The Affairs of Annabel

Lucille Ball stars as Annabel Allison, movie star. Jack Oakie, studio publicity man, has a great idea: He talks Annabel into getting caught stealing—a jail record, he argues, will give a great boost to her current picture, a prison drama. Annabel goes along with the gag, spends 30 days in jail, gets Oakie fired, has a change of heart and gets him his job back...all in the first 10 minutes of the movie.

Lucy is wild and blustery in this hectic comedy that keeps the jokes flying at a furious pace. Oakie is fairly obnoxious but eventually likable enough...at least, if you don't mind a pushy big mouth whose heart is mostly in the right place after all.

Familiar supporting actors add their own particular brands of humor: Ruth Donnelly is the wise cracking studio secretary, Fritz Feld is the eccentric European director who wants to make a "serious picture," Bradley Page is the exasperated studio boss.

Lucy ends up working as a maid (prep work for her next movie role, of course) for snooty Elizabeth Risdon, whose screwy inventor brother Thurston Hall brings home some "investors" who turn out to be crooks, and they're all trapped in the house....

It's very nutty and makes no sense at all—but I guess it is an interesting angle on the movie business, and it really is full of good laughs.

My favorite line is Lucy objecting to the maid picture: "You mean that piece of literary junk they've had around the studio for years? Why, they'd have to rewrite that before the moths would eat it."

This was an ok satire on the movie business from that famous red head, Lucille Ball. Also, a long forgotten actor named Jack Oakie lended Miss Ball support. This was actually better than I expected. Usually, comedies such as these that last a little over an hour aren't exactly a great film-viewing experience. But I enjoyed the director who was a little crazed and Hollywood's view on itself.

Considering that Lucille Ball and Jack Oakie were friends as well as neighbors in California, who made four movies together, and that both were highly regarded comic actors, you'd think that the two of them would make a great on-screen comedy team, right?

Nope.

Not in "The Affairs of Annabel," an okay but not particularly compelling short comedy. The writing is unexceptional, there are no memorable lines from the script, the plot is not even remotely realistic, and I have no idea how the Ball/Oakie relationship was intended to develop. I think the plot was supposed to build, so that Oakie slowly falls in love with his attractive young meal ticket, but that never really went anywhere. The production was no great accomplishment, either, with some fairly obvious cuts between Ball and her stunt woman during some of the martial arts scenes.

But the acting prevents this film from being a complete dud. Most of the cast are experienced comic actors who squeeze what they can out of the material they're given. And the movie was popular enough that it spawned a sequel, and apparently there were supposed to be more, except that Oakie held out for too much money and killed the deal, which is probably for the best. So what the heck? It's only an hour, so what do you have to lose? Have a glass of wine and enjoy a little early Lucille Ball. The movie will probably be over before you've finished your second glass.

Annabel Allison (Lucille Ball) is a movie star but her life is made a lot more difficult by her dopey studio publicity man, Lanny Morgan (Jack Oakie). Lanny always seems to have some sort of stunt and they often seem to backfire. At the beginning of the film, he gets her to go to prison for just a few days as a publicity stunt...and then she can't get out and is stuck there for a month. Later, as another stunt, he gets her a job as a maid...and America's #1 and 2 most wanted criminals take everyone in the house hostage! Will Annabel's troubles ever end?

Lucille Ball was very good in this film--and it's one of her better parts from the era. As far as Jack Oakie goes, sometimes his character was just a bit too much--too much of a jerk and he occasionally mugged a bit too much. Still, despite this, it's a fun little comedy...enjoyable and a bit silly.

It's easy to see why one viewer would love this movie and another couldn't stand it. I have had both reactions the two times I saw it.

Boy, I loved this the first time I viewed it and then was totally bored on the second viewing 10 years later, so it's hard to evaluate. Suffice to say it does have it's share of laughs which isn't surprising since Lucille Ball and Jack Oakie star. However, the humor is so corny one might see no humor in this - it all depends on what you like.

It WAS interesting to see a young (26 or 27-year-old) Ball, who was very attractive woman at that age. Oakie is okay because he looks funny. He doesn't even have to say anything to get a laugh, which sometimes is better because he played a number of roles over the years in which he delivered a lot of stupid lines!

Like a lot of comedies, it's very silly but the shortness of the film (68 minutes) helps in that regard, preventing it from becoming too silly for too long. There were some funny supporting roles in here, too. Like me, you might really laugh at this or think it's a waste of time: hard to say.