The Long, Long Trailer

I first saw this movie when I was 12 in the movie theater, I never forgot it over the years. It remains one of my all time favorites to this day. The scenes where Lucy falls out the door into the mud and when she is trying to fix their dinner in the trailer while Ricky drives are hysterical. Another of my favorites is when they are going up the mountain and Lucy knows she didn't get rid of the rocks Desi told her too and the mountain is sooooooo steep! I was in a situation once where we were traveling up a very high mountain with a steep incline on my side of the car and all I could think of was this movie and that scene. I was tickled to death when I could finally get my own copy to watch whenever I needed a good laugh. Lucy & Desi are great together.

Impulsive Tacy somehow convinces obliging husband-to-be Nicky that they should buy a trailer to live in after they marry. She has her heart set on one particular model that looks great in the ad, but when they find out how small it really is, they're ready to go back to the idea of the house. But then Tacy sees it - the long, long trailer!

The movie is really nothing more than an extended comedy skit in which Nicky, Tacy, and the long, long trailer travel from California to Colorado. It's very skillfully executed with nice variations in the pacing and some very tastefully applied restraint. The highlight of the movie is the going over the mountain scene, which starts off in very understated manner and slowly builds to hilarious crescendo as they climb to the top of the pass. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, playing their characters from "I Love Lucy", work perfectly together and make this movie a fun time for everyone.

Thanks to IMDb, I never realized Vincente Minnelli directed this film! Riding high on the popularity of "I Love Lucy," this film is essentially Lucy and Ricky on the road, "disguised" as Nicki and Tacy. Whoever they might be called, this film is fun. Too bad they didn't include a cameo of Ted and Elsie too! I think that Minnelli perfectly captured the enthusiasm of "America in the Road" during the 1950s with its fascination for travel.

The comedy seems rather stilted at times, perhaps because it wasn't filmed in front of a live studio audience, and there are no really big laugh out loud moments. Still, the movie is a neat little gem from the carefree 50s when all we had to worry about was keeping up with the Jones'.

In the midst of their wildly successful run through "I Love Lucy," Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz made a movie. In "The Long, Long Trailer" they play newlyweds Nicky and Tacy. Nicky's job apparently requires him to travel a lot, and Tacy comes up with the idea of buying a trailer as their new home so that she can accompany him wherever he goes - and what a trailer. It's a beast. It's huge. And Tacy doesn't seem to understand the challenge involved in pulling the thing around the country.

The basic story revolves around the fact that the purchase of this trailer almost destroys Nicky and Tacy's new marriage. Much of the humour in this revolves around the trials of driving with the trailer hooked to the car. The movie for the most part lacks the slapstick kind of humour that "I Love Lucy" was famous for - with perhaps the exception of a scene in which Tacy tries to cook in the trailer while Nicky is driving. Watching Nicky try to back the trailer into the driveway of Tacy's uncle and aunt's house and almost destroying the house is also quite funny. Otherwise, the humour is lower key than you'd expect, and the movie is sometimes even tense. The scenes in which Nicky has to pull the trailer up a long and windy mountain road is actually rather unsettling.

This certainly isn't as good as "I Love Lucy" but in its own way it's fun, and lets us see Lucy and Desi doing something a little different. (6/10)

The Long Long Trailer stars Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz playing very similar characters to the Ricardos who came into our homes weekly on CBS via I Love Lucy. They're newlyweds and Lucy talks Desi into buying a mobile home, a really big trailer which would intimidate anyone who's not licensed to drive big rigs. Except Lucy that is and she's not doing the driving in most of the picture.

If The Long Long Trailer proves anything it proves one should have such a license to drive these things. That thing is a menace in amateur hands. But at least Desi knows he's an amateur.

Although Lucille Ball got to do her usual scatterbrained thing that wreaks havoc on all around, I actually thought that Desi Arnaz got the best laughs in the film. Seeing him trying to back that trailer into her aunt's driveway, his adventure trying to take his first shower in the trailer with an outlet that won't cooperate, and then trying to drive through Yosemite National Park up a steep mountain road.

That was at times more scary than funny. But it was funny because Lucy insisted on bringing her pet rock collection along adding to the weight. That made her a generation ahead of her time.

If you're an old or a new fan of the Ricardos you will definitely appreciate The Long Long Trailer.