PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND

Owen Orr, Dorothy Green, Stephanie Powers, Troy Donahue

PALM SPRINGS WEEKEND  (1963). Director: Norman Taurog. 

The members of a college basketball team hightail it by bus to Palm Springs for Easter vacation, unaware that their dyspeptic Coach Campbell (Jack Weston) is along for the ride. A gaggle of gals are also on vacation and before you can say "Where the Boys Are" -- an earlier film that clearly was the inspiration for this one -- the sexes are intertwining in both comedic and light dramatic fashion. Naturally some of these young couples will think they're in love -- after a weekend!

Eric (Conrad) and Jim (Donahue) speak frankly

Of the lead "youngsters" -- none of whom are that young -- Robert Conrad (of The Wild, Wild West) offers the best performance as spoiled rich kid Eric Dean, a Palm Springs resident whose neglectful unseen daddy is off on one of his frequent honeymoons. Eric sets his sights on perky Gayle Lewis (Connie Stevens) who claims to be from Hawaii even though she isn't. She gets caught between Eric and hunky Texan and Hollywood stuntman "Stretch" (Ty Hardin of Wall of Noise). Meanwhile nice boy Jim Munroe (Troy Donahue) is smitten with record shop clerk Bunny Dixon (Stephanie Powers), who is the daughter of the Chief of Police (Andrew Duggan). Biff Roberts, played by typical college student Jerry Van Dyke, is at first put off by the tomboyish Amanda (Zeme North), but once Gayle helps her with her make up ... ! 

Jerry Van Dyke, Zeme North, Troy Donahue

The comedy has to do with such things as the pool turning into a bubble bath due to the accidental introduction of detergent, as well as the antics of Boom Boom (Billy Mumy of Twilight Zone's "It's a Good Life"), the adorable little monster who belongs to the hotel's proprietor, Naomi Yates (a spirited Carole Cook). The dramatic scenes have to do with a fight sequence when some lowlifes invade a party, and Eric taking after Stretch in his car and causing an accident after the latter has prevented Eric from sexually assaulting Gayle. 

In love after two days: Stephanie Powers with Donahue

Troy Donahue had to make this picture whether he wanted to or not, and was so zonked on drugs and alcohol during filming that it's a wonder he gives any kind of performance, although he gets by. In some shots you can already see the effect this is having on his looks, a certain puffiness, although the attractive sensitivity of his features is unaffected. Zeme North had appeared on Broadway in Take Me Along but had limited film and TV credits, retiring in the late sixties, which is too bad as she's quite appealing in this picture. As usual, little Billy Mumy nearly steals the movie. A small role is played by Owen Orr, AKA Greg Benedict, who was Donahue's college roommate and best friend. 

Verdict: Amiable if forgettable teen movie with hardly any teenagers in sight! **1/2. 

THE LUCY SHOW Season 3

Ball and Vance with bird

THE LUCY SHOW Season 3. 1964. CBS.

"Her hair's dyed -- and her brain isn't too long for this world, either."

After I Love Lucy wrapped up and Lucy divorced Desi -- the two remained involved with Desilu Studios -- Ball importuned Vivian Vance, who only wanted to stay on the east coast with her husband, to co-star with her in a new vehicle. Supposedly based on a book called "Life Without George," The Lucy Show basically had Lucy (now the widowed Lucy Carmichael with two children) and Ethel (reborn as the divorced Vivian Bagley with one son) sharing a house and expenses and a lot of misadventures. The network kept wooing Lucy and Lucy kept wooing Vance, so she returned for a third season of silly episodes. Vance did not appear in every episode -- one condition for her doing the show -- so she was occasionally replaced by special guest-stars, including Ann Sothern, who isn't bad as a widowed countess who returns to the town where she was born. However, the episodes with Ball and Vance are generally the most memorable. Arguably the best third season episode has Lucy and Viv vying for Charles Drake as Lucy shows up at a dance on roller skates, ensuring pandemonium. Other reasonably good shows have Jack Benny playing a plumber, Lucy and Viv acting as camp cooks, and a wacky trip to Las Vegas. Lucy loses a contact lens in chocolate icing but doesn't know which cake, and she accidentally sucks a rare valuable stamp into a vacuum cleaner she's trying to sell. And so on.

Lucy and Viv can still be very funny,-- and occasionally overbearing, especially the former --  but the scripts weren't always up to their standards. Gale Gordon makes an excellent foil as irritable banker Mr. Mooney; he's especially good in a sequence wherein he tries to teach Lucy how to ski. The episode where Lucy tries to get tickets to a Danny Kaye performance is fairly wretched, as are the episodes where she becomes a traffic and undercover cop. Guest-stars and supporting players include a very funny Harvey Korman, Reta Shaw, Byron Foulger, Keith Andes, John Williams, Kathleen Freeman, Jim Davis, Carole Cook, Nestor Paiva, Mabel Albertson, Jack Kelly, Steven Geray and Norma Varden. The children haven't got much to do but they are appealing and do it well.

Verdict: No I Love Lucy, but a certain amount of laughs and clever comic antics. **1/2.