The Affairs of Annabel

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."

This was an ok satire on the movie business from that famous red head, Lucille Ball. Also, a long forgotten actor named Jack Oakie lended Miss Ball support. This was actually better than I expected. Usually, comedies such as these that last a little over an hour aren't exactly a great film-viewing experience. But I enjoyed the director who was a little crazed and Hollywood's view on itself.

Rather forced comedy with Lucille Ball as a movie star who lets her publicity agent Jack Oakie get her into one far-fetched scheme after another. Considering Lucy would become famous for getting into far-fetched situations on television, you'd think this might work. Well, it doesn't. The thing is that while I Love Lucy was full of harebrained schemes and outlandish situations, they were usually rooted in some reality. The laughs were earned. Here, it's all wackiness for the sake of wackiness and it feels very contrived. Jack Oakie plays a walking cartoon character, very annoying and full of the dumbest ideas. He's supposed to be a send-up of real publicity agents, exaggerated for effect. But he's exaggerated too much, in my opinion. He never feels like a real person. Lucy, looking pretty as ever, tries her able best to make the most of the material she's given but her character is another that's tough to accept. She doesn't seem like a stupid person yet, for the sake of the plot, she goes along with the obviously moronic ideas of Oakie. Still, her fans will enjoy seeing her in this early starring role. The movie is helped some by a nice supporting cast, all of which do their best. This was followed by a sequel but thankfully not more than one. Recommended for die-hard Lucy fans but that's it.

I must disagree with the other reviewer; this film is, by far, the funniest film that Lucille Ball EVER MADE! There are Great routines: Ball in prison, trying to cook a meal, being a maid, etc. Each of these is Ball at her funniest! (If this film wasn't any good, why was a sequel -- which was very UNfunny -- made?). Ball, in contrast to the grating "dizzy dame" bit she overkilled on TV (didn't her whining make you want to BELT her one?), here she is fresh and beautiful, and reminds me a lot of Alexis Smith. This comedy is a Must See for Lucille Ball fans! Norm

Personally, I've always felt that the best comedies were the ones where you could actually believe in the situations--in other words, the events are things that could have happened. THE AFFAIRS OF ANNABEL is funny in spots, but hasn't got a single moment that is in touch with reality.

JACK OAKIE plays a scheming publicity man who dreams up the most outrageous ways of getting attention (newspaper headlines) for his fading star LUCILLE BALL, her film career supposedly on the wane. One plan involves getting her to spend three days in prison (which turns out to be 30 days) and to have the press on hand when she's released. The plan backfires, of course, and Lucy fires him.

She rehires him when he gets a little old lady (LEONA ROBERTS, Mrs. Meade from GWTW), to pretend to be his sick mother who needs money for an operation. Lucy relents and he comes up with another scheme--her next film is called "The Maid and the Man" so he gets her work as a maid in a wacky household. It turns out the house has become the nest for two infamous criminals and Lucy, of course, gets into the thick of things while Oakie tries to rescue her by hiring fake police officers to storm the house.

It had possibilities but emerges as a scatterbrained comedy without any real foothold on reality. THURSTON HALL is fun as a plate breaking scientist and RUTH DONNELLY has a few good one-liners as a studio receptionist, but other than that the gags are pretty hard to swallow at times.

Best that can be said is that LUCILLE BALL shows skill at this sort of comedy and looks pert and pretty throughout. OAKIE overplays the press agent with outlandish schemes but is fun to watch.

If you love Lucy, you'll find this acceptable fare but lacking in so many departments.