Lucy Movie Errors (2003)

[C L A U D E]

But it's still blonde with a nice little red/orange tint! I wish there was some colored pictures of it!

 

I remember reading a little Irma quote where she talks of Lucy's hair color. Irma didnt think of it as red but as golden apricot. She would dye her hair with a hair dye then do a henna rinse.

I had always heard her be called a RED head so when i first saw her in color, i was shocked it was more orange than red.

[mikidiki]

ANNALEIGH: Look at the Valley Of The Sun photos - finally we can see what her hair looked like prior to Dubarry colour!

[Luvsbway]

Another pre-Duberry, and either late 1940/ early 1941 is in the Home Movies. The film of L&D on the tandem bike is from their extended honeymoon. It' s from Palm Springs. I was able to place it with recently going back to the Scrapbook CD-ROM where their 2 month honeymoon is talked about.

[C L A U D E]

Another pre-Duberry, and either late 1940/ early 1941 is in the Home Movies. The film of L&D on the tandem bike is from their extended honeymoon. It' s from Palm Springs. I was able to place it with recently going back to the Scrapbook CD-ROM where their 2 month honeymoon is talked about.

I think you are very close to stalker territory at this point my luv, LOL!

[chedderchester]

I really thought that Lucy Meets the Moustache was taped in front of an audience. I remember reading that the audience was sad when they found out that it was the final episode. And if it WASN'T taped in front of an audience, did Edie Adams mean that everybody who was crying was most of the crew members?

[JoeySanJoaquin]

I really thought that Lucy Meets the Moustache was taped in front of an audience. I remember reading that the audience was sad when they found out that it was the final episode. And if it WASN'T taped in front of an audience, did Edie Adams mean that everybody who was crying was most of the crew members?

Exactly. Think of the lyrics and what was going on at the same time. My recollection is that no one on set wasn't aware what was going on. Too painful to hide, I guess. Sad.

[C L A U D E]

Exactly. Think of the lyrics and what was going on at the same time. My recollection is that no one on set wasn't aware what was going on. Too painful to hide, I guess. Sad.

How the heck could they have filmed that unfunny and tinged with sadness show in front of an audience, it would have been a CRY fest instead of a laugh one.

[Mot Morenzi]

In terms of broadstrokes, the movie was fairly accurate. A lot of the little "errors" we point out have to do with the dramatic license taken by the filmmakers and the timeline shifting done in the scripts, and also budgetary restrictions. Here are some other minor historical inaccuracies that crop up as such:

 

1) Lucy & Desi discuss buying RKO in 1953 during the red-scare, when it didn't even hit the market until around 1957 or so.

2) It only depicts Lucille suffering one miscarriage instead of two.

3) It depicts grape as being a Jell-O flavor when actually there were only six flavours at the time (strawberry, raspberry, cherry, orange, lemon & lime)

4) It shows the Pioneer Women "13 cakes" conversation taking place in the living room instead of the kitchen.

5) The set omits the Ricardo's bedroom and has the first scene from "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her" be the kitchen scene with Ethel

6) It shows the second season Tropicana set being used during the first season

7) The Ricardo's wall is blue instead of pale pink (BTL had that one right over this one)

8) It never depicts the Ricardo's second apartment, showing 4A as lasting the entire series.

9) It has the final LDCH scene taking place in the Connecticut living room as opposed to the hotel room

10) The Connecticut house is shortened, omitting a portion of the wall between the fireplace and the door, plus the kitchen door. If you look closely, you'll also see that there's no door or balcony at the top of the stairs. It also changed the location of the other side door in order to consolidate the set.

11) Harriet is a composite character based on several maids Lucille had over the years, and also seems to take the place of her cousin Cleo.

12) It depicts Lucy & Viv wearing their Martian outfits at the end of shooting, but they took those costumes off by then in the actual episode.

13) It shows Jess Oppenheimer being hired specifically to produce I Love Lucy, ignoring his involvement with My Favorite Husband.

 

The film also omits William Asher, Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopff, depicting Marc Daniels as the director for the entire series and Bob and Madelyn as the sole writers. But that's more artistic license than an oversight. They obviously didn't have the budget or runtime to dramatize everything.

[GeneaLady]

Could someone PLEASE for the love of God fix the wiki comment about Harriet, and and an FYI of the inaccuracies. I've tried, but wiki never keeps my edits.

[Mot Morenzi]

Could someone PLEASE for the love of God fix the wiki comment about Harriet, and and an FYI of the inaccuracies. I've tried, but wiki never keeps my edits.

 

What comment, exactly?

[Mot Morenzi]

Well, this is kind of flattering. Someone took it upon him or herself to edit the Wikipedia page for this film, incorporating the examples of dramatic license I listed here a few years ago. Perhaps GeneaLady, as her last post on this thread indicated she'd tried to do just that.

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucy_(2003_film)

[Luvsbway]

There are more but this is good. Although I don't know why they say Harriet is based of several maids. Lucy only had Harriet and all the stories with her in the film are documented somewhere. I don't really think she was taking the place of Cleo either.

[Mot Morenzi]

Luvsbway, on 14 Feb 2017 - 04:39 AM, said:

 

There are more but this is good. Although I don't know why they say Harriet is based of several maids. Lucy only had Harriet and all the stories with her in the film are documented somewhere. I don't really think she was taking the place of Cleo either.

