The Fuller Brush Girl

Ah, this is fun. I've heard that in this movie, Ms. Ball was the closest to her future TV hit persona. It still was not "Lucy unleashed" as we later experienced on TV, but the action is unleashed. They may just have unrolled some new hijinks in this movie. Haven't seen the likes of some of it. The action got so rough at times that I understand Ms. Ball sustained several injuries, with ongoing effects. That tells me she did her own stuff. It was pret-ty wild ... She did a comedy with a young William Holden, "Miss Grant Takes Richmond," before this. But it was this Fuller Brush Girl movie that was used in discussions with CBS for her own TV show, to demonstrate that she could do comedy.

I didn't see Ms. Ball's early films until several years ago, and found it a novelty seeing her in them. She was mostly in drama, only doing comedy toward the end of her early film career, and there were only a few. It was very interesting to see her in high fashion 40's clothes and hair. She was very glamorous in most of them, often a show girl, then a sophisticated, haughty type. The personality was so different - nothing like her upcoming "Lucy." She was called the "Queen of B pictures," which could be said about some others also. She did a lot of bit and small parts before moving into leads. One of the weightier ones was "Lured" with George Sanders and Cedric Hardwicke. She also co-starred with a young Henry Fonda in "The Big Street." They dated for a while. He thought she was gorgeous, and she is - a very attractive woman. It was when she started doing the comedies that she knew she had found her niche, and the Ricardos started working on the idea of a TV show.

Hers is a hard work, good luck story with a happy ending. After toiling in the trenches for so many years, she came out way on top with her own show, which was a solid success for decades. As everyone knows, her reruns are still in demand. She's a legend. What if she had quit or been unwilling to strike out into the new media (at that time)? She went on to do other films, such as "Mame" with Robert Preston. Hey, I think she broke out of B movies!! Don't cry for Lucy. She came into her dream. Can't put her down either. She just kept popping up and up and up.

I think most comedy fans will enjoy this movie. It has the wonderful Eddie Albert, who definitely plays second fiddle to Lucy, but with vigor. Ha! Try it; I think you'll like it.

I'm a big I Love Lucy fan, don't get me wrong. But the slightly younger, slightly prettier, slightly more energetic Lucille Ball of the Fuller Brush Girl may actually have been Lucy at an even higher peak.

In fairness, some of her fence-climbing, bad-guy-fighting, and hurdle-leaping abilities in this film were probably those of a stunt double, which I don't believe she had on the TV show. But she's really engaged, perky, and comes alive in this film in a big way, unlike some of her post-I Love Lucy films, where she appears to be in some kind of a trance.

The scene where she is pushed out onto a burlesque stage, and forced to dance like a stripper, is one of the most hysterically funny Lucy moments I've ever seen, on TV or film.

She is ably supported by Eddie Albert as her lovable but slightly dimwitted husband, and a very capable cast. The plot is not only a comedy, but is also a murder mystery with surprise twists and turns, with as much credibility as a lot of other murder mystery films I've seen. And for fans of The Fuller Brush Man, there's a nice little surprise.

It's great to see Lucy as a young, highly-talented, up-and-coming starlet who is about to make her mark in a big, big way. This film should be required watching for all aspiring actors and actresses, as it shows exactly what Hollywood and the public are looking for -- and found in Lucille Ball.

Bacon may have directed, but the sight gags are pure Tashlin. His cartoonish style is perfect for out-and-out slapstick. Note the number of physical exaggerations, right out of storyboard animation. Actually, Tashlin's the perfect spark to get Ball's comedic career in motion, which I gather this movie did.

The plot line itself is patterned after the many occupational comedies of the time—The Good Humor Man (!950), The Yellow Cab Man (1950), etc.-- as Sally (Ball) and Humphrey (Albert) get hilariously mixed up with cops and crooks. Red Skelton even puts in an amusing cameo from his Fuller Brush Man (1948).

The gags fly fast and furious maybe too much so, along with an overlong climax. Still, the set-ups are consistently inventive, while Ball gets to show a lot of sex appeal along with the clowning. Albert strives manfully to keep up, but it's Ball who gets the close-ups and the spotlight. Catch her versatility, for example, as she moves effortlessly into her amusing nightclub act.

I don't know why the pro's consistently downgrade the film—TCM giving it only two stars out of four. True, the slapstick gets a little frenetic at times, but the results remain pretty darn funny and provide a great early glimpse of TV's top comedienne in the making.

The Fuller Brush Girl is one hilarious, light-hearted romp which shows off the comedic abilities of Eddie Albert and especially Lucy, who shows us a kind of dress rehearsal for her later antics on TV. The plot is complicated and full of incident. I can't understand the tepid reviews that this film gets, although Lucy's TV shows did not always get the kind of critical respect that they deserved, either. If you blink, you'll miss Lucy's chum Barbara Pepper as a housewife watching TV with her husband as the principals chase each other across the roof of an apartment building, colliding with the TV antennas and playing hilarious havoc with what is shown on the TV screens. The house that the Simpsons live in that Sally goes to visit is the house from the Hazel TV series, with a different doorway. I can't imagine any Lucy fan not enjoying this film, as it is probably the one film out of the many she did which really prefigures the Lucy TV character. I've read that Lucy suffered several mishaps in the making of this film, like getting powder in her eye from a rigged-up switchboard, and suffering from stomach troubles as the result of imbibing colored water substituting for wine. The trades at the time of this film's release, (1950) seemed to be in favor of this slapstick romp, and it's hard not to believe that the CBS executives didn't take a long look at this before green-lighting I Love Lucy. This is now available from Warner Archive, downloadable as a purchase from Vudu and Amazon, and is being shown on Antenna TV. See it by all means.

This was one of Lucille Ball's last theatrical films prior to the debut of "I Love Lucy", and from the looks of things it was the final primer for her role as Lucy Ricardo. "The Fuller Brush Girl" was filmed in 1950 as a sequel to the very popular "The Fuller Brush Man", which starred Lucille's male counterpart, Red Skelton.

It's the story of a young couple, Sally and Humphrey, who want to get married, buy a house and live happily ever after. But just as they are able to place a down payment on their dream house, Sally causes an electrical fire at the shipping company where she and Humphrey work and loses her job. Undaunted Sally decides to try her hand at door-to-door sales as a Fuller Brush Girl (she actually sells cosmetics, not brushes). Meanwhile back at the shipping company Humphrey is promoted to shipping manager, only he doesn't realize that he is being set-up as the fall guy by a smuggling ring. Through a hilarious set of circumstances the bumbling Fuller Brush Girl and the smuggling ring get mixed-up with each other and all hell breaks loose. In the ensuing tangle, there is murder, talking parrots, police chases, a very funny striptease and some of the funniest sight-gags ever put on film.

The cast includes a very young Eddie Albert as Humphrey, Jeff Donnell as Sally's best friend and a who's Who cast of character actors.

If you are looking for a movie with Lucille Ball at her comical best, this is the one.

As a trivia note, the musical number in the film "Put The Blame On Mame" is the same recording used to dub Rita Hayworth's voice in the film "Gilda".