When the brains behind a bookie racketeers the worst secretary in the world, you know he's up to something. "I'll take that girl!", determined William Holden tells curmudgeon secretarial school professor Charles Lane who is perplexed but fooled. Lucille Ball is the clumsy secretary who ruins typewriters like she was skeet shooting. Ribbons pop off their axles, the carriage shoots off like a champagne cork, and her waste basket is never empty. So in other words, she's perfect for the job of front for Holden's gambling operation.With tough talking James Gleason and perpetually confused Frank McHugh as Holden's staff and Janis Carter as Holden's jealous girlfriend, Lucy doesn't realize what she's up against which is why she ends up doing better than anybody suspected she would. Of course, it doesn't hurt that her a uncle (George Cleveland) is a prominent judge and one of her suitors (Stephen Dunne) is the assistant D.A.As Ball turns Bill upside down with her interference in his operation, he plots to get her to quit only to make her more determined, even though she does briefly quit after he makes a pass. This wasn't Lucy's first opportunity for wacky comedy, but the three farce comedies she made at Columbia showed the creation of Lucy Ricardo, Carmichael and Carter. Gleason and Carter get some really good lines, while it's ironic to see Lucy with Lane (who appeared on a majority of her sitcoms) and Holden who was memorable as himself on one of "I Love Lucy's" most notable episodes. This rates A+ as a smart comedy about corruption, with city slickers of tough attitudes deliciously taken down several notches thanks to "that girl".

Lucille Ball made this film couple years before starring in "I Love Lucy" and in many ways she plays a character with a lot in common with her Lucy Ricardo--clumsy, ditsy and yet quite eager."Miss Grant Takes Richmond" begins with Lucy in a secretarial school. She is utterly hopeless and stands almost no chance of graduating. However, oddly, a guy (William Holden) comes to the school looking for a secretary and picks, of all people, Lucy. You find out later that he's actually running a bookmaking business and wants a really stupid person to pose as a secretary--and just sit there and ask no questions. However, he doesn't anticipate that while Lucy's character isn't very bright, she is full of enthusiasm and drive. So, instead of just sitting around doing nothing, she decides to 'help' Holden with his business (he's posing as a real estate broker). Without his knowledge, she begins making business deals and suddenly Holden and his friends find out they actually have an honest to goodness land development--and new owners! What are they to do? They can't just fire her and abandon the deal, as she has a very well-connected family--including a local judge! What are they to do? Aside from one rather bad slapstick scene where Holden things Lucy was buried alive, the film actually is pretty clever and fun. While the film isn't all that deep, it is enjoyable and a nice vehicle for Lcuy.

Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949) directed by Lloyd Bacon, stars Lucille Ball as Ellen Grant, probably the worst student the Woodruff Secretarial School has ever graduated. William Holden plays Dick Richmond, a bookie who needs a naive person to lend respectability to his illegal gambling operation. Naturally, he chooses Ellen Grant.The movie is totally predictable, and very much a product of the 1940's. To my knowledge, not a single person of color appears in the film. Bookmakers have a code of professional ethics, to which they scrupulously adhere. When a boss kisses a secretary, she's flattered, not offended, and so on. (Some things in our society have really changed for the better in 56 years!)By 1949, it was obvious that Lucille Ball was no longer starlet material, and the director was intelligent enough to recognize her abilities as a comic actor. Many of the scenes in the movie could have come right out of the "I Love Lucy" show, which began two years later. (Incidentally, co-star William Holden appeared in a memorable episode of "I Love Lucy.")As one reviewer has already noted, this film is for Lucy fans only. However, if you *are* a Lucy fan, the video is worth finding and seeing.

Miss Grant Takes Richmond is an OK comedy starring Lucille Ball as a somewhat dizzy secretary who is hired by Mr. Richmond, a bookie using a phony real estate business as a front. Lucy, of course, doesn't know this, and she believes that he will build low-cost homes for her friends. This film is, unfortunately, not very funny. There are a couple of humorous sequences, but overall it should have been funnier. There's also very little slapstick, which is strange considering that Lucy was so adept at it. She and Holden do have some chemistry, though, and the supporting cast is good. A 5 out of 10.