HOLIDAY IN HAVANA

Mary Hatcher, Desi Arnaz

HOLIDAY IN HAVANA (1949). Director: Jean Yarbrough.

Bus boy turned bandleader Carlos Estrada (Desi Arnaz of Cuban Pete) wants to sign up singer Lolita Valdez (Mary Hatcher) to be a vocalist with his group. Talking to what he thinks is Lolita through a hotel room door, Carlos is highly insulted by the gal's termagant mother, Mama Valdez (Minerva Urecal of That Other Woman). Hating Lolita for "her" remarks, Carlos attempts to find a new singer with which to enter a competition at a carnival in Havana. Through a sequence of events, Lolita winds up accompanying Carlos and his band to Havana, but he thinks she is a woman named "Delores." Meanwhile two opposing agents, Marge (Ann Doran of Violent Road) and Sam (Ray Walker), are both anxious to sign Lolita to a contract that will bring her to New York. 

Ray Walker, Minerva Urecal, Ann Doran

I asked myself while watching "why is Holiday in Havana so dull?" Desi Arnaz is charming and talented -- I was never crazy about his voice but he does know how to put over a song -- as is his leading lady, Mary Hatcher, and there is fine back up from Urecal, Doran, and Steven Geray and Sig Arno as members of the band. There are also some snappy song numbers -- Hatcher scores with the lovely "I'll Take Romance" while Desi does "The Straw Hat Song" (which he reprised on Lucy) and that exciting bongo-rhumba finale. But then there's everything in-between, silly situations with no real laughs even though the cast is more than game. The movie runs a little over an hour but it seems three times as long. Mercifully, Arnaz found gainful employment, and showcased his considerable talent, on I Love Lucy two years later. Despite her ability, Mary Hatcher's film career -- after only a handful of credits -- was over that same year. Hatcher had a beautiful near-operatic voice and did some Broadway musical productions in addition to film assignments. 

Verdict: Desi has energy to spare but he needs a better script. **1/2. 

FOREVER DARLING

Desi Arnaz, James Mason, Lucille Ball

FOREVER DARLING (1956). Director: Alexander Hall. 

Lorenzo or Larry Vega (Desi Arnaz), a chemist working on a new bug killer, is married to Susan (Lucille Ball), who is much influenced by her snobbish cousin, Millie (Natalie Schafer of Female on the Beach), whom Larry can't stand. Larry also feels that he and his wife are drifting apart after several years of marriage. He is hoping to rekindle things by taking her with him on a work-related trip, an idea that doesn't sit well with Susan. Then who should appear in her bedroom one night but James Mason (James Mason), who is actually Susan's guardian angel wearing the face of someone she admires. "James" gives Susan some sage advice, and convinces her to go off on a short trip with Larry so he can test his new insecticide, but things may not go exactly as planned ...  

Arnaz and Lucy

Made at the height of the popularity of I Love Lucy, the main strength of Forever Darling is its cast. Not exactly playing the Ricardos, Arnaz and Ball are as wonderful as ever, James Mason -- who probably wondered how he ever wound up in this film -- is classy and excellent, and the ever-adept Louis Calhern [The Asphalt Jungle] nearly steals the movie -- no easy feat -- as Susan's highly amusing father. Then we've also got Natalie Schafer, Nancy Kulp as the maid, John Hoyt and Willis Bouchey as Larry's associates, Mabel Albertson in a brief turn as a reporter, and John Emery in a very funny bit as a psychiatrist who tries to explain to Susan why she's seeing strange men in her bedroom. 

Forever Darling, alas, is not as good as the other film the Desi-Lucy combo did, the very funny The Long, Long Trailer, but it has its moments. What starts out almost as a somewhat sophisticated drawing room comedy turns into an episode of I Love Lucy as the couple have misadventures while camping, with their plastic boat springing a leak and so forth. It was probably decided that that was what the couple's fans wanted, but it makes the flick a bit lopsided. Nothing much really happens with the whole "guardian angel" idea, making the movie -- but for the delightful performances and a few laughs -- almost seem pointless. Still, it's Lucy! The theme song by composer Bronislau Kaper is pleasant, sung by the Ames brothers over the credits and by Desi late in the picture. He also sang the tune on an episode of Lucy. Marilyn Maxwell appears in a move-within-a-movie sequence with Mason. 

Verdict: Has a certain degree of charm and amusing performances, but the script -- an old one dusted off for Lucy and Desi -- could have used some work. **3/4. 

CUBAN PETE

Beverly Simmons and Desi Arnaz

CUBAN PETE (1946). Director: Jean Yarbrough. 

Society woman Mrs. Lindsay (Jacqueline deWit of The Damned Don't Cry), who fancies that she has a voice, wants to hire Desi Arnaz (playing himself) and his band for her radio show. Desi is caring for his little orphaned niece, Brownie (Beverly Simmons), in Cuba and has no desire to go to New York. Ad man Roberts (Don Porter of Youngblood Hawke) has his associate, Ann (Joan Shawlee), fly to Havana to importune Desi to return with her. With the help of his niece, Ann eventually gets her objective, only to learn that Mrs. Lindsay, who has a terrible voice, intends to sing on the radio with his band! Can Ann convince Desi not to return to Cuba on the first plane, and can they prevent Mrs. Lindsay from ever opening her mouth?

