Miss Grain de sel

Miss Grant Takes Richmond is an OK comedy starring Lucille Ball as a somewhat dizzy secretary who is hired by Mr. Richmond, a bookie using a phony real estate business as a front. Lucy, of course, doesn't know this, and she believes that he will build low-cost homes for her friends. This film is, unfortunately, not very funny. There are a couple of humorous sequences, but overall it should have been funnier. There's also very little slapstick, which is strange considering that Lucy was so adept at it. She and Holden do have some chemistry, though, and the supporting cast is good. A 5 out of 10.

A film who, today, could have a basic virtue - to see William Holden, Lucille Ball and James Gleason in a comedy with too many expectations. a student at secretarial school, her unexpected luck, a bookie joint under Realtor appearences, a moral end - confuse, off course, noble message , the importance of the poor people. all - pretext for a nice comedy . not more. and that is the good thing. because it represents the right choice for the public looking for easy old fashion comedies. I am one of small examples - the admiration for the real significant roles of William Holden, I saw this film not ignoring its easy charm. and Lucille Ball is perfect as miss Grant. so, a film for see. especially for the fans of actors.

I watched because I am a William Holden fan. Others will watch b/c they are Lucille Ball fans.

They work well together in this harmless comedy. The concept was probably scratched on a diner napkin. Bookie with a fake real estate company hires dimwit secretary. Wacky hijinks ensue.

Throw in veteran support. Include a couple of double entendres along the way. Let Lucy do some physical comedy. And let Bill Holden be his super cool self. And away you go.

A small comedy with a nicely paced story about a bookie played by William Holden who tries to hide his operation behind the front of a real estate office that he opens in a medium sized town. He hires a secretary played by Lucille Ball who can't even type. To his consternation, she attracts interested first-time home buyers, WW2 vets and their wives and children. It almost has, at times, the feeling of George Bailey in Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, building homes for the emerging middle class. Taking us out to the construction site, Lucy is nearly crushed under tons of earth in a rather incredible scene, while Holden and his associates (who are given many funny lines) are reluctantly led by the positive goodness of the buyers into being pioneers in real estate development and early suburban sprawl.

When Lucille Ball did I Love Lucy few at the time suspected she had the comic talents she possessed. Her history up to then in films was usually as a wisecracking second banana in major films and some leading roles in B films.

And Miss Grant Takes Richmond is definitely a B film. Next year William Holden with Sunset Boulevard would step into the A list of players, but it wasn't his time yet. Holden proved to be a worthy foil for Lucy's comic antics.

The film is definitely Lucy's however. CBS executives must have seen Miss Grant Takes Richmond and seen what Lucy could do before passing on I Love Lucy as a television series.

There were some incidents that definitely could have come out of I Love Lucy. Her struggles with mastering the typewriter in secretarial school with Holden deftly catching a flying typewriter carriage, her dodging a steam shovel at a construction sight, her trying to use a jackhammer and the aftermath of that, all these could easily have been in any of her television series. Harbinger of things to come. Remember also that Bill Holden made a memorable appearance on I Love Lucy and got a pie in his face at the Brown Derby.

Lucy is a klutzy scatterbrained student at a secretarial school run by Charles Lane and Holden comes in looking to hire. To everyone's amazement he hires Lucy. He runs a scam real estate operation that is a front for a bookie joint. Her job is to basically babysit and commiserate with those who actually come in and are looking to buy property and shine them on. She doesn't know she's working for bookies, Bill Holden, Frank McHugh, and James Gleason.

Through her own wide-eyed Marie Wilson type view of the world before long she's got this trio actually building homes and trying to be bookies at the same time.

To see the Lucy Ricardo of the future by all means catch Miss Grant Takes Richmond.

If you don't, you'll have a lot of 'splaining to do.