DVD available at Amazon.com
Dance, Girl, Dance
Director:
Dorothy Arzner
Cast:
Maureen O’Hara….Judy O’Brien
Louis Hayward….Jaes “Jimmy” Harris Jr.
Lucille Ball….Bubbles/Tiger Lily White
Ralph Bellamy….Steve Adams
Virginia Field….Elinor Harris
Warner Home Video presents Dance, Girl, Dance. Screenplay by Frank Davis and Tess Slesinger. Running time: 90 minutes. Unrated. Theatrical release: August. 30, 1940.
The Big Street
Director:
Irving Reis
Cast:
Henry Fonda….Agustus “Little Pinks” Pinkerton II
Lucille Ball…Gloria Lyons
Agnes Moorehead….Violette Shumberg
Ray Collins….Professor B
Warner Home Home Video presents The Big Street. Screenplay by Leonard Spigelgass. Running time: 88 minutes. Unrated. Theatrical release: Sept 4, 1942.
Du Barry Was a Lady
Director:
Roy Del Ruth
Cast:
Red Skelton….Louis Blore/King Louis XV
Lucille Ball….May Daly/Madame Du Barry
Gene Kelly….Alec Howe/Black Arrow
Zero Mostel….Rami – the Swami/Taliostra
Warner Home Video presents Du Barry Was a Lady. Screenplay by Irving Brecher. Running time: 101 minutes. Unrated. Theatrical release: August 13, 1943.
Critic’s Choice
Director:
Don Weis
Cast:
Bob Hope….Parker Ballantine
Lucille Ball….Angela Ballantine
Marilyn Maxwell….Ivy London
Rip Torn….Dion Kapakos
Jim Backus….Dr. William Von Hagedorn
Warner Home Video presents Critic’s Choice. Screenplay by Jack Sher. Running time: 100 minutes. Unrated. Theatrical release: April 13, 1963.
Mame
Director:
Gene Saks
Cast:
Lucille Ball….Mame Dennis
Beatrice Arthur….Vera Charles
Robert Preston….Beauregard Jackson Pickett Burnside
Bruce Davison….The Older Partrick
Joyce Van Patten….Sally Cato
Warner Home Video presents Mame. Screenplay by Paul Zindel. Running time: 132 minutes. Rated PG. Theatrical release: March 27, 1974.
Warner Home Video presents Lucille Ball Film Collection. Five movies on 5 DVDs. DVD release: June 19, 2007.
The Movies
While people loved Lucy when she dominated the early years of television, her movie career didn’t quite make her a cinematic icon. Her first memorable role on the silver screen was with the Three Stooges in “Three Little Pigskins.” This boxset gives us a good view of Lucille Ball’s theatrical career before and after her success on the small screen.
Dance Girl, Dance has Lucy playing a mean character. She’s a dancer who hires Maureen O’Hara to be a stooge in her burlesque act. Don’t be fooled by the description of Lucy as “a hard-boiled stripper.” She doesn’t get too bare for the cameras. She gets down to a hula skirt and bra. The quite a few hot chorus line numbers as Lucy flirts with the crowd. Contrary to what we were shown on I Love Lucy, she really could dance. Why didn’t Ricky have her booked in the club? The movie deals with Maureen’s jealousy that she can’t be serious in her dancing.
The Big Street has Lucy team up with Henry Fonda. Lucy is a nightclub performer with a golddigger attitude. Fonda is a busboy with a major crush on her. She doesn’t date down the foodchain. She likes men with fat wallets. Things go bad when she tries to upgrade on her high roller boyfriends. The dumped lover pushes her down the stairs. She’s crippled. While everyone forgts her, Fonda takes care of her medical bills and needs. She still uses and abuses him. Will she ever come around and realize he’s her only hope for true love?
Du Barry Was A Lady is not just a musical about the French aristocracy. This is a musical revue based around a nightclub and the various performers including Lucy as a singing and dancing sensation. The last third of the film is a dream sequence that involves the time of Louis XV. Lucy looks extra sizzling as her red hair burns through the Technicolor celluloid. Once again she proves that Ricky screwed up by not making her a featured act in his club. Red Skelton is a coat check guy who wins $150,000. He uses the money to secure the heart of Lucy. While she really loves Gene Kelly, her heart beats with a cha-ching. When Skelton drinks down a Mickey Finn, he does the best impersonation of Curly convulsing. The Paris dream sequence hasn’t the burden of a historical advisor. In Faux France, Skelton dreams of being Louis XV, Lucy assumes the role of Du Barry and Gene Kelly transforms into the dashing Black Arrow. Tommy Dorsey and his Orchestra look great in powdered wigs. This is a light entertainment that rises with the musical numbers.
