Jump to content

Likes/Dislikes


Irene Kampen Tripp

Recommended Posts

Just wondering aloud.. what do you guys like or dislike about "LUCY"? This can be her film/radio/tv/stage career and/or her personal life... I think it interesting to see where people are at pertaining to Miss Ball...

 

I sometimes don't like her later work.. she doesn't seem to be in character, seems to be looking at cue cards.. or breaking the illusion.. GALE seems in the moment at all times and so does VIV.... I just wonder if anyone else feels the same.. NOT everytime do I feel this way.. but some of the time.. more often than I would like! HOW come the audio on the dvds of the later shows are kinda "echoey" and most of the I LOVE LUCY sounds pretty good and clear??? I love some of her movies.. but don't care for "Critic's Choice" although, some scenes she looks just beautiful.. like when at that outdoor affair.. and contemplating writting.. she looks so natural and pretty... LOVE how she is in YOURS MINE and OURS... like her in FANCY PANTS... just curious what you all think... I like "Let's Talk to Lucy".. I like her voice here and she seems really genuinely interested.. and I really enjoy that show.. wish we had an available collection of them so I could hear them all!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Totally agree with you there.

Interesting YOU feel that way.. I enjoy her early film work and I enjoy seeing her progress as an actress.. I like seeing different hair/make-up styles on her and I enjoy seeing her in those costumes of the thirties and fourties... I like her "style" in the fourties.. so chic.. anyway.. YOU like mainly all of her television work?? Even the non LUCY roles??

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I love Lucy's early movies, it's a great study on the artist she becomes. Watching some of her old movies and then watching I Love Lucy is truly seeing her evolution. I sometimes like to watch one of her 30s movies, then one from the 40s, then a 50s movie and...you get the point. You really see her find herself as a performer doing that!

 

Ive fallen in love with the Lets Talk To Lucy episodes, I really hope someone sees that each episode makes it's way into our hands.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to agree that Lucy doesn't always seem as present in TLS or HL as she was in I Love Lucy, she definitely relies a little too much on her cue cards. I will say that she seems to excel better in HL, probably because she's got Lucie and Desi, Jr. And she and Gale have hit a beautiful rhythem together. My only wish for HL would be a little more Viv.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting YOU feel that way.. I enjoy her early film work and I enjoy seeing her progress as an actress.. I like seeing different hair/make-up styles on her and I enjoy seeing her in those costumes of the thirties and fourties... I like her "style" in the fourties.. so chic.. anyway.. YOU like mainly all of her television work?? Even the non LUCY roles??

You see, it's like this, i love the perfect Lucy, not the struggling one, i love her later work when she owned the medium of television and was still considered a famous motion picture actress, not her B movies that had little plot and were a waste of her time. But i agree with you that it's nice to see her mature as a great actress, and there's a load of gems in there, her doing musicals, singing and dancing and starting to hone her skills in slapstick comedy in the Columbia releases and of course her tour de force, The Big Street, her best work ever and quite early in her career. WHICH should have led to more roles like Manchurian Candidate and at the end of her life if her manager had been smarter and less selfish, she could have followed up in a Murder she wrote type tv role that would have kept her working for years instead of doing those lousty Hope specials.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I personally love and admire her early movie career just as much as her work on ILL. I cant really say I "dislike" any of her work but if I had to be picky then I would say her "3 second" roles in movies like Roberta and Joy of Living purely because we didnt get to see her enough ;)

Amen to that!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have to agree that Lucy doesn't always seem as present in TLS or HL as she was in I Love Lucy, she definitely relies a little too much on her cue cards. I will say that she seems to excel better in HL, probably because she's got Lucie and Desi, Jr. And she and Gale have hit a beautiful rhythem together. My only wish for HL would be a little more Viv.

Do you people ever think that each show revolved around H E R and therefore her lines were equal to everybody else's together, therefore as she executive produced her show and did absolutely everything, she needed those cue cards to get that show done in four days. It kills me when i hear people say Desi had a photographic memory and all, he had a few lines compared to her, no wnder he could memorize everybody else's. SHE had all the lines and the comedy bits too and when her writers ran out of ideas in her later shows, she had to pull out all the stops to make caviar out of bologna!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you people ever think that each show revolved around H E R and therefore her lines were equal to everybody else's together, therefore as she executive produced her show and did absolutely everything, she needed those cue cards to get that show done in four days. It kills me when i hear people say Desi had a photographic memory and all, he had a few lines compared to her, no wnder he could memorize everybody else's. SHE had all the lines and the comedy bits too and when her writers ran out of ideas in her later shows, she had to pull out all the stops to make caviar out of bologna!

 

No, actually as that was her choice to do the show in just four days, they didn't HAVE to do it that fast and these days, most shows that use the same 3-camera (now they use four, they get more angles and are much smaller than back then) shot-before-an-audience technique are on a five-day schedule, one of the "lightest" (i.e., easiest) schedules in town! They're not exactly digging ditches here, folks! Plus, by the time HL came along, she was a master at putting on these shows, she certainly did not do it alone and she certainly wasn't shy about voicing her ....wants -- and needs.

 

I think her increasing reliance on cue cards was simply an ironic occurence due largely more to aging than anything else! I know first hand that after 50, your memory fades, your synapses don't fire as fast and you often can have something on the tip of your tongue but getting it from "A" to "B" can be a challenge!

 

Then there's my favorite: when you get up from your chair or desk for something and between the time you started to stand up and are actually fully upright, you've forgotten why you got up in the first place!

lucythrill.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not picking on her reliance on cue cards, just making an observation. The woman could sit and read her cue cards for entire episodes and she'd still have more humor and warmth than most performers today.

