Son ange gardien

Although "The Long, Long Trailer" is an average film, it seems like a classic next to this anemic followup by Lucy and Desi, their second feature film during the run of "I Love Lucy." Lucy has a guardian angel who only she can see and she claims he looks like James Mason, which seems reasonable as he is played by James Mason. Lucy and Desi try to make the most of it, but the magic of the TV show is missing, thanks to a lame script about insecticides. Mason looks bemused, probably wondering what the heck he's doing in this movie. The cast features Schafer ("Gilligan's Island") as a meddling cousin and Kulp ("Beverly Hillbillies") as an impertinent maid.

After the classic "Long Long Trailor"(1954) raked in millions at international box-offices, MGM allowed Desi Arnaz to produce a follow-up that was based on an old script that Metro was going to star Lucy in with William Powell back in 1945. Well this story about a married couple- a scientist and his domestic wife who seeks advice from an Angel played by the superb James Mason- does not work that well. Lucy is excellent and she gives it her all but the plot line is too fanciful. Some sections are quite amusing but overall it is not a success. Also Lucy looked so beautiful in their previous film but atrocious set design and flat color cinematography do nothing for Lucy's looks or the visual aspect of the film..It makes it look like its a lower budgeted effort. Desi did produce it on the cheap at their Desilu studios and it does look it. At least if the film had the gorgeous cinematography of "Trailor" it would not be such a let down. Nonetheless it has its entertaining moments and Lucy and Desi fans should eat it up.

I haven't been a big fan of The Long, Long Trailer. It has some funny bits, but there's a lot of yelling at the end, it goes from funny to yelling, and that whole thing about her collecting big rocks! Forever Darling actually begins as a fairly witty and sharp film--it had been written for someone else--and Desi gets to play someone different. James Mason is a good sport--playing a guardian angel, doing a parody of himself (maybe in Botany Bay) in a parody of Mogambo film-within-the film. He's not really adept at situation comedy, although he did well in a few comedic films like Touch of Larceny. The film switches gears at the end, with a lot of slapstick yelling in a swamp. And the reason they took an old script was to quickly capitalize on the success of Trailer. Its failure ended their joint film career. But it's faster-paced than Trailer and it's a reasonable time-passer.

Forever Darling was one of the attempts to make Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, arguably the hottest show business couple at the time this came out to make a jump to the big screen as a comedy team. It was mildly amusing, like a long episode of I Love Lucy.

The passion's just kind of gone out of the marriage of Lucy and Desi, sadly as it was in real life. She's a socialite and he's a scientist and that was the part of the film that I had the most trouble swallowing.

So after one boring evening once too often with Lucy's idiot cousin Natalie Schaefer and husband Ralph Dumke, Desi's ready to call it quits. But Lucy's guardian angel who appears in the form of her favorite movie star James Mason advises that she take more of an interest in Desi's work as a scientist. He's looking for the ultimate bug spray.

Lucy's not an outdoor girl, but she goes on a camping trip with Desi and that last third of the film is just one I Love Lucy episode. The inflatable rubber raft truly gets the better of both of them.

As for Mason he has an extended sequence when Lucy and Desi are watching a film that stars James Mason and Lucy in a blond wig. Mason satirizes himself rather nicely. For the rest of the film he looks somewhat uncomfortable.

Fans of Lucille Ball and they sure are legion in the part of the country I reside in which is Western New York state should be pleased with Forever Darling. But three episodes of I Love Lucy will satisfy your craving better.

First of all, I am a big I Love Lucy fan. I own this movie as part of the three movie DVD set (Forever Darling; Long Long Trailer; Too Many Girls). This is the least enjoyable of the three.

Even being a big Lucy/Desi fan, I didn't find much to enjoy about this movie. Even the funny scenes weren't funny. This is a pretty boring movie. It's kind of like a long, unfunny I Love Lucy episode in color. And when the two main characters fight, you can't help but think of how Lucy and Desi fought in real life.

I will say that the camping scenes looked so beautiful that it made me want to take my husband up on his standing offer to go camping together.