This is not a total failure, as the three principles do mingle well, and they do try. Mason, the most dramatically successful of the three actors, actually could play comedy on occasion (think of him as the "chubby chasing" old goat in GEORGY GIRL) but his best work was in drama. In fact two years before this film his best remembered performance (as Norman Main in A STAR IS BORN) ended with that classic drowning suicide. Hardly a chuckle in that - though to be fair the complete film was to spoof some swashbucklers that Main was making).
Susan and Lorenzo Vega are an up-scale married couple (he is a chemist working on an insecticide) who have been married five years, but who seem to be drifting apart. The near explosion occurs when they are having dinner with two of Susan's friends (Nathalie Schaefer and Ralph Dunke) who are a wee bit too snobby and complacent for Lorenzo to really enjoy the company of. And since he is preoccupied with the deadline of testing his new powerful insecticide, he is not in the mood for their nonsense. He explodes at the dinner, causing them to leave in anger. Susan is also angry as they are her friends. So Lorenzo and she have a spat, and he does not sleep that night.
Enter Darling, the Guardian Angel of Susan. This is Mason. At first Susan is amazed that he resembles James Mason, but it soon develops that his features are not really like Mason's but she sees Mason because the actor is her favorite actor. He is trying to convince her that she has to work harder to save her marriage with Lorenzo. Susan has to try to be more supportive of her husband.
The complications that develop somewhat resemble another film of a few years earlier: THE BISHOP'S WIFE. There the angel (Cary Grant) falls for the wife (Loretta Young) of the Bishop (David Niven) he is trying to correct the religious motivations of. Grant spends far too much time "entertaining" Young, until Niven becomes jealous - hardly the intention of the angel's boss. Here Darling is not pursuing his charge. Instead he is fighting her off for awhile because of the way she sees him. There is a cute moment when Lucy is watching a film starring Mason and sees herself replacing the heroine. The interesting thing is that the film is reminiscent of Mason's original acting fame as one of those men (like George Sanders and Eric Von Stroheim) you love to hate - the star who whipped the villainess to death in THE MAN IN GRAY, or the nasty uncle of the piano protégée in THE SEVENTH VEIL. He is a sheik who is mistreating a female prisoner (who of course is falling for him while he does so). As a spoof on Mason's background it is mildly good.
Eventually he manages to get Susan back on track, leading to her going on the trek to Yosemite Park to test the new insecticide - to help her husband. And of course, being Lucille Ball, her attempts just drive Desi up the wall.
It is a tolerable if unmemorable comedy. That is the best I can say for it. But it has some moments worth waiting for. And with it, we leave the last of the three Lucy-Desi films. A curious bunch. Their best work is still the television series.
Susan and Lorenzo Vega are an up-scale married couple (he is a chemist working on an insecticide) who have been married five years, but who seem to be drifting apart. The near explosion occurs when they are having dinner with two of Susan's friends (Nathalie Schaefer and Ralph Dunke) who are a wee bit too snobby and complacent for Lorenzo to really enjoy the company of. And since he is preoccupied with the deadline of testing his new powerful insecticide, he is not in the mood for their nonsense. He explodes at the dinner, causing them to leave in anger. Susan is also angry as they are her friends. So Lorenzo and she have a spat, and he does not sleep that night.
Enter Darling, the Guardian Angel of Susan. This is Mason. At first Susan is amazed that he resembles James Mason, but it soon develops that his features are not really like Mason's but she sees Mason because the actor is her favorite actor. He is trying to convince her that she has to work harder to save her marriage with Lorenzo. Susan has to try to be more supportive of her husband.
The complications that develop somewhat resemble another film of a few years earlier: THE BISHOP'S WIFE. There the angel (Cary Grant) falls for the wife (Loretta Young) of the Bishop (David Niven) he is trying to correct the religious motivations of. Grant spends far too much time "entertaining" Young, until Niven becomes jealous - hardly the intention of the angel's boss. Here Darling is not pursuing his charge. Instead he is fighting her off for awhile because of the way she sees him. There is a cute moment when Lucy is watching a film starring Mason and sees herself replacing the heroine. The interesting thing is that the film is reminiscent of Mason's original acting fame as one of those men (like George Sanders and Eric Von Stroheim) you love to hate - the star who whipped the villainess to death in THE MAN IN GRAY, or the nasty uncle of the piano protégée in THE SEVENTH VEIL. He is a sheik who is mistreating a female prisoner (who of course is falling for him while he does so). As a spoof on Mason's background it is mildly good.
Eventually he manages to get Susan back on track, leading to her going on the trek to Yosemite Park to test the new insecticide - to help her husband. And of course, being Lucille Ball, her attempts just drive Desi up the wall.
It is a tolerable if unmemorable comedy. That is the best I can say for it. But it has some moments worth waiting for. And with it, we leave the last of the three Lucy-Desi films. A curious bunch. Their best work is still the television series.