRESIDENT isn't very good, but it's been called "the last hurrah!" for Lucy's career.

I can see how it would be considered such. It came after HERE'S LUCY -- which was still drawing solid Nielsen ratings when CBS allowed it to end in 1974 -- but came before the ill-fated LIFE WITH LUCY that died a quick death in 1986.

If nothing else, it's the last time she worked with Vivian Vance, Mary Wickes and Mary Jane Croft.

And for probably no other reason, I'd like to have this movie in my collection to see Lucy play with her old pals again.

 

[Chris2]

I liked “Yours Mine and Ours” and thought it was Lucy’s best role after doing TV. She was warm and appealing in that movie. And she looked very good, too, with her strawberry blonde hair (never understood that awful red clown wig on the later Lucy shows). I agree with the above poster that her Yours, Mine, and Ours role would have been a much better setup for a third sitcom that the loud, tired Here’s Lucy.

 

[ClassyCo]

. I agree with the above poster that her Yours, Mine, and Ours role would have been a much better setup for a third sitcom that the loud, tired Here’s Lucy.

THE BRADY BUNCH was right around the corner, basically serving up the same premise. While that may have influenced Lucy's decision (if there ever was a chance the movie would've been a show), I'd be more inclined to believe that she wanted to stay with her successful formula and keep Gale Gordon around as her foil.