The Affairs of Annabel

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.

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

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."

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.

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.