Ele, Ela e Eu

Harold Lloyd the fabled comedian of the silent screen produced this comedy for RKO. Lloyd recognizing comic talent has Lucille Ball in the lead and her guy and gob in that order are Edmond O'Brien and George Murphy.

The day before she's to start a new job as the secretary of a big shipping firm, Ball and her family which consists of parents George Cleveland and Kathleen Howard and nimble fingered Lloyd Corrigan as her brother decide to go to the opera. They get into a row with Edmond O'Brien and his fiance Marguerite Chapman when they sit at his box at the Met.

The next day Ball reports for work and discovers her new boss is O'Brien and that sets off a row. But soon he rather likes the blue color girl. The problem is she has a blue collar guy in sailor George Murphy on leave from Uncle Sam's Navy and deciding whether he wants another hitch.

The comedy belongs to Ball and Murphy. O'Brien who is a rich but shy business executive serves as a foil primarily. Lloyd puts in a few nice touches including a great car chase that could have come from one of his silent screen classics.

Franklin Pangborn has a couple of scenes as a nervous pet shop owner whom they all seem to run into and put upon. Henry Travers is also featured as O'Brien's uncle and quite the matchmaker.

Curiously enough with one of the protagonists a sailor and the film coming out in March of 1941 not a word about current unpleasantness in the world that the Navy would be getting into before the year was out.

Films like these were putting Lucille Ball on the road to being the queen of comedy.

One night, while he was at the opera, young ship tycoon Stephen Herrick (Edmond O'Brien) accidentally meets an unusually full young woman named Dot (Lucille Ball). The next day, while he is still dizzy from their dizzying meeting, she enters his office to serve as his secretary. Despite her audacity - or because of it - Stephen is inevitably attracted to the lively Dot, which is a big problem for Dotina's beauty, a sailor beast named Coffee Cup (George Murphy).

The Duncans are sitting in the box seat at the opera. Pigeon found the tickets after shipping magnate Stephen Herrick (Edmond O'Brien) dropped them. Stephen is angry that someone else has taken his box and he makes a scene. Dot Duncan (Lucille Ball) discovers that her brother had lost the money in a horse race and runs out on the show. She drops her purse on Stephen's head and the next day, she finds that her new job is being Stephen's new secretary. Her boyfriend Claudius J. "Coffee Cup" Cup (George Murphy) returns from the Navy.

This starts with a great Meet Cute. Lucille Ball is doing a lot of funny stuff. It's a great rom-com start for Stephen and Dot. Then Coffee Cup comes in and it turns into something else. For it to be a better love triangle, Coffee Cup needs to be a lesser suitor and Dot can't be fully in love. I certainly don't want Stephen ending up with Cecilia but I don't want Dot to leave Coffee Cup either. Coffee Cup is too good. I really like a lot of funny bits and the three main characters especially Dot with Coffee Cup. The four inches is a weirdly fun unforgettable bit. They just need to recalibrate Coffee Cup to fit the rom-com formula. I also didn't know what a gob is.

Lucy, Murphy, and O'Brien make something out of this little B movie.

I wanted to see this film because my grandfather acted in it. His name is James Spencer. His south sea island scenes were cut out in the final release of this film. I still found this film to be a great treat and a lot of fun. It was a great example of the screw-ball comedies of the time before WW2. This should be seen on cable tv. Great chemistry between all the actors here.