The Affairs of Annabel

Personally, I've always felt that the best comedies were the ones where you could actually believe in the situations--in other words, the events are things that could have happened. THE AFFAIRS OF ANNABEL is funny in spots, but hasn't got a single moment that is in touch with reality.

JACK OAKIE plays a scheming publicity man who dreams up the most outrageous ways of getting attention (newspaper headlines) for his fading star LUCILLE BALL, her film career supposedly on the wane. One plan involves getting her to spend three days in prison (which turns out to be 30 days) and to have the press on hand when she's released. The plan backfires, of course, and Lucy fires him.

She rehires him when he gets a little old lady (LEONA ROBERTS, Mrs. Meade from GWTW), to pretend to be his sick mother who needs money for an operation. Lucy relents and he comes up with another scheme--her next film is called "The Maid and the Man" so he gets her work as a maid in a wacky household. It turns out the house has become the nest for two infamous criminals and Lucy, of course, gets into the thick of things while Oakie tries to rescue her by hiring fake police officers to storm the house.

It had possibilities but emerges as a scatterbrained comedy without any real foothold on reality. THURSTON HALL is fun as a plate breaking scientist and RUTH DONNELLY has a few good one-liners as a studio receptionist, but other than that the gags are pretty hard to swallow at times.

Best that can be said is that LUCILLE BALL shows skill at this sort of comedy and looks pert and pretty throughout. OAKIE overplays the press agent with outlandish schemes but is fun to watch.

If you love Lucy, you'll find this acceptable fare but lacking in so many departments.

Annabel Allison (Lucille Ball) is a movie star but her life is made a lot more difficult by her dopey studio publicity man, Lanny Morgan (Jack Oakie). Lanny always seems to have some sort of stunt and they often seem to backfire. At the beginning of the film, he gets her to go to prison for just a few days as a publicity stunt...and then she can't get out and is stuck there for a month. Later, as another stunt, he gets her a job as a maid...and America's #1 and 2 most wanted criminals take everyone in the house hostage! Will Annabel's troubles ever end?

Lucille Ball was very good in this film--and it's one of her better parts from the era. As far as Jack Oakie goes, sometimes his character was just a bit too much--too much of a jerk and he occasionally mugged a bit too much. Still, despite this, it's a fun little comedy...enjoyable and a bit silly.

Considering that Lucille Ball and Jack Oakie were friends as well as neighbors in California, who made four movies together, and that both were highly regarded comic actors, you'd think that the two of them would make a great on-screen comedy team, right?

Nope.

Not in "The Affairs of Annabel," an okay but not particularly compelling short comedy. The writing is unexceptional, there are no memorable lines from the script, the plot is not even remotely realistic, and I have no idea how the Ball/Oakie relationship was intended to develop. I think the plot was supposed to build, so that Oakie slowly falls in love with his attractive young meal ticket, but that never really went anywhere. The production was no great accomplishment, either, with some fairly obvious cuts between Ball and her stunt woman during some of the martial arts scenes.

But the acting prevents this film from being a complete dud. Most of the cast are experienced comic actors who squeeze what they can out of the material they're given. And the movie was popular enough that it spawned a sequel, and apparently there were supposed to be more, except that Oakie held out for too much money and killed the deal, which is probably for the best. So what the heck? It's only an hour, so what do you have to lose? Have a glass of wine and enjoy a little early Lucille Ball. The movie will probably be over before you've finished your second glass.

This was an ok satire on the movie business from that famous red head, Lucille Ball. Also, a long forgotten actor named Jack Oakie lended Miss Ball support. This was actually better than I expected. Usually, comedies such as these that last a little over an hour aren't exactly a great film-viewing experience. But I enjoyed the director who was a little crazed and Hollywood's view on itself.

Back when Lucille Ball was a contract player at RKO she got to co- star with Jack Oakie in a pair of films where she was cast as Annabel Allison motion picture queen on the lot at Wonder Pictures. Oakie played her press agent who was constantly coming up with Lucy Ricardo like schemes to keep his client before the public eye. And she's feeling as put upon as Ricky Ricardo used to.

Oakie who plays the part much like Pat O'Brien would do at Warner Brothers or Lee Tracy at MGM has a mind that works 24/7. His latest scheme is to have Lucy go to a home and work as a maid incognito as part of a scheme to publicize her latest picture where she is a kind of Ms. Fixit maid.

She gets a chance to be a real heroine when a couple of robbers feign interest in eccentric Uncle Thurston Hall's invention. It's all I can say, but it's all done with typical slapstick like gags. This was an unusual part for Hall, usually he's the respectable establishment type poo-pooing ideas like he has in this film.

James Burke also memorable as a thick as a brick policeman.

I don't think Ball and Oakie had all that much chemistry between them. They did one more film with these same characters and RKO called it quits on a series. Still the film will have its moments for fans of the two leads.