The Facts of Life

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.

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).

In some ways, this is like an "I Love Lucy" show with cursing, lots of drinking, and centering on adultery. Ball and Hope work well together.

The plot begins inauspiciously: We see Hope doing a comedy gig as MC at a local event. We hear Ball's thoughts about how crass and unfunny he is. (And he -- this character, not Hope himself -- is.) Because of circumstances that throw them together, however, they are very soon sexually and romantically involved with each other.

If one can get past this, which I could, the movie is sophisticated (well, for its time) and often funny. It was probably a courageous move for both of them to step into such a risqué plot.

The supporting cast is good. Ruth Hussey plays Hope's wife. As always, she is good. But seeing her is sad: Though she looks fine, her voice had aged badly. Irene Dunne's did too. Though I am crazy about Dunne, her last couple movies are painful for this reason. Hussey sounds like an elderly woman, which she really was not. Ball's voice had gone the opposite direction: She speaks almost in the basso profondo of her later television series.

If this turns up, give it a try. It's surpassingly good.

One of their later screen teamings, THE FACTS OF LIFE was a 1960 comedy, rather adult for its time, where Bob and Lucy play two friends, married to others, who usually participate in a group vacation together and through some freak circumstances , end up on the vacation alone this year and grow so close they actually drift into an affair and consider leaving their spouses. I have to admit that this movie was surprising to me when I first saw it a few months ago, so I'm sure it raised a few eyebrows in the 1960's...infidelity was most likely a bold subject for a movie comedy and I doubt if it was something Bob or Lucy had done prior to this. but for this day and age, this was a very adult movie comedy that probably didn't do the business it deserved in 1960 because of its "contorversial" storyline. Though it would hardly be considered controversial today, this film was probably quite the departure for its stars and as a curio of cinema history, it is definitely worth a look.

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.