Lucy
Cats: Comedy|Turner Classic Movies is showing two Lucille Ball pictures back to back that are very much worth recording and keeping. The genesis of Lucy Ricardo is in both these pictures. Both pictures are perfect for the kids as well.
In Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949), a bookie by the name of Dick Richmond (William Holden) uses a phony real estate business as a front for his betting parlor. To further keep up the sham, he hires a recently thrown out of secretary school Ellen Grant (Lucille Ball) as his secretary. Dick assumes that since Ellen is so scatterbrained, she won’t suspect any criminal goings-on. When Ellen learns of some friends who are about to lose their homes, she unwittingly drafts her boss into developing a new low-cost housing development, much to Richmond’s chagrin. However, Grant and Richmond save the day (and in the process Richmond from legal difficulties), all is well and maybe a romance flourishes.
Ellen was a role originally written for Rita Hayworth. Ms Hayworth wanted to many changes to the script and went on suspension to avoid making this picture. After all, William Holden was not as much of a draw until the following year when he starred in Sunset Boulevard. The script was written by Nat perrin aand Frank Tashlin. Mr. Perrin wrote for the Marx Brothers. Mr. Tashlin wrote for and directed both Jerry Lewis and Bugs Bunny. Who else better to write for Lucy than these two?
In The Fuller Brush Girl(1950)Sally Elliot (Lucille Ball)and her fiance Humphrey Briggs (Eddie Albert) are saving up to get married and but a house. Humphrey is having some difficulty with finding employment. So the slightly scatterbrained Sally Elliott gets a job as a Fuller brush girl and, as expected, her attempts at selling cosmetics door-to-door are disastrous. Things get worse when one of her customers is murdered and she becomes the prime suspect. She and poor Humphrey find themselves dodging the police while trying to catch the real killer.
This picture was a sequel to the aptly named Fuller Brush Man starring Red Skelton. The script was written by Frank Tashlin.
Both of these pictures were directed by Lloyd Bacon. Mr. Bacon was known for directing such pictures as 42nd Street and Knute Rockne All American. Mr. Bacon worked with almost every big Warner Brother star. He directed way over 100 pictures, starting with silent shorts in 1914. The brothers Warner respected his work as he was always on time and under budget. Mr. Bacon’s career amounts to that of an incredibly competent director who at times did brilliant things with the material handed to him in assembly line fashion.