 

As for getting up to do something and forgetting what it was by the time you're standing--I've got that problem and I'm only 24!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

No, actually as that was her choice to do the show in just four days, they didn't HAVE to do it that fast and these days, most shows that use the same 3-camera (now they use four, they get more angles and are much smaller than back then) shot-before-an-audience technique are on a five-day schedule, one of the "lightest" (i.e., easiest) schedules in town! They're not exactly digging ditches here, folks! Plus, by the time HL came along, she was a master at putting on these shows, she certainly did not do it alone and she certainly wasn't shy about voicing her ....wants -- and needs.

 

I think her increasing reliance on cue cards was simply an ironic occurence due largely more to aging than anything else! I know first hand that after 50, your memory fades, your synapses don't fire as fast and you often can have something on the tip of your tongue but getting it from "A" to "B" can be a challenge!

 

Then there's my favorite: when you get up from your chair or desk for something and between the time you started to stand up and are actually fully upright, you've forgotten why you got up in the first place!

lucythrill.JPG

You forget she HAD to do the show in F O U R days as one of her kids was always whining about the time she spent away from home, LOL! And i remember Carole Cook saying she never saw Lucy playing with her kids when they were older teenagers, LOL!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm not picking on her reliance on cue cards, just making an observation. The woman could sit and read her cue cards for entire episodes and she'd still have more humor and warmth than most performers today.

 

As for getting up to do something and forgetting what it was by the time you're standing--I've got that problem and I'm only 24!

Sorry, you know ME, i can't stand any criticism of Lucy, busy woman that she is, it's not like she had all her days free to learn lines. I didn't even like this thread when i first saw it and did not want to contribute to it as one listing the DISLIKES i felt was inappropriate as we were celebrating her 100th and legacy.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I'll tell you what else I DISLIKE.. those HORRIBLE Here's Lucy Costumes! Most every episode of Here's Lucy makes me cringe!! Some of her outfits are nice, but most of what she shows up for work in make me puke!

Sorry kiddo but that's what people wore back then, these wild flashy styles that screamed out at you. And for your information Lucy was very very very well dressed in all six years, her wardrobe was true to the times, and quite appropriate for a secretary to be wearing to work. Now if you mean the COSTUMES she wore when she was being funny and they were meant to get laughs, then fine.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry kiddo but that's what people wore back then, these wild flashy styles that screamed out at you. And for your information Lucy was very very very well dressed in all six years, her wardrobe was true to the times, and quite appropriate for a secretary to be wearing to work. Now if you mean the COSTUMES she wore when she was being funny and they were meant to get laughs, then fine.

 

Well said! After all, it was the 70s (for most of the run) and those sometimes gawdawful outfits were chic ....then. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well said! After all, it was the 70s (for most of the run) and those sometimes gawdawful outfits were chic ....then. ;)

Funny you should say that as C H I C is exactly the word i wanted to use but didn't to describe Lucy's clothes for that six year run. I especially liked the silk blouse she wore on the Ginger Rogers ep, very elegant and the open green thing covering her hot pants also in the Rogers ep.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

I personally love and admire her early movie career just as much as her work on ILL. I cant really say I "dislike" any of her work but if I had to be picky then I would say her "3 second" roles in movies like Roberta and Joy of Living purely because we didnt get to see her enough ;)

I'm a classic movie buff so I love Lucy in the movies 1938-51!! I'm pretty sure I would be a big Lucille Ball fan had she never had a sitcom and I discovered her films on cable tv the same way I became a fan of Claudette Colbert, Mae West, Vivien Leigh, Barbara Stanwyck, Bette Davis, etc.

 

I feel the Lucy we know and love from television is very much on display in many of her early comedy movies, even some of the first starring films in her career: THE AFFAIRS OF ANNABEL, ANNABEL TAKES A TOUR, NEXT TIME I MARRY, etc. and the later EASY TO WED, MISS GRANT TAKES RICHMOND, THE FULLER BRUSH GIRL, etc.

 

If there's anything about her I'm not too crazy about it's the post-Here's Lucy specials which can be heavy-handed or a little too forced.

 

The early bit parts, sometimes it can be fun "spotting Lucy" (ie: her photograph-only appearance in BREAK OF HEARTS) but I agree it's a very minor chapter in her career and shouldn't be thought of as more than a footnote. (It's interesting how much less attractive she is in these bit parts than in her starring roles from 1938 on; apparently RKO could have cared less about bit players looking their best.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sorry kiddo but that's what people wore back then, these wild flashy styles that screamed out at you. And for your information Lucy was very very very well dressed in all six years, her wardrobe was true to the times, and quite appropriate for a secretary to be wearing to work. Now if you mean the COSTUMES she wore when she was being funny and they were meant to get laughs, then fine.

Okay.. I guess they were chic.. but she looks better dressing for Mr. Mooney than when she dresses for Mr. Carter..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watched "All Star Party for Lucille Ball" on youtube last night and was captivated! Too bad that can't be included as a special feature on a future dvd release (Life With Lucy?).. very entertaining.. and of course my favorite guy Dino did a great salute to her! If any of you have the chance check it out on youtube.. do yourself a favor an watch it! I really LIKED it!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I watched "All Star Party for Lucille Ball" on youtube last night and was captivated! Too bad that can't be included as a special feature on a future dvd release (Life With Lucy?).. very entertaining.. and of course my favorite guy Dino did a great salute to her! If any of you have the chance check it out on youtube.. do yourself a favor an watch it! I really LIKED it!

It's among my all time favorite things to watch of her even though she never performs on that special at least she is honored beautifully by half of Hollywood.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...