I think even die-hard Lucy fans, if pressed, would have to admit that there was something missing here in both the story line and the comedy elements. The Lucy/Ricky charisma of the TV show just wasn't there, and in retrospect, it's a bit sad to realize that the trouble in the Lucille Ball-Desi Arnaz marriage was being recreated in the dialog between their characters in this film. You wouldn't have known it at the time of course because these things were kept hush-hush for the sake of the TV show; I didn't know it back then because I was just a kid watching and enjoying "I Love Lucy". Oh well, one grows up to have those illusions shattered.
At least they look good together on screen, especially in the Technicolor format, even if they're fighting with each other most of the time. James Mason steps in as the ostensible guardian angel to try and help things along in the troubled marriage, but even he's absent once things get rolling during the camping trip. The 'Shadows of Africa' movie interlude had me going for a while, thinking it was a real movie credit for Mason until Ms. Ball showed up as the replacement Jungle Lady for the uncredited Marilyn Maxwell. That was probably the cleverest device the picture offered.
Back to that camping trip, I couldn't help thinking that the film makers borrowed a page from the Western genre when Ricky, er, Lorenzo Vega serenaded Susan (that would be Lucy) by the campfire with the title song. That was the highlight of the picture for my money, better than the tent gimmick or Susan's sleeping bag hip-hop that might have been better served with a laugh track, but otherwise just ho-hum within the story itself. For TV and movie fans, the other nice diversions were the characters of Nancy Kulp as the Vega's easily irritated housemaid, and Natalie Schafer in a decade prior warm-up for the role of wealthy Mrs. Thurston Howell on 'Gilligan's Island'. All said and done though, you're better entertained watching any single episode of "I Love Lucy".
At least they look good together on screen, especially in the Technicolor format, even if they're fighting with each other most of the time. James Mason steps in as the ostensible guardian angel to try and help things along in the troubled marriage, but even he's absent once things get rolling during the camping trip. The 'Shadows of Africa' movie interlude had me going for a while, thinking it was a real movie credit for Mason until Ms. Ball showed up as the replacement Jungle Lady for the uncredited Marilyn Maxwell. That was probably the cleverest device the picture offered.
Back to that camping trip, I couldn't help thinking that the film makers borrowed a page from the Western genre when Ricky, er, Lorenzo Vega serenaded Susan (that would be Lucy) by the campfire with the title song. That was the highlight of the picture for my money, better than the tent gimmick or Susan's sleeping bag hip-hop that might have been better served with a laugh track, but otherwise just ho-hum within the story itself. For TV and movie fans, the other nice diversions were the characters of Nancy Kulp as the Vega's easily irritated housemaid, and Natalie Schafer in a decade prior warm-up for the role of wealthy Mrs. Thurston Howell on 'Gilligan's Island'. All said and done though, you're better entertained watching any single episode of "I Love Lucy".