THE LONG, LONG TRAILER (1954) C 97m dir: Vincente Minnelli
w/Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Marjorie Main, Keenan Wynn, Gladys Hurlbut, Moroni
Olsen, Bert Freed, Madge Blake, Walter Baldwin, Oliver Blake, Perry Sheehan,
Charles Herbert
From the Turner Classic Movies website, www.tcm.com, this
article about the film by Margarita Landazuri: "In 1953, Lucille Ball and
Desi Arnaz were America's favorite married couple, thanks to the huge success
of their television series, I Love Lucy. During the 1952-53 season,
Lucy's second pregnancy and the birth of their son Desi, Jr., had been incorporated
into the storyline. The birth of 'Little Ricky' episode in January had racked
up an astonishing Nielsen rating of 71.7 percent, and garnered as much news
coverage as the inauguration of President Eisenhower.
"Just a few years earlier, Ball had been a contract player at MGM. Although
she'd had some starring roles, she was usually cast as the wisecracking pal
of the leading lady, or the foil for such actors as Red Skelton. Arnaz, who
had met Ball when both appeared in RKO's Too Many Girls (1940), had
an even spottier movie career - there weren't many roles for Cuban conga players.
It wasn't until they turned to television in 1951 that the couple became superstars
on the small screen.
"Meanwhile, back at MGM, the same team that had made Father
of the Bride (1950), and its sequel, Father's
Little Dividend (1951) - producer Pandro Berman, director Vincente
Minnelli, and screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett - had another
domestic comedy in the works. The Long, Long Trailer (1954) was based
on a non-fiction book about a middle-aged couple who spent a year traveling
cross-country in a mobile home. By making them honeymooners, and making the
husband Latin and the wife wacky, the script was perfect for the king and queen
of television. (Arnaz, in fact, had tried to buy the rights to the book, but
Berman had beaten him to it.) But MGM executives wanted no part of it. At that
time, studios were trying desperately to lure audiences away from the television
and into theaters. And they were convinced that people wouldn't pay to see actors
they could get at home for free. But since The Long, Long Trailer would
be an inexpensive film to make, the studio finally agreed.
"Ball was coy at first, telling interviewers she didn't care if she ever
made another movie, but adding that she might make one during the summer hiatus,
'just to see how I look in Technicolor. You know, I've been in gray and black
for a long time now.' But her lack of stardom in films must have rankled, and
returning to MGM in triumph was sweet revenge. The Long, Long Trailer
was shot in six weeks during the summer of 1953, and in spite of the complexity
of some of the sequences, Minnelli recalled it as one of the easiest films he
ever made.
"Critics may have grumbled that 'Tacy' and 'Nicky' were just Lucy and
Ricky on wheels, but they had to admit that nobody was better at slapstick farce
than Ball, and nobody played exasperated hubby better than Arnaz. Millions of
I Love Lucy fans agreed - they made The Long, Long Trailer
one of 1954's biggest hits. The couple was as big at the box office as they
were in the Nielsen ratings. And the film has retained a cult following to this
day thanks to such hilarious scenes as Lucy trying to make dinner in the trailer's
kitchenette while Desi maneuvers a hazardous road or the sequence where Lucy's
obsessive rock collecting pushes Desi over the edge - literally."
