And here’s the best part: It’s narrated by Nicole Kidman! No, just kidding. It’s narrated by Lucy and Desi. They had made quite a few audio recordings and cassettes. Many of the tapes were on reel-to-reel so kudos to whoever restored them because if not properly treated they would turn to dust. Hearing them talk about themselves and each other in their own voices was wonderful. Filling in the holes was their daughter Lucie.
The film really celebrates both Lucy and Desi and what made them both so great. And yet it’s not a puff piece. Greatness came with a price. They deal with Lucy’s controlling nature, Desi’s drinking and womanizing and why their marriage was hardly a fairy tale despite having a really nice pool. What I found amusing is the issues that the "fictional" account made such a big deal of — CBS not wanting to hire Desi, CBS not wanting them to do a pregnancy storyline, Lucy’s bout with the House on Un-American Activities Committee — were all touched upon but very briefly. Probably because those were all aspects of their lives WE KNEW ABOUT. This documentary sought to tell us things we didn’t. And for the most part it succeeded. There were still some minor factual errors, but overall after you’ve seen this film you will have a pretty good sense of who they both were and the impact they both had.
LUCY AND DESI is streaming on Amazon Prime. Ironically, so is the "fictional" movie. If you’re going to watch only one of the two, I recommend the one with Charo in it.
28 comments :
I look forward to seeing this.
All the other retrospectives about Lucille Ball, mention Desi Arnaz's rise to fame, Ball's rise to fame, their mutual success an what drove them apart, with very short shrift given to the Gary Morton years or Morton himself. Granted, he was not with her during her first flush of fame, but they were married longer that Lucy and Desi were. I'd be curious about a documentary of these years, unless Morton's family don't wish to do this.
QUESTION: Do streaming networks give less or more notes to shows than broadcast networks do/did?
I literally just finished watching it a minute before seeing this blog. It was so far superior to the dramatization. I see nothing of Lucy and Desi in Nicole and Javier's performance.The fact that it is nominated for Oscars just points out how the movie industry is almost done, compared to premium cable shows. This documentary took me through my childhood of I love Lucy reruns everyday, and her later shows as they were current. Highly recommend it also.
This documentary was very good and left me wanting to hear more of their tapes. I have not bothered to watch the fictional account of their lives.
The podcast that you did about the show on Hollywood and Levine a while back without any audio aids was also noteworthy.
You had me at "Directed by Amy Poehler."
In a similar vein, Foxcatcher was screened at Cannes in May 2014, while The Prince of Pennsylvania was an ESPN documentary aired in October 2015. Both are about John du Pont and both are excellent.
@Brian Phillips
You are missing the point if you truly wonder why a Lucy documentary or movie would feature Desi more than it would Gary Morton. While she was married to Morton longer, she was married to Desi for 20 years and he is the father of her children, never mind being her husband during the height of her popularity as well as her co-star.
"I recommend the one with Charo in it." I'm fairly confident that these words have never been arranged in this order ever before in the history of the world ...
I watched the documentary a couple days ago. Yes, it's quite excellent.
I found this pointless.
On another note... I despise "Pieces of Her." It is a muddled mess. People doing stupid things. UGH.
Have you ever met Charo?
.
My son is taking an "America in the 1970s" class in college, and this question was on the midterm: "What can a viewer expect to take away from an episode of MASH?" I was curious as to how you would answer that.
The NY Post published a really nice interview with Lucie Arnaz a few days ago. (Link below)
It touched on the documentary, the movie and other things. What struck me was the producers initially pitched an approach that according to Lucie, was “all wrong.” Kudos to the producers for listening and pivoting. I’m looking forward to watching this.
https://pagesix.com/2022/03/04/new-documentary-lucy-and-desi-shows-real-lives-of-comedians/?utm_campaign=iphone_nyp&utm_source=pasteboard_app
Rick Hannon 3/08/2022 8:49 AM
"I recommend the one with Charo in it."
I'm fairly confident that these words have never been arranged in this order ever before in the history of the world ...”
For over 50 years, it’s been a blurb on the Carnegie Deli celebrity sandwich menu
Thank you so much, Ken, for bringing Lucy and Desi to my attention. I'm with you: forget the dramatization. I don't have to see that, and I won't, to know this is far superior, especially with Amy Poehler's involvement.
Todd brought up M*A*S*H, which reminds me to acknowledge--and I've been meaning to for a while--that I follow an Instagram account for an White Labrador named Charles Emerson Winchester.
I've been enjoying this documentary in small chunks, so far with relish (Lucy provides the mustard).
Seems I've got "the algorithm" worried, it wants to tell me what to "watch next".
Ken:
you might be interested:
ATTENTION LOCAL PLAYWRIGHTS!
Call for Submissions for the 3rd Annual Playhouse Playwrights’ Project: Festival of New Plays
The Playhouse Playwrights’ Project is now accepting submissions for its third year of staged readings of new plays! With the overwhelming response over the past few years, we look forward to this year’s Festival of new plays and new playwrights. Future goals include the development of some of these one-act plays into a full scale, main stage production.
Local playwrights (Palm Beach and Broward County residents) are asked to submit an unpublished and unproduced one-act play for consideration by the Playhouse’s play reading committee.
Deadline for submissions is May 31, 2022.
Auditions will be held in July, rehearsals will be in August-September, and the performance weekend is October 22 and 23, 2022.
