FOREVER, DARLING (1956)
Article #905 by Dave Sindelar
Viewing Date: 9-6-2003
Posting Date: 2-3-2004
Directed by Alexander Hall
Featuring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, James Mason

A guardian angel comes to the rescue of a couple whose marriage has hit a rough spot.

On top of the TV show which brought them fame, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz made a couple of movies together as a team; this one and THE LONG LONG TRAILER. This is the lesser known of the two, and it’s a fairly minor piece of fluff. Actually, Desi gets the funniest moments in an earlier scene where he comes home and roundly insults Lucy’s dinner guests, one of which is Natalie Schafer who is best known as Mrs. Howell from “Gilligan’s Island”. After that, most of the gags are the type of slapstick gags you might expect on the TV series, except that the movie’s leisurely pace keeps them from building up any real sense of comic frenzy. I do like the fact that James Mason plays the guardian angel, and that he looks like James Mason because that’s what Lucy imagines her guardian angel would look like (Desi’s would look like Ava Gardner). Science fiction fans should also keep an eye out for John Emery (from ROCKETSHIP X-M) as a psychiatrist, and John Hoyt (ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE) as Desi’s boss at the insecticide factory.