Critic’s Choice is as hammy as a teaming of Bob Hope and Lucy as a married couple would suggest. He’s a theater critic who prides himself on being a savage to weak productions. She writes her own play and amazingly enough it gets produced on Broadway. Hope is extra critical throughout her creative process. He hates it on the page and writes a nasty review when it opens.While he gives her tough love, Lucy finds attention from the leading man (Rip Torn). The laughs are pretty cheesy and corny. Hope and Ball’s lines are on par with the material they’d slog through on their NBC specials. What newspaper allows a critic to review a spouse’s production? Ham, corn and cheese makes this movie barely filling meal.
Mame features the stellar duo of Lucy and Bea Arthur in a musical take on Auntie Mame. Lucy has the title role that was established by Rosalind Russell in the original film. Patrick is an orphan whose only living relative is his Auntie Mame. She’s a whirlwind of a socialite who has stashed away her earnings as an actress in the stock market. She barely knows anything about raising children, but she’s still able to teach him a lesson or two. Unfortunately her lavish ways have to take a hiatus when the stockmarket collapses. She struggles to make ends meet and maintain her fabulous lifestyle. No matter how tight the money gets, she’s still got a song for Peter. Lucy’s singing and dancing isn’t quite up to the levels of a Broadway pro (Angela Landsbury had played the role on Broadway), but her performance comes off as more sincere or at least is categorized as hardcore kitsch. This was Lucy’s final theatrical release and a fitting farewell role. She was America’s crazy redheaded relative. Shame she didn’t make this thirty years earlier when she had the pipes and stems for such a role.
For fans of I Love Lucy, this boxset is a perfect gift. They’ll be more forgiving of Critic’s Choice and Mame. The three early movies are the true worth of this collection. Lucille Ball shows that she was more than just the woman who got into trouble once a week. It’s refreshing to see Lucy as a young golddigger in the first three films. She could rip a man’s heart out and not merely make him want to pull his hair out. There was more to this woman that just being a goofy housewife.
The DVD
VIDEO:
Dance, Girl, Dance, The Big Street, and Du Barry Was a Lady are 1.33:1 full frame. Critic’s Choice and Mame are 2.35:1 anamorphic transfers. The transfers are good. As mentioned earlier, the Technicolor on Du Barry perfectly captures Lucy’s red hair.
AUDIO:
The soundtrack is Dolby Digital Mono. You won’t have to reach for the volume since Lucy doesn’t break into her trademark whine from “I Love Lucy.”
EXTRAS:
Calling All Tars (17:49) is a live action comedy starring Bob Hope from 1935. It’s fleet week in Manhattan. Citizen Bob fears that he won’t have a chance with the ladies as long as the sailors roam the Big Apple. Bob decides the best way to keep from striking out with the ladies is to rent a couple sailor costumes. The slapstick pounds the screen.
Now Hear This (6:35) is Chuck Jones and Maurice Noble having extreme fun with sound. This is not your normal Looney Tunes insanity. It was nominated for an Oscar in 1963.
Critic’s Choice Theatrical Trailer (3:21) plays up the aspect that this is a crime film. The narrator claims Hope and Lucy stole scenes on the set. The duo directly addresses the audience to pitch the movie. Bob even brings his baseball mitt.
“Malibu Beach Party (8:02) has Jack Bunny hosting a swank party. The invitation has a coupon. This rarely gets played on TV because of Rochester’s character.
Just a Cute Kidd (19:56) is a short with Cliff Edwards and Dana Dale from 1940. A guy owes a loan shark for cash used on an engagement ring. He makes a worse deal to pay it off involving a mad scientist.
Calling All Girls (19:08) opens up with the famous neon of vintage Hollywood. This is a tour of a motion picture studio. Who knew it was this tough to cast a musical filled with actresses? They do ignore the casting director’s couch.
The Hep Cat (6:14) is a Merrie Melodies cartoon from Bob Clampett. It’s a jazzy cat and dog chase flick. This was the first color cartoon from Termite Terrace.
Seeing Hands (10:39) is a “Pete Smith Specialty” about a kid who loses his sight in a baseball accident. He ends up making parts for airplanes.
Bah Wilderness (7:16) is a Barney Bear cartoon. Does a camping bear worry about a building latrine in the woods?
Du Barry was a Lady Theatrical Trailer (2:10) advertises this as the “Greatest Show since Great Ziefeld.
Lucky Mame (8:44) is a marathon promotional trailer pushing Lucy as Mame. Who can resist being teased with Bea Arthur shaking her groove thing?
Mame Theatrical Trailer (3:30) another long trailer.
