Mill Creek Entertainment displays the same talent behind the Best of '17 (reviewed) black-and-white and (also reviewed) color editions of "Watch Around the Clock, which offer 24 hours of films and movies with vintage ads, in releasing "Hollywood Profiles: The Lucille Ball Collection." This February 6, 2018 2-disc DVD and Digital consists of 4 Ball films, 10 episodes of "The Lucy Show," the documentary "Hollywood Legends: Lucille Ball," and 9 commercials with Ball and real and reel husband Desi Arnaz.
The movie marathon begins with the 1947 film "Her Husband's Affairs" can claim bragging rights alongside the radio and television versions of "My Favorite Husband" regarding inspiring "I Love Lucy." Margaret (Ball) and William Weldon (Franchot Tone) are a married Madcouple at an advertising agency.
The hilarity this time ensues when the increasingly catastrophic results of the experiments of a mad scientist endanger the finances (and physical freedom) of the Weldons. Margaret using her wits to extricate William from the crisis of the hour exasperates him to the point that he adamantly essentially orders "Jeannie; I insist on doing this myself." All this culminates in the type of comically chaotic courtroom scene that makes many screwball comedies memorable.
Next up is the better known "Miss Grant Takes Richmond" from 1949 by film and television comedy legend Nat Perrin. Ball stars as new barely graduated secretarial school graduate Ellen Grant, and William Holden is bookie Dick Richmond. The comic premise is that Richmond hires Grant to be the pretty face and the empty head in the reception area of the real estate office that literally and figuratively provides a front for his gambling business.
The Capra/Sturges element of "Grant" is that our favorite redhead naively gets Richmond to undertake a new low-cost housing development in which a large percentage of the community invests all their money so they can achieve the American dream of home ownership.
Ball finds herself on the other side of the real estate desk in the also well-known 1950 comedy "The Fuller Brush Girl," which includes one of the best ever film cameos. Steamship company receptionist Sally Elliot (Ball) is engaged to co-worker Humphrey Briggs (Eddie Albert) and faces losing the tract starter house of her dreams.
A series of hilariously unfortunate circumstances leads to to Elliot plying the titular door-to-door trade without the formality of the Fuller Brush Company granting her permission to do so. Her subsequent effort to help the career of Briggs ends up with both of them being dupes in related schemes.
Ultimately, Elliot and Briggs find themselves on the run from both the law and gangsters.
Mill Creek goes for a significant change-of-pace regarding the fourth film in this quartet. The 1951 Arabian Nights style action-adventure drama "The Magic Carpet" is the only color film in the group; this kiddie matinee production also is the least comical in the group.
Ball plays the sister of a Mid-East Caliph, who obtains his seat on the throne by killing the rightful leader of the country just as that legitimate leader is passing the torch to his infant son. The action picks up roughly 30 years later at a time that the evil Caliph is overtaxing his subjects and ruling with an iron fist.
A Scarlet Pimpernel/Zorro/Robin Hood masked hero arrives on the scene to provide the populace relief and to generally hinder the activities of the Caliph. This do-gooder successfully adopting a guise that allows him to disrupt from within leads to the Ball character becoming enamored with him.
The climax this time is a series of heroic feats that lead to our hero riding off into the sunset with the girl.
The documentary intersperses a surprisingly comprehensive summary of the entire life of Ball interspersed with classic scenes from "The Lucy Show."
The commercials with Desi are for Phillip Morris cigarettes, Ford cars, and for Westinghouse appliances. The most entertaining commercial has Lucy and Desi bickering about the ease of putting up a convertible top; the most insightful one is a Westinghouse ad that adds context to the hour-long special episodes that come after the regular run of "I Love Lucy."
Most of the "Lucy Show" episodes center around the tried-and-true concept of Lucy getting star-struck on meeting a celebrity. Her misadventures include becoming the comedy partner of George Burns, disrupting bank client John Wayne while he is filming a Western, and the particularly hilarious efforts of Lucy to get notorious cheapskate Jack Benny to open a bank account.
The fact that there is not a dud in this large dose o' Lucy is a nice reminder of her talent and beauty and that humor does not require either foul language or even any suggestion of sex. This further suggests that an inverse relationship exists between the extent to which a performer must rely on shock value and the talent of that individual.
Anyone with questions or comments regarding "Ball" is encouraged either to email me or to connect on Twitter via @tvdvdguy.
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