The Long, Long Trailer **** (1954, Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Marjorie Main, Keenan Wynn, Moroni Olsen) – Classic Movie Review 5,929

The 1954 road movie comedy film The Long, Long Trailer is a sprightly, nimble vehicle for the real-life married pair Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, who star as a couple who buy an all-too-expensive trailer-home to go on their honeymoon.

Director Vincente Minnelli’s 1954 road movie comedy film The Long, Long Trailer is a sprightly, nimble vehicle for the I Love Lucy real-life married pair Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, who star as a couple who make the mistake of purchasing an all-too-expensive trailer-home to go on their honeymoon.

Based on a bestselling book by Clinton Twiss by screen-writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, it is mostly very frothy and very amusing.

Lucy and Desi delight throughout as Tacy and Nicky, and, when the featherweight script occasionally stalls, the reliable, talented funny co-stars Marjorie Main, Keenan Wynn and Moroni Olsen help it out enormously.

And it is all kept purring along nicely by unexpected director Minnelli, who turns it into a deserved cinema hit for TV’s I Love Lucy stars. Robert Surtees shoots in enticing Anscocolor to attract the TV audiences away from their black and white sets.

Also in the cast are Gladys Hurlbut, Bert Freed, Madge Blake, Walter Baldwin, Emory Parnell, Oliver Blake, and Perry Sheehan.

The Long, Long Trailer is made by MGM who ironically had dumped Ball as a contract player back in 1946. It was a huge hit, resulting in a profit of $3,550,000, so MGM worked again with Lucy and Desi on Forever, Darling (1956).

Arnaz made a $25,000 bet with MGM that the movie would make more money than Father of the Bride (1950), the highest-grossing comedy at that time, and won. It cost $1.5 million, and earned $3,978,000 in North America and $1,007,000 elsewhere, resulting in that huge profit of $3,550,000.

The trailer is the 1953 36-ft Redman New Moon, which then cost $5,345, and the car used to tow it is a 1953 Mercury Monterey convertible.

Opening scenes were shot on MGM’s Stage 12, where Arnaz played his first film scene in 1943’s Bataan, 11 years earlier.

The cast are Lucille Ball as Tacy Bolton-Collini, Desi Arnaz as Nicholas Carlos ‘Nicky’ Collini, Marjorie Main as Mrs. Hittaway, Keenan Wynn as Policeman, Gladys Hurlbut as Mrs. Bolton, Moroni Olsen as Mr. Tewitt, Bert Freed as Foreman, Madge Blake as Aunt Anastacia, Walter Baldwin as Uncle Edgar, Emory Parnell as a policeman, Oliver Blake, and Perry Sheehan.

© Derek Winnert 2017 Classic Movie Review 5,929

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