The Long, Long Trailer (1953)

Nicky and Tacy are going to be married. Nicky wants to save up money for a house, but Tacy dreams of starting off with their own home on wheels--a trailer. After the two are hitched, they ... See full summary »

Director:

Vincente Minnelli

Writers:

Clinton Twiss (novel), Albert Hackett (screenplay),

Stars:

Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Marjorie Main

1 nomination.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Lucille Ball	...	Tacy Bolton - Collini
Desi Arnaz	...	Nicholas 'Nicky' Collini
Marjorie Main	...	Mrs. Hittaway
Keenan Wynn	...	Policeman
Gladys Hurlbut	...	Mrs. Bolton
Moroni Olsen	...	Mr. Tewitt
Bert Freed	...	Foreman
Madge Blake	...	Aunt Anastacia
Walter Baldwin	...	Uncle Edgar
Oliver Blake	...	Mr. Ludlow
Perry Sheehan	...	Bridesmaid

Storyline

Nicky and Tacy are going to be married. Nicky wants to save up money for a house, but Tacy dreams of starting off with their own home on wheels--a trailer. After the two are hitched, they hitch up their trailer and begin their honeymoon. The humor comes from several disastrous adventures the couple has while traveling including Tacy's awkward attempt to cook dinner in a moving trailer, and a cliffhanging ride through the mountains that nearly destroys their marriage.

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Plot Keywords:

trailer | honeymoon | marriage | mountain | colorado | 

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Taglines:

America's No. 1 Favorites Funnier than Ever on the Screen!

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Spanish

Release Date:

18 February 1954 (USA)

Also Known As:

La roulotte du plaisir

Filming Locations:

Sonora, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Technical Specs

Runtime:

103 min 96 min (TCM print)

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Color:

Color (Anscocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Film debut of Karl Lukas.

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Goofs

In the scene where Nicky and Tacy are having their dinner in their trailer in the rain, Tacy brings a bottle of Chianti (a dark red wine) to the table. You can clearly see the coloring through the bottle. When she pours the wine it has changed both in the bottle, and in the glasses to a white wine.

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Quotes

[repeated line]
Mechanic: Trailer brakes first!

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Connections

Referenced in Rat Race (2001)

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Soundtracks

"Cui Cui"
Written by Xavier Cugat, Foster Curbelo (as Fausto Curbelo) and Albert Stillman (as Al Stillman)

User Reviews

Minnelli successfully tackles a thankless job and Lucy increases her comedic acting range

Back in the good IL' days, when couples didn't regularly jump into bed before marriage, newlyweds Tracy (Lucille Ball) and Nicky (Desi Arnaz) Collini are anticipating their first night of youthful, athletic lovemaking in their beautiful new home (a housetrailer). The audience anticipates the sexiness of their first night of intimacy, since they're, like, REALLY in love (both Lucy & Desi were great actors, their real-life marriage was going none too good at the time). Telling a white lie while trying to avoid entertaining