In order to become the richest girl in America, a heiress must marry in haste.In order to become the richest girl in America, a heiress must marry in haste.In order to become the richest girl in America, a heiress must marry in haste.
Photos
Jack Albertson
- Reporter
- (unconfirmed)
Eddie Acuff
- Gas Station Attendant
- (uncredited)
Joseph E. Bernard
- Man Watering Lawn
- (uncredited)
Stanley Blystone
- Police Radio Announcer
- (uncredited)
Hal Craig
- Cop with Summons
- (uncredited)
Ralph Dunn
- Kennel Guard
- (uncredited)
Dick Elliott
- Henry
- (uncredited)
Billy Franey
- Hobo Witness at End
- (uncredited)
Gus Glassmire
- Man
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis is the first feature film in which Lucille Ball received top billing. In less than 20 years she would own RKO, the studio that made this picture.
- GoofsAlthough a good portion of the film takes place driving between New York City and Reno, Nevada, a lot of the time they are obviously driving through the extensive orange groves of southern California.
- Quotes
Anthony Joseph 'Tony' Anthony: I guess ham just brings out the poetry in me. In some people poetry brings out the ham.
- SoundtracksThe Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond
(ca 1745) (uncredited)
Lyrics by Robert Burns
Hummed, whistled and sung by James Ellison with modified lyrics
Featured review
Far-fetched bit of fluff starring Lucille Ball as an heiress who pays a complete stranger to marry her. Ditch digger James Ellison is the lucky groom. Why she does this is because of a stipulation in her father's will that says she can't get her inheritance unless she marries a "plain American." Apparently her father was worried about foreign gold diggers seducing his daughter for her money. I've seen this theme in a lot of movies from the '30s so I guess there was an epidemic of international gold diggers fleecing unsuspecting American heiresses back then. Once married, Lucy will inherit the money and then she can divorce Ellison and marry the guy she's really interested in, foreign gold digger Lee Bowman. Guess Dad knew what he was doing, after all. Anyway, Lucy plans to divorce Ellison but he gets ticked off and decides to divorce her first to publicly humiliate her or something. I was a little unclear about the reasoning there but they had to have a conflict to fill time, I suppose.
This is a rather lame screwball comedy that suffers from having unlikable characters doing unrelatable things. Lucy's pretty but there's very little of her comedic abilities on display here. Her character is insufferable. The only scene I can think of that hinted at the greatness to come for her is the scene where she and the dog tussle over some bacon. James Ellison is a sort of poor man's Joel McCrea. It's hard to really root for him either since he was mercenary enough to marry a woman he just met for money. It's a staple of screwball comedies to put characters in extraordinary situations and have them act as absurdly as possible. But it only works when you like the characters. If you don't, their madcap antics are just annoying. Don't even get me started on how this affects the romantic element of the movie. And what was with that dark and totally out of place scene where it's implied the two guys are about to rape Lucy? Creepy. Anything with Lucy is worth seeing but this is one where I doubt you'll be in any hurry to rewatch it.
This is a rather lame screwball comedy that suffers from having unlikable characters doing unrelatable things. Lucy's pretty but there's very little of her comedic abilities on display here. Her character is insufferable. The only scene I can think of that hinted at the greatness to come for her is the scene where she and the dog tussle over some bacon. James Ellison is a sort of poor man's Joel McCrea. It's hard to really root for him either since he was mercenary enough to marry a woman he just met for money. It's a staple of screwball comedies to put characters in extraordinary situations and have them act as absurdly as possible. But it only works when you like the characters. If you don't, their madcap antics are just annoying. Don't even get me started on how this affects the romantic element of the movie. And what was with that dark and totally out of place scene where it's implied the two guys are about to rape Lucy? Creepy. Anything with Lucy is worth seeing but this is one where I doubt you'll be in any hurry to rewatch it.
Details
- Runtime1 hour 5 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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