The Facts of Life

Lucy and Bob in a 1960 romantic, satiric comedy. What more could you want?

This is very aware for its time and has some wonderful period scenes. Hope and Ball seem to have very complementary comedy styles which play extremely well off each other.

This movie came out way back in 1960, yet Bob Hope mentions problems raising kids in the electronic age. How forward looking.

The black and white format takes nothing away from this movie, including the scenes of Acapulco when they're alone together.

All in all, an extremely enjoyable movie. I like Lucy much better in this style than her slapstick routine, although she's great in that too. Give this one a look sometime, it's worth it.

Bob Hope and Lucille Ball team up very nicely here as each steps away from their well-known screen personas to play a suburban everyman and everywoman who unexpectedly fall for each other, despite the complication of being married to other people. The comedy includes some surprisingly tart satire on the claustrophobic lifestyles of the 50's suburban/country club/den mother families that we all know so well from "Leave it to Beaver," etc. But the big laughs come as the two sneak around town to try to be alone together.

This is a pretty good movie, as far as situation comedies go. Very typical of the movies Hope was making at that time. Pepole who have only seen the Hope and Crosby Road shows think Hops did only one-liner jokes, actually more of his movies were in the vein of this one. I watched all these movies when they came out in the theaters. I started watching Ball and Hope in movies when I was 8 years old, and they were young people. Mostly, I get a kick out of reading the reader comments. Mature for it's time, Advanced for movies made in that era etc. This was NOT considered a racy movie for the times. There were many with a much more " like today's movies" story line and script. The bedroom farce movies were being made and shown to general public audiences i the 40, and take a look at some of the movies made in the late 20s and 30s, before censorship stepped in. They didn't use swear words and the language they use today in movies in the 30s, but those people made some really "broad minded?" movies then. This was just a run of the mill, cutest movie of the times. If you liked Hope in this, you will also like, That Certain Feeling-- 1956-- Bob Hope and Eva Maire Saint The Iron Pettycoat---- 1956-- Bob Hope and Katherine Hepburn I'll Take Sweden------ 1965-- Bob Hope, Dina merrill You don't want to over look Bob Hope in Beau James--- 1957. Tis is the story of the flamboyant mayor of New York City.

I was surprised by this film and the quality of work by its two stars. We always think of Lucy as goofy or screwy and Hope either swinging a golf club or playing wingman for Bing Crosby. Billed as a romantic comedy, Hope and Ball aim for the funny bone. But there are some serious adult issues raised. This tasty confection, made in 1960, I think is a lot of fun (though it could have been better paced and the contrivances are a bit much) and it has two terrific old pros at work in roles that you just wouldn't expect them to be in. Lucy looked pretty good when she got all dolled up. And Hope is ageless as ever. I thought they had some chemistry between them. Also includes Ruth Hussey, Louie Nye and Dom DeFore (Ozzie and Harriet's neighbor).

It's an unmerry marital mix-up amongst the country club set when bored society wife Lucille Ball finds herself inexplicably drawn to Bob Hope, her neighbor and also already married. Melvin Frank comedy doesn't so much expose the funny desperation of the Marital Blahs as it does tweeze it relentlessly (Frank is not the gentle sort of writer-director--he goes for the gut, much like Neil Simon). Ball is thoroughly up to the challenge of a sharp, brittle suburban comedy, but Frank has given old pal Bob Hope the same type of groaning witticisms he supplied him with back in the 1940s (Lucy: "You're a painter??" Bob: "What do you want me to do? Cut off my ear?"). Playing to the camera, referencing Francis X. Bushman and riffing on his own stand-up routine, Hope is the wrong actor for a sophisticated comedy about infidelity. Too bad, because Lucy does very well, the black-and-white cinematography is expressive, and occasionally the writing rises above smarminess to actually reveal something substantial and amusing about marriages in a rut. ** from ****