The Affairs of Annabel

Back when Lucille Ball was a contract player at RKO she got to co- star with Jack Oakie in a pair of films where she was cast as Annabel Allison motion picture queen on the lot at Wonder Pictures. Oakie played her press agent who was constantly coming up with Lucy Ricardo like schemes to keep his client before the public eye. And she's feeling as put upon as Ricky Ricardo used to.

Oakie who plays the part much like Pat O'Brien would do at Warner Brothers or Lee Tracy at MGM has a mind that works 24/7. His latest scheme is to have Lucy go to a home and work as a maid incognito as part of a scheme to publicize her latest picture where she is a kind of Ms. Fixit maid.

She gets a chance to be a real heroine when a couple of robbers feign interest in eccentric Uncle Thurston Hall's invention. It's all I can say, but it's all done with typical slapstick like gags. This was an unusual part for Hall, usually he's the respectable establishment type poo-pooing ideas like he has in this film.

James Burke also memorable as a thick as a brick policeman.

I don't think Ball and Oakie had all that much chemistry between them. They did one more film with these same characters and RKO called it quits on a series. Still the film will have its moments for fans of the two leads.

Considering that Lucille Ball and Jack Oakie were friends as well as neighbors in California, who made four movies together, and that both were highly regarded comic actors, you'd think that the two of them would make a great on-screen comedy team, right?

Nope.

Not in "The Affairs of Annabel," an okay but not particularly compelling short comedy. The writing is unexceptional, there are no memorable lines from the script, the plot is not even remotely realistic, and I have no idea how the Ball/Oakie relationship was intended to develop. I think the plot was supposed to build, so that Oakie slowly falls in love with his attractive young meal ticket, but that never really went anywhere. The production was no great accomplishment, either, with some fairly obvious cuts between Ball and her stunt woman during some of the martial arts scenes.

But the acting prevents this film from being a complete dud. Most of the cast are experienced comic actors who squeeze what they can out of the material they're given. And the movie was popular enough that it spawned a sequel, and apparently there were supposed to be more, except that Oakie held out for too much money and killed the deal, which is probably for the best. So what the heck? It's only an hour, so what do you have to lose? Have a glass of wine and enjoy a little early Lucille Ball. The movie will probably be over before you've finished your second glass.

Annabel Allison (Lucille Ball) is a movie star but her life is made a lot more difficult by her dopey studio publicity man, Lanny Morgan (Jack Oakie). Lanny always seems to have some sort of stunt and they often seem to backfire. At the beginning of the film, he gets her to go to prison for just a few days as a publicity stunt...and then she can't get out and is stuck there for a month. Later, as another stunt, he gets her a job as a maid...and America's #1 and 2 most wanted criminals take everyone in the house hostage! Will Annabel's troubles ever end?

Lucille Ball was very good in this film--and it's one of her better parts from the era. As far as Jack Oakie goes, sometimes his character was just a bit too much--too much of a jerk and he occasionally mugged a bit too much. Still, despite this, it's a fun little comedy...enjoyable and a bit silly.

It's easy to see why one viewer would love this movie and another couldn't stand it. I have had both reactions the two times I saw it.

Boy, I loved this the first time I viewed it and then was totally bored on the second viewing 10 years later, so it's hard to evaluate. Suffice to say it does have it's share of laughs which isn't surprising since Lucille Ball and Jack Oakie star. However, the humor is so corny one might see no humor in this - it all depends on what you like.

It WAS interesting to see a young (26 or 27-year-old) Ball, who was very attractive woman at that age. Oakie is okay because he looks funny. He doesn't even have to say anything to get a laugh, which sometimes is better because he played a number of roles over the years in which he delivered a lot of stupid lines!

Like a lot of comedies, it's very silly but the shortness of the film (68 minutes) helps in that regard, preventing it from becoming too silly for too long. There were some funny supporting roles in here, too. Like me, you might really laugh at this or think it's a waste of time: hard to say.

Lucille Ball stars as Annabel Allison, movie star. Jack Oakie, studio publicity man, has a great idea: He talks Annabel into getting caught stealing—a jail record, he argues, will give a great boost to her current picture, a prison drama. Annabel goes along with the gag, spends 30 days in jail, gets Oakie fired, has a change of heart and gets him his job back...all in the first 10 minutes of the movie.

Lucy is wild and blustery in this hectic comedy that keeps the jokes flying at a furious pace. Oakie is fairly obnoxious but eventually likable enough...at least, if you don't mind a pushy big mouth whose heart is mostly in the right place after all.

Familiar supporting actors add their own particular brands of humor: Ruth Donnelly is the wise cracking studio secretary, Fritz Feld is the eccentric European director who wants to make a "serious picture," Bradley Page is the exasperated studio boss.

Lucy ends up working as a maid (prep work for her next movie role, of course) for snooty Elizabeth Risdon, whose screwy inventor brother Thurston Hall brings home some "investors" who turn out to be crooks, and they're all trapped in the house....

It's very nutty and makes no sense at all—but I guess it is an interesting angle on the movie business, and it really is full of good laughs.

My favorite line is Lucy objecting to the maid picture: "You mean that piece of literary junk they've had around the studio for years? Why, they'd have to rewrite that before the moths would eat it."