That was (unintentionally) my fault. I wasn't necessarily stating facts in some instances, but rather my take on things. When I listed my observations on this thread a few years ago, I hypothesized that Harriet was a composite character, as Willie Mae Barker was not depicted in the film. I assumed (perhaps incorrectly) that elements of Willie Mae may have been composited into Harriet to streamline the story. As for taking the place of Cleo, that was also conjecture on my part, as Harriet seemed to serve as Lucille's primary confidant in the film, apart from DeDe. Obviously Cleo was simply not included by the writers due to time constraints, but it seemed to me that Harriet in the film may have filled a similar role.

 

When I wrote all this, I had no idea someone would copy it almost word for word onto Wikipedia. Whoever did so didn't necessarily think to double check all the points I listed, and also rephrased things to make them sound more definitive than I wrote them here. Fortunately, the page can always be amended.

[Luvsbway]

Thanks for that. Had no idea they were lifted from here. Makes so much more sense in the context of things we were discussing on the lounge versus print as historical fact. Wonder who posted them there.

[Mot Morenzi]

Thanks for that. Had no idea they were lifted from here. Makes so much more sense in the context of things we were discussing on the lounge versus print as historical fact. Wonder who posted them there.

Exactly, they just came up in conversation. I fully admit, too, that I hadn't seen the film for a while when I wrote what I did. Some of it was just what I presumed based on memory.

 

I'm not terribly up to speed on the period of Lucille's life when she hired Harriet. Did both Harriet and Willie Mae ever work for her at the same time, or had Harriet left by then? I guess I assumed Willie Mae succeeded Harriet, as Desi Jr. only mentioned Willie Mae in "A Home Movie," to the best of my recollection. Please do let me know if I'm mistaken.

[Luvsbway]

From my research this is what I have found. Harriet was hired by Lucy as a Personal Maid in the late 30s and stayed with her well in to the 60s. A personal maid is different than a maid how we use the term today. Harriet was more like a personal assistant today. She basically saw to the care of Lucille on a daily basis. Willie Mae and her husband George were the couple at the ranch. They did the job of cooking, cleaning, etc.. From what I’ve read the nurse/nanny hired to care for Lucie as a baby got too attached to her and Lucy let her go. By this time Willie Mae was doing a fine job with Lucie and was promoted to Nanny and stayed that way until sometime in the 60s. In the 60’s is where things start to change with the couple for the house being a string of Asian couples and Wanda taking over as Lucy’s secretary and Frank her driver.. Oh and then we had handyman Earl, who made lights out of coffee cans.

[Mot Morenzi]

From my research this is what I have found. Harriet was hired by Lucy as a Personal Maid in the late 30s and stayed with her well in to the 60s. A personal maid is different than a maid how we use the term today. Harriet was more like a personal assistant today. She basically saw to the care of Lucille on a daily basis. Willie Mae and her husband George were the couple at the ranch. They did the job of cooking, cleaning, etc.. From what I’ve read the nurse/nanny hired to care for Lucie as a baby got too attached to her and Lucy let her go. By this time Willie Mae was doing a fine job with Lucie and was promoted to Nanny and stayed that way until sometime in the 60s. In the 60’s is where things start to change with the couple for the house being a string of Asian couples and Wanda taking over as Lucy’s secretary and Frank her driver.. Oh and then we had handyman Earl, who made lights out of coffee cans.

Thank you for that. Very enlightening. I had no idea Harriet stayed with Lucy so long. How strange she isn't talked about more often, then. I give the movie props for including her in such an accurate fashion.

[Luvsbway]

I like that they got Carole Lombard in it too. Now if we could just turn up a photo of Lucy and Carole I would be a happy camper.

[Mot Morenzi]

I like that they got Carole Lombard in it too. Now if we could just turn up a photo of Lucy and Carole I would be a happy camper.

 

It was through this film that I first learned of her friendship with Carole Lombard. You're right, I've never seen a photo of the two of them. Surely there must be one hidden somewhere.

[Mot Morenzi]

Luvs, you might be able to answer this:

There's a scene which takes place towards the end of I Love Lucy, where Desi's passed out on the set and Lucille worries about him losing the respect of the crew. Vivian then tells Lucy about her and "Paul" (did the Phil Ober estate threaten to sue or something?) spotting Desi, roaring drunk, gambling in Palm Springs. Was this scene written exclusively for the film, or was it sourced from a book? I'm curious if it's based on an actual discussion Lucille and Vivian had.

[Luvsbway]

56 minutes ago, Mot Morenzi said:

Luvs, you might be able to answer this:

There's a scene which takes place towards the end of I Love Lucy, where Desi's passed out on the set and Lucille worries about him losing the respect of the crew. Vivian then tells Lucy about her and "Paul" (did the Phil Ober estate threaten to sue or something?) spotting Desi, roaring drunk, gambling in Palm Springs. Was this scene written exclusively for the film, or was it sourced from a book? I'm curious if it's based on an actual discussion Lucille and Vivian had.

I have to pull out the movie and watch. It's not ringing any bells. He played poker in PS but gambling would be Vegas. And I'm sure he could have been roaring drunk either place.

One of the books talks about a Desilu guy pulling him away from the Vegas tables before he beat the studio. And there was other stuff in PS that was not good.

Desi would fall asleep during table reads sometimes but I think that story mostly is told about Lucy Show.

My hunch then is they took a bunch of stories and stitched them together for maximum drama.