Her Husband’s Affairs is a comedy starring Lucille Ball as Margaret Weldon, a wife who is constantly trying to help her husband, ad man William Weldon (played by Franchot Tone) — who doesn’t want the help. This leads to significant friction between the couple nearly leading to divorce.
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Follow the Fleet, a musical romantic comedy starring Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Randolph Scott, Harriet Hilliard
Read More »Follow the Fleet
Twelve people are aboard Coast Air Line’s flagship the Silver Queen. They’re en route to South America when the airplane encounters a storm and is blown off course. The plane crashes into headhunter-inhabited jungles. Pilots Bill Brooks (Chester Morris) and Joe (Kent Taylor) race against time to fix the engines and attempt a take-off. The situation brings out the best and worst in the stranded dozen as they create a makeshift runway and prepare to escape before the natives attack. But due to damage to the plane and low fuel reserves, only 5 people can be carried to safety.
Read More »Five Came Back
Bob Hope is up to his classic shenanigans in Fancy Pants, a loose remake of the comedy favorite Ruggles of Red Gap. Hope plays Humphrey, an American actor playing a British butler in a hokey play in London. When a fortune-hunter hires the cast to help him woo a wealthy American girl (Lucille Ball, playing her character like a female John Wayne), the girl’s domineering mother takes a shine to Humphrey and hires him to be their butler back in New Mexico.
But when they arrive out West, the townsfolk believe that Humphrey is British nobility, and even Teddy Roosevelt drops by for a visit. Despite their different comic styles, Hope and Ball have an oddball chemistry together; throw in some musical numbers, physical slapstick, and a shaggy dachshund, and the results will please any Hope fan. (There are, however, some unfortunate racial stereotypes.) —Bret Fetzer
Read More »Fancy Pants (1950) starring Lucille Ball and Bob Hope
Dance, Girl, Dance is the story of hard-working ballet dancer Judy O’Brien (Maureen O’Hara). She and her street-wise gal-pal Bubbles (Lucille Ball) work as members of a small-time dance troupe operated by Madame Basilova (Maria Ouspenskaya). The story begins with their dance troupe performing in a seedy nightclub in Akron, Ohio. A rich young man named Jimmy Harris (Louis Hayward) is there drowning his sorrows — his marriage is falling apart. No sooner do the dancers finish their number when the place is raided by the police for illegal gambling. Jimmy makes eyes at Judy — which irritates Bubbles, since she’s always the first to get a man’s attention. Since Judy reminds him of his wife, however, he goes off with Bubbles. This leaves Judy behind to focus on her true love – ballet dancing.
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Critic’s Choice – 1963 comedy pairing Lucille Ball and Bob Hope. Ball is a young playwright while Hope is her husband – and a drama critic.
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Music and Lyrics by Chet Forrest and Bob Wright, sung by Lucille Ball in the Bailey Brothers Burlesque Theater
I am not a goody-goody,
Just a baby in the woody
Love has got me worried and perplexed
Gosh oh gee, I want my momma
Goodness me, I need my momma
Maybe she could tell me what comes next.
You’re my best girl and nothing you do is wrong,
I’m proud you belong to me;
And if a day is rough for me,
Having you there’s enough for me.
But if someday another girl comes along,
It won’t take her long to see,
That I’ll still be found, just hanging around
My best girl.
Where’s that boy with the bugle?
My little love was always my big romance;
Where’s that boy with the bugle?
And why did I ever buy him those damn long pants?
Did he need a stronger hand?
Did he need a lighter touch?
Was I soft or was I tough?
Did I give enough?
Did I give too much?Read More »If He Walked Into My Life
Mame: Light the candles,
Get the ice out,
Roll the rug up,
It’s today.
Though it may not be anyone’s birthday,
And though it’s far from the first of the year,
I know that this very minute has history in it, we’re here!