Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Lloyd Bacon

Writers:

Devery Freeman (writer)
Everett Freeman (story)

Release Date:

20 September 1949 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

She was never so insulted in all her life...and it was wonderful!

Plot:

A bookie uses a phony real estate business as a front for his betting parlor. To further keep up the sham...

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Character Name In Title

Cast

Lucille Ball	...	Ellen Grant
William Holden	...	Dick Richmond
Janis Carter	...	Peggy Donato
James Gleason	...	Timothy P. Gleason
Gloria Henry	...	Helen White
Frank McHugh	...	Mr. Kilcoyne
George Cleveland	...	Judge Ben Grant
Stephen Dunne	...	Ralph Winton

Also Known As:

Innocence Is Bliss (UK)

Runtime:

87 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Rita Hayworth was going to star in this movie, but Hayworth requested script revisions, and went on suspension to avoid making it.

Quotes:

Hood: [answering the phone] It's Dick. Are you in?
Peggy Donato: I'm always in for Dick.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Lady with the Torch (1999)

Generally Ho-hum but -- Here Comes Lucy!

This is the only big-screen movie I have seen in which the Lucille Ball of "I Love Lucy" was clearly apparent. The movie was released only a few years before the TV series started. The TV series: Of course I love it. The movie: It's nicely done but warmed-over from numerous earlier films.

Ball is hired by bookie William Holden from a secretarial school. What's odd about that? Only this: She is far and away, and very obviously, the worst student there. She makes a mess of typing, gets tangled in the typewriter ribbon, etc., Just like Lucy. A little like Charlie Chaplin.

And she uses that high, bleating voice we came to know and love in her television show. She'd made comedies before this but she was always kind of tough, the way she came across in most of her more serious outings too.

This has a fine supporting cast. Seeing James Gleason is always a pleasure. Ditto Frank McHugh, looking a little prosperous here but playing his usual sort of role. And Janis Carter is hilariously mean as Holden's onetime romantic interest.

Holden holds up his part of the movie but seems distracted. He was fine in "Golden Boy" but didn't come into his own until "Sunset Boulevard," also a few years later.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with "Miss Grant Takes Richmond." Maybe it's good, too, that if one dozes off for a bit, one will be right there and know exactly what's going on. It's familiar stuff, nicely handled.