Critic’s Choice (1963)

It was a letdown from the superior The Facts of Life.

Thanks Doris R1. I'll check that one out.

[quote] She looked beautiful but came across angry and bitter.

OP: You mean she played herself?

It was no "Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number" with Marjorie Lord's incredible hairdo.

So *that's* where the ozone layer went, r4.

[quote] It was a letdown from the superior The Facts of Life.

R1 That reminded me that I saw “The Facts of Life” with my family at a drive-in theater when I was 5 years old (yes, I’ve had a lot of therapy). The only things I remember are that Lucy’s hair was different from “I Love Lucy,” the drive-in’s popcorn made me sick, and I threw up all over the living room carpet when we got home. The family moved to a new house shortly thereafter. I don’t know if the two things were related.

“The Facts of Life” has been on my watch list for years. I’m pretty sure I can watch it without throwing up again.

Here ya go...

I played John Ballantine in a community theater production when I was 13! And saw the film version about a year ago. The original Broadway play had Henry Fonda and Georgann Johnson in the Parker/Angela roles.

At 43, Lucy was about 15 years too old to play Angela. She would have been better suited to play the Ivy London role, but that's basically a walk-on so it wouldn't have flown. The performance was pretty bad. Did she actually view herself as someone much younger and everyone else just went along with it? The same thing happened 5 years later in "Yours, Mine, and Ours", when she's pushing 50 playing a 35 year-old widow who marries Henry Fonda and has yet another child. At almost 50. Henry should have done the film version, Bob Hope was just being....well Bob Hope in the movie.

R7 Thanks! I’ll be sure to have popcorn while watching (burp).

[quote]The same thing happened 5 years later in "Yours, Mine, and Ours", when she's pushing 50

She pushed it all the way to 57. (She was born in 1911; "YM&O" was in 1968.)

I find those Sixties Hope comedies like this one and "I'll Take Sweden" really depressing and unfunny. He should have retired MUCH earlier than he did, even if his films still made money.

[quote]He should have retired MUCH earlier than he did, even if his films still made money.

R11, BOY, DID I GET A WRONG NUMBER and especially CANCEL MY RESERVATION are just unwatchable.

Speaking of Hope comedies, has anyone seen BACHELOR IN PARADISE? I'm having a hard time imagining Lana Turner in a comedy.

Lucy played "younger" starting with I Love Lucy! Still, at 63, Henry Fonda was no spring chicken in "Yours, Mine, And Ours."

True, but at least his character didn't get knocked up.

Again, both had been in front of the camera for decades and their ageing had been so gradual with the public that it wasn't as obvious.

My math was wrong, you're correct R11. Angela Ballentine is the much younger second wife of Parker. So Lucy was 50ish playing someone in her late 20s.

Such a travesty.

[quote]Lucy played "younger" starting with I Love Lucy! Still, at 63, Henry Fonda was no spring chicken in "Yours, Mine, And Ours."

Men don't have eggs that they run out of.

Was this the one "inspired by" Jean and Walter Kerr, the real-life theater critic whose wife wrote books and plays?

I actually read a bunch of Jean's books when I was much younger, she's an amusing writer and I lived in used bookstores back then. She was quite successful for a while, but I guess the late 1960s and 1970s killed her sort of domestic humor.

r20 I think that was "Please Don't Eat the Daisies."

But maybe this one was as well, at least in a broad sense. The play was written by Ira Levin of "Rosemary's Baby" fame.

R21, "Please Don't Eat the Daisies" was actually one of Jean Kerr's own books, but "Critic's Choice" by Ira Levin must have been "inspired by" Walter and Jean's careers.

I wonder what the Kerrs thought of Levin, and if they ever ran into him in NYC literary circles...

Everybody grab a rehearsal skirt!

If Bob Hope wasn't suck a fucking asshole (on-screen and off), Lucy may not have come off as so angry and bitter!

The conceit of the Broadway play was that it mirrored Jean Kerr and her husband critic Walter Kerr (as was the movie Please Don't Eat the Daisies).

The plot was mostly lost on movies audiences of both and I think the Walter Kerr character as played by both Bob Hope and David Niven was a disservice to both leading actresses.

Someone like Cary Grant or even Gig Young would have improved both films, but I doubt either one would have come within ten yards of the films with the female lead obviously the STAR.

[quote] [R1] That reminded me that I saw “The Facts of Life” with my family at a drive-in theater when I was 5 years old (yes, I’ve had a lot of therapy). The only things I remember are that Lucy’s hair was different from “I Love Lucy,” the drive-in’s popcorn made me sick, and I threw up all over the living room carpet when we got home. The family moved to a new house shortly thereafter. I don’t know if the two things were related.

Did Lucy play Mrs. Garrett, or Jo?

[quote]I doubt either one would have come within ten yards of the films with the female lead obviously the STAR.

Cary had no qualms about working with Doris.

Fancy Pants

Sorrowful Jones

Bob also guest-starred on "I Love Lucy."