After conquering television with I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz decided to use the hiatus between seasons of their hit show to parlay their newfound popularity into a hit movie, and they found it in Vincente Minnelli’s The Long, Long Trailer.
The Production: 3.5/5
After conquering television with I Love Lucy, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz decided to use the hiatus between seasons of their hit show to parlay their newfound popularity into a hit movie, and they found it in Vincente Minnelli’s The Long, Long Trailer, a slapstick sitcom which milks all of the familiar Lucy and Ricky Ricardo tropes from television into their widescreen, color film. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent.
Newlywed Tacy Collini (Lucille Ball) decides that a modern, fully furnished house trailer will suit their home needs just fine assuming she and new hubby Nicky Collini (Desi Arnaz) will save a packet of money at the start of their marriage by purchasing this rather than buying a traditional home with the hefty mortgage payments that go along with it. As with everything that happens in their early weeks of marriage, she doesn’t think things through to their logical conclusions resulting in one catastrophe after another for the couple as they try to maneuver their gargantuan new dwelling thousands of miles and 8,000 feet of elevation up and down a mountain to get from Los Angeles to Colorado where they intend to settle.
Screenwriters Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich based their script on the novel The Long, Long Trailer, but they’ve infused it with lots of patented slapstick turns for their top-billed star. This is the kind of situation comedy where natural common sense seems nowhere in evidence as the bad decisions made one after another always seem to take everyone, particularly our newlyweds, completely by surprise. In doing so, of course, it’s allowed director Vincente Minnelli to stage some howlingly good broad comedy moments, particularly during a monsoon where poor Nicky is trying to right the trailer in the mud which has tipped on its side as Tacy attempts to prepare a meal with Rube Goldberg-ish contraptions to keep utensils on the stove concluding with a spectacular bit where Tacy is propelled out of the trailer and into a muddy pool. Later, Tacy attempts to cook a lovely dinner while Nicky drives them along a bumpy road allowing Lucille Ball’s Tacy the kind of slapstick free-for-all that had made her the Emmy-winning toast of American television. The climactic drive up and down the mountain pass is more harrowing than funny made more alarming by the secret Tacy is keeping from her spouse as we see mini-avalanches tumble down cliff sides and the trailer inch perilously close to the rim of the mountain as driving on the twisting, narrow roads proves especially daunting. It’s not all disastrous calamities, though. Minnelli gets the chance to stage two of his famous party sequences: the early wedding reception and a later trailer park welcome celebration, both so jammed with people that the camera gets lost among the bellowing throngs. There’s also a sweet moment as the two stars warble the Richard Whiting classic “I’m Just Breezin’ Along with the Breeze” giving us a temporary respite from all the riotous hubbub that surrounds it.
With the MGM film earning four times its cost at the box-office, it must have been sweet revenge for Lucille Ball who had starred in some MGM films but had never been a breakout star there (or anywhere: her mammoth radio and television careers dwarfed any small success she had ever had on the silver screen). She’s playing her familiar housewife here: headstrong, insistent on having her way, and often living to regret it especially when her plans backfire and her put-upon husband has to bear the brunt of the ruinous results. We even get very early the patented Desi laughing and Lucy crying moments reminding us that the stars of the film were the also the stars of television’s number one program. Shockingly, both Keenan Wynn and Marjorie Main, enjoying co-starring billing to the two leads, play mere cameos, he a traffic cop enduring Nicky’s awkward efforts to maneuver his behemoth through city traffic and she a resident of the first trailer park they try, organizing a neighborhood meet-and-greet for the couple. Similarly, other famous faces fly by with mere minutes on the screen: Herb Vigran as the trailer salesman, Madge Blake as one of Tacy’s relatives with prized rosebushes, Bert Freed who gives Nicky driving instructions, Howard McNear as another trailer park resident, and Jack Kruschen who installs the tow hitch on Nicky’s car.
Video: 5/5
3D Rating: NA
The film is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.75:1 and is rendered in 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. The usually problematic Ansco color as printed by Technicolor has tamped down the usual ruddy skin and hair tones and looks very natural. Lucille Ball’s hair is not the blazing henna we’re so accustomed to seeing in her 1940s color films and on television but a more natural, softer red. Skin tones are natural, and color overall is well managed and appealing. There are no problems with age-related dirt, debris, splices, or missing frames. The movie has been divided into 28 chapters.
Audio: 5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix is very era-appropriate. Dialogue has been well recorded and is presented mixed professionally with Adolph Deutsch’s background score and the various sound effects where appropriate. There are no instances of hiss, pops, crackle, and flutter.
Special Features: 2.5/5
Ain’t It Aggravatin’? (8:20, HD): a Pete Smith Specialty
Dixieland Droopy (7:47, HD)
Theatrical Trailer (3:10, HD)
Overall: 3.5/5
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz bring their well-known and highly popular slapstick antics from the small screen to the large in Vincente Minnelli’s The Long, Long Trailer. The Warner Archive Blu-ray release is a great leap up from previous DVD incarnations of the movie, and fans of the stars, the director, or the genre will likely be delighted with the improved picture and sound.
The Long, Long Trailer (1954) [Blu-Ray]
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Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.
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