This "It Happened One Night" on wheels suffers from the casting of the comparatively dull James Ellison opposite the hitting-sparks-on-all- cylinders Lucille Ball in her first number one leading star role at RKO. Ellison looks a bit like Joel McCrea. In fact, McCrea would actually have made the ideal leading man for this picture. He is not only so much more charismatic but has exactly the right screen personality that would have paired perfectly with Lucy's. On the other hand, Ellison is always outclassed. We know how the picture is sure to end almost right from the start. The script has no suspense. True, it could have been made a good deal more amusing if the writers had been game to tackle the plot in a more satiric fashion. The two lead characters needed to be far more personable and individual, but still satiric and even exotic. But for some reason, while Lucy Ball has the right go-for-it approach, Ellison and the rest of the cast, plus the writers and director Garson Kanin keep holding back and playing safe. Available on an excellent Warner Archive DVD.

This odd little movie sets out to prove that any white American male, randomly selected off the street, can easily outsmart a team consisting of a foreigner, a woman and a black person.Lucille Ball's recently-deceased father insists, in his will, that she must marry a "plain American" to inherit his fortune. So she offers money to various "plain American" men on the street in return for agreeing to marry her, and finally one accepts. After she marries the man, Ball sets off for Reno in the company of the foreign husband she really wants to marry and her black "yowza, ma'am" chauffeur, to get a divorce and collect her father's inheritance. But our smug and somewhat smarmy "plain American" blocks her at every turn, which includes forcibly putting her over his shoulder and kidnapping her, soaking her with a hose, and locking her in a trailer while driving recklessly through rough terrain, until she flees in panic and is nearly raped by two passers-by. Yeah, quite a laugh riot, all right.But on the plus side, being saved from a near-rape seems to cause Lucille Ball to fall in love with the "plain American." So there you go.The phrase "mighty white of you" makes its appearance just minutes into the film, and a string of "yowzas" emerge from the black guy a little bit later. While I promise you I'm in no way a member of the Politically Correct squad, the whole movie made me cringe, and really prevented any enjoyment I may have gotten from it. Were things that much different in 1938? Maybe so, but I'm glad we've moved to where we are now.

Far-fetched bit of fluff starring Lucille Ball as an heiress who pays a complete stranger to marry her. Ditch digger James Ellison is the lucky groom. Why she does this is because of a stipulation in her father's will that says she can't get her inheritance unless she marries a "plain American." Apparently her father was worried about foreign gold diggers seducing his daughter for her money. I've seen this theme in a lot of movies from the '30s so I guess there was an epidemic of international gold diggers fleecing unsuspecting American heiresses back then. Once married, Lucy will inherit the money and then she can divorce Ellison and marry the guy she's really interested in, foreign gold digger Lee Bowman. Guess Dad knew what he was doing, after all. Anyway, Lucy plans to divorce Ellison but he gets ticked off and decides to divorce her first to publicly humiliate her or something. I was a little unclear about the reasoning there but they had to have a conflict to fill time, I suppose.This is a rather lame screwball comedy that suffers from having unlikable characters doing unrelatable things. Lucy's pretty but there's very little of her comedic abilities on display here. Her character is insufferable. The only scene I can think of that hinted at the greatness to come for her is the scene where she and the dog tussle over some bacon. James Ellison is a sort of poor man's Joel McCrea. It's hard to really root for him either since he was mercenary enough to marry a woman he just met for money. It's a staple of screwball comedies to put characters in extraordinary situations and have them act as absurdly as possible. But it only works when you like the characters. If you don't, their madcap antics are just annoying. Don't even get me started on how this affects the romantic element of the movie. And what was with that dark and totally out of place scene where it's implied the two guys are about to rape Lucy? Creepy. Anything with Lucy is worth seeing but this is one where I doubt you'll be in any hurry to rewatch it.

Next time I Marry stars Lucille Ball and any ensemble cast – it's just like an episode of her TV show – it even has a silver air stream trailer in which she would make the "The Long Long Trailer" almost twenty years later with Ricky. In the usual RKO mixed up love story caper, the rich girl must marry a common everyday guy (the dashing James Ellison) before she gets her family money, but she has many secrets and tricks up her sleeve, most of which don't work out as planned. Ellison's best-known role was Buffalo Bill in "The Plainsman" 1936, along with parts in many westerns. Lee Bowman plays a foreign count whose accent comes and goes in an un-convincing supporting role. As with most Lucy roles, as long as you buy into the story, you'll have a fun time. Look for Richard Elliott, the short jolly mayor from Andy Griffith, as the Justice of the Peace. Story is credited to Thames Williamson, but movie buffs will recognize a similar plot from four years before this. Also appears to be the second movie that Garson Kanin directed. Fun but a little silly!