Don Porter and Ann Shawlee

Cuban Pete is strictly a showcase for Desi Arnaz, who is spirited and charming in the film, demonstrating that he had ability and charisma long before I Love Lucy. He does a fine rendition of the title tune (which he also sang on Lucy) and a couple of other numbers. Desi has a girl group called the King Sisters, one of whom, Consuela, sets her cap for Roberts. Brownie has a talking parrot which, in an unfunny sequence, causes foolish havoc in a doctor's office. With its weak script, Cuban Pete did nothing to establish Arnaz as a film star. Shawlee had a wide variety of credits as did Porter; both did much TV work later in their careers. Pianist Ethel Smith, playing herself, does a nifty number on the organ. From Universal Pictures. 

Verdict: A likable energetic Desi is about all that saves this. **1/4. 

GREAT OLD EPISODE: THE OPERETTA -- I LOVE LUCY

"I am the queen of the gypsies..."

I LOVE LUCY: "The Operetta." Season Two. 1952.

SQUIRE/FRED MERTZ: "There's lots of ale and stout upon the shelf.
  And I take a drop or two myself"

PEASANTS: "A drop, he says! The squire's got the gout.
The stout makes him ail, and the ale makes him stout."

Needing to quickly replenish the treasury of the Ladies Wednesday Fine Arts League (or whatever the heck it's called), Lucy decides to write and put on an operetta entitled "The Pleasant Peasant." Since Ethel can sing much better than Lucy, she is given the lead role of Lily, while Lucy has to be content with Camille, "the snaggle-toothed old queen of the gypsies." To drown out Lucy's awful singing, the cast has been instructed to join in every time she opens her mouth. The costumes and scenery have been rented, everything's going well on opening night, but as always when Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball) is in charge, things don't go quite as expected ...

Asked who wrote the songs, Lucy replies "Did you ever hear of Victor Herbert?" Of course, Lucy wrote the songs herself. When I first saw this in reruns as a child, I thought the rather tuneful music really was composed by Victor Herbert -- it's in his melodious style --  but I've never been able to determine who really did the music. [I Love Lucy has credited composers such as Eliot Daniel and Wilbur Hatch but they did general music for many episodes.] In any case, all of the songs are surprisingly memorable, including Ethel/Vivian Vance's delightfully-performed number "Lily of the Valley" ["when other girls go walking on their arm they've got a swell beau; whenever I go walking on my arm is just my elbow"], Ricky's love song to Lily, the drinking song, the Squire/Fred's number, and so on. I assume the clever and amusing lyrics were written by the Lucy writing team, Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Davis and Bob Carroll, Jr. The episode was directed by Marc Daniels.

Ball, Vance, Desi Arnaz, and William Frawley are all in top form, aided and abetted by Myra Marsh as the club president and the other ladies, especially the woman who interrupts the performance to sing to Lucy about a bounced check, and whose identity I can't determine [she isn't listed on imdb nor even on the I Love Lucy DVD], although I have definitely seen her elsewhere, possibly other Lucy episodes.

UPDATE: Aside from the first number in the operetta, the songs were all composed by Eliot Daniel, who also composed the show's theme song.

Verdict: Classic comedy. ****.

DESILU: THE STORY OF LUCILLE BALL AND DESI ARNAZ

DESILU: THE STORY OF LUCILLE BALL AND DESI ARNAZ. Coyne Steven Sanders and Tom Gilbert. New and Expanded Edition. Itbooks; 2011.

This isn't just the story of I Love Lucy, but of the marriage [and eventual divorce] of Ball and Arnaz, their Desilu empire and its successes [Star Trek] and failures [Guestward Ho], Lucy's subsequent TV shows after Lucy went off the air, and the often unsavory private lives of both individuals. Desi's business sense was often compromised by his heavy drinking, and after awhile he was incapable of helming Desilu. Ball could be kind to friends and associates, but on other occasions she could be a real monster. [According to this she had guest star Joan Crawford in tears!] Bolstered by many interviews, including with daughter Lucie Arnaz, this goes behind the scenes of The Lucy Show, Here's Lucy, and Ball's last attempt at a TV show, Life with Lucy, with comments from the cast. The book also looks into her marriage with second husband Gary Morton. You'll find lots of info on William Frawley and Vivian Vance as well.

Verdict: An inside, page-turning look at television's most famous and influential couple. ***1/2. 

THE LONG, LONG TRAILER

The trailer makes its ascent into the mountains!

THE LONG, LONG TRAILER (1953). Director: Vincente Minelli.

"Most new marriages break up within three years. Include a trailer, it's the speed-up plan." 

Tacy and Nicky Collini (Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz) buy a very big trailer and travel across the country in it having one amusing misadventure after another. Lucy and Desi may only be playing variations of Lucy and Ricky, but both are in top form. Keenan Wynn makes an impression as a traffic cop even if he only has one line of dialogue, and Marjorie Main and Madge Blake are swell as, respectively, a trailer park neighbor and Tacy's Aunt Anastasia. This is an amiable and very funny movie [although some might feel the bit with "poor Grace" (Connie Van), who is obviously "mental," is a bit tasteless] that also has some beautiful photography and scenery. The best scenes are the visit to Aunt Anastasia and the wonderful climax, wherein the Collinis try to negotiate their huge trailer over a steep and hazardous mountain road with Nicky unaware that the two-ton monster he's pulling is full of souvenir rocks -- this scene is both scary and hilarious!

Verdict:  Quite delightful. ***.