PROJECT GUIDELINES:
10 minute to 20 minute one-act plays, not previously produced or published.
One page of dialogue equals one minute of run time.
2-6 actors in total
Please include a brief synopsis
Only one submission per application fee. Fee is $25 and is non-refundable.
Stage plays only. No TV or film scripts will be considered.
Please no musicals or choreography
Scripts will be judged on concept, dramatic action, characterization and cast size.
No sexually explicit, gratuitously violent, obscene scripts or excessive foul language.
Playwrights must attend rehearsals at the Delray Beach Playhouse.
Each page of your script must include your name, title of play and page number in the footer.
Completed Application Page must accompany your submission.
Submissions are due by May 31, 2022
Ways to submit:
Email submission to delraybeachplayhouse@gmail.com. Mail the $25 non-refundable fee (per submission) to: Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 NW 9th St., Delray Beach FL 33444, ATTN: Playhouse Playwrights’ Project.
OR
Mail submission, along with the $25 non-refundable fee (per submission) to: Delray Beach Playhouse, 950 NW 9th St., Delray Beach FL 33444, ATTN: Playhouse Playwrights’ Project. Paper copies will not be returned.
DISCLAIMER: The Delray Beach Playhouse reserves the right to choose those submissions that best reflect the intent and goal of the Playhouse Playwrights’ Project and reserves the right to amend its submission criteria to best suit those intentions and goals.
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561-272-1281
I don't know what happened to me but I generally prefer documentaries these days.
"No sexually explicit, gratuitously violent, obscene scripts or excessive foul language"
Killjoys.
Wonderful, I will check it out. Also, love your blog.
You might want to check this out but I have no idea if it is streaming somewhere. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0296731/ Nina Metz of the Tribune mentioned this in her review of the documentary. There is also a PBS doc which you can watch on you tube.
@ Todd Long
Here is how I would answer the M*A*S*H question.
Though MASH is an anti-war series at its heart, it captures the heroics of a group of medical soldiers as they save lives on a daily basis. Like many sitcoms of that era, this show captures the era of life perfectly. Both the movie and series are based on real life experiences of the Korean War but also reflect the realities of Vietnam and the pictures shown on American TV screens as people were injured or died in battle.
Friday question about your writing/thought process: I've noticed that most of your posts end with some sort of call-back zinger, where you reference something mentioned earlier in the piece. This one, for example, ends with the call back to Charo. I know this is a pretty standard bit of comedy writing, and in general a good way to end a piece no matter the genre.
My question is how do you, Ken Levine, typically go about setting those up? Did you begin to write the piece, put in the line about Charo early on as you were writing, and then realize you could reference back to it when you got to the end and needed that zinger? Or did you get to the end and need a zinger, decide you wanted to somehow mention Charo, and then work backwards to try and figure out how and where to best put a mention of her in the piece earlier so it would make sense to bring her up later? And, what is your typical process for this sort of joke?
@ScarletNumber:
Thank you for the condescension, but at no point in my post did I say WHY Desi Arnaz was featured more than Gary Morton was. As I said in my second sentence, "All the other retrospectives about Lucille Ball...", which implied, (I thought) awareness of the chronology of her life. Even if I wasn't, and I didn't say this in my original post, "I Love Lucy" was on the air CONSTANTLY as I grew up, so I knew that it certainly was popular, to say the least.
Also, I hope you don't think I'd be such corn-fed dope to think that a something called, "Lucy and Desi" would be required to have anything to do with Morton.
Instead of repeating what we both know, do you know of any books or documentaries that delve into the Morton years? THAT was the point of my post.
@Brian Phillips
Re "corn-fed dope":
You must be a Preston Sturges fan. That phrase is in a scene from "Miracle of Morgan's Creek" (Betty Hutton and Diana Lynne, the morning after Trudy's wild night with the boys):
- It had a "Z" in it.
- His hair?
- No, his name, foolish. Like Ratzkiwatzki, Pvt. Ratzkiwatzki...or was it Zitzkiwitzki?
- With a name like that I'd forget him.
- Now you knocked it out of my head!
- What's the matter with us? If you got married,you must have given your name. Now all we've got to do is find out where you got the license. We've got your name, his name, the date and everything, and there you are.
- I just remembered something else.
- What?
- Somebody said, "Don't give your right name."
- But you didn't fall for it? You told them to go suck a lemon. You weren't such a corn-fed dope as to...What name did you give?
- I don't remember.
- Then the guy can't ever find you even if he comes looking for you. Then we'll never even know if you got married.
- I hope not.
Have you all forgotten that Lucy and Desi were divorced in 1960?
@Spike de Beauvoir:
Yes, I am an unabashed Preston Sturges fan and that is precisely what I was referring to. I first saw this and "Hail the Conquering Hero" on a double bill at the late, great Ken Cinema in San Diego. I didn't the HTCH would be as funny as TMOMC. I was happily mistaken.
@Unknown
Scroll up and re-read either of my posts.
@Brian Phillips
Hail the Conquering Hero is a fantastic comedy and satire of "mom-ism" during wartime. I wrote a thesis on Preston Sturges with a focus on Christmas in July and taught classes on his films.
I found a site with some of his best scripts, they're transcripts without stage directions but just reading the dialogue is very enjoyable.
https://www.scripts.com/director/preston_sturges
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