Notes from Directed by Vincente Minnelli by Stephen
Harvey, pages 165-169:
- LLT: shows how relationship between Hollywood & audience had started
to shift:
- LLT: tried to get TV fans away from their sets:
- enticement: TV’s most beloved stars: Lucille Ball & Desi
Arnaz:
- I Love Lucy: most popular show of era / groundbreaking
sit-com
- since 1940s: movie industry took lofty attitude where TV concerned:
- industry largely ignored encroaching competition of TV:
- MGM: particularly obstinate about it:
- contract stars forbidden to appear on TV: even to promote
their own films
- defensive slogans used: “movies are better than ever!”:
- technical advantages of movies hyped:
- stereophonic sound
- 3-D
- widescreen processes: 1953: year CinemaScope introduced:
- MGM’s 1st CinemaScope film: KNIGHTS OF THE
ROUND TABLE
- color: 1947: 12 % of Hollywood films made in color
- 1954: over 50 % made in color
- all these advances promoted to lure viewers away from
TV:
- with its grainy, BW, flickering images
- but: by 1953: it was clear these strategies would only postpone
debacle
- LLT: 1954: production history:
- producer Pandro Berman approached Vincente Minnelli re: new film:
- they had already worked together on several MGM films: including:
- 1949: MADAME BOVARY / 1951: FATHER OF THE BRIDE
- Berman’s proposal: variation on FATHER OF THE BRIDE:
- another script by Albert Hackett & Frances Goodrich:
- adapted from lightweight novel by Clinton Twiss:
- poking fun at stresses of middle-class US marriage
- this time: movie stars replaced by TV stars: biggest names
on TV: Ball & Arnaz:
- Ball & Arnaz: not hard to persuade them to do film:
- movies still more prestigious than TV
- for them: sweet vindication: never reached star status in films:
- so: real coup to return as full-fledged stars:
- in movie guided by Minnelli: MGM’s most distinguished
director
- plus: lucrative terms: $250,000 for services of both
- shooting began: June 1953: during summer hiatus from TV show:
- involved fair amount of location work: nevertheless:
- Minnelli sped thru production in less than 4 weeks:
- helped by fact: TV’s top comedy team used to working
fast
- Minnelli: encouraged Ball & Arnaz to embroider their
roles:
- with their own special brand of farce:
- later: both: remembered his enthusiasm & talent
for comedy
- MGM: briefly toyed with idea of 3-D Lucy & Desi:
- in end: decided LLT should be filmed in color:
- audiences saw “dizzy redhead’s”
true colors: not possible on TV
- MGM: had some qualms re: making film:
- worried audiences wouldn’t pay to see stars they could
see for free on TV:
- but mania for I Love Lucy: whetted curiosity re: them in
movie
- LLT: premiered February 1954 at Radio City Music Hall in NYC:
- achieved domestic box office: $4 million + / received good review from
critics
- proved that TV didn’t have exclusive patent on up-to-date laughs
- Lucy & Desi’s chars: changed somewhat from novel:
- book: middle-aged couple tells chatty anecdotes: year-long trip across
US: Mr. & Mrs. Thoreau on wheels
- film: Lucy & Desi: play Tacy & Nicky Collini: slightly blurred
version of TV chars:
- less cartoonish than on TV: but their chemistry remains same:
- he sings / she takes pratfalls
- her crazy “feminine” schemes: clash with: his bullish
male common sense
- sooner or later: he’ll explode in Spanish; while Lucy
has lots of “splainin’” to do:
- after domestic disasters she’s caused
- 40-foot trailer: Minnelli had biggest prop of his career to play with:
- like malevolent force: but ridiculous one: literally dwarfing its owners
- barreling down open road: becomes literal running joke:
- seen from outside: massive blot on western landscape
- inside: dollhouse interior: becomes riff on claustrophobia:
- Arnaz: its principal victim: before trip:
- he suffocates in heaps of wedding loot: stuffed in trailer’s
every nook & cranny
- as walls close in on him: Lucy becomes human pinball:
- both set & Minnelli’s camera: full-tilt diagonals
- Ball: tossed from trailer into mud puddle
- prepares dinner: while Arnaz drives: trailer pitches around:
- she’s tossing Caesar salad: flying kitchen utensils,
flour:
- she’s powerless vs. anarchy of trailer: falls
in stages
- from doomed composure to slapstick rage
- dinner episode: adds to collection of her classic slapstick
routines:
- reaffirmed her stature as TV’s successor to Chaplin,
Keaton
- recalls low comedy of silent era
- Minnelli: his sensibilities evident in film’s design:
- affectionate but caustic take on pursuit of material happiness in 1950s
US:
- newlyweds: creatures of automotive age: meet at opening of new freeway
- seal their fate at mobile home fair: places where trailer stops
along way: instant communities:
- they have all the conveniences of modern life: but no civic
responsibilities
- world of “streamlined tackiness”: everything
impermanent:
- pastel world: “subversively kitsch”:
- turquoise skies
- upholstered sofa
- gleaming appliances
- Tacy: “fiercely houseproud”: like Emma
Bovary
- movie’s central joke: Collinis long for freedom
of open road:
- but weighed down by 2 tons of “indispensable”
comforts: result:
- their accumulated bulk nearly sends them over
cliff
- trailer: all chrome & “Minnelli-yellow”:
- becomes emblem for theme: eye for seductive objects:
- can curdle from affinity into compulsion
- Minnelli’s detachment: lends wit to his moral
lesson
- LLT: “ of the lowest-calorie concoctions of [Minnelli’s]
career”:
- but his “flickering irony gives it an occasional kick”
- escapist comedy: trip far worse than humdrum fate its victims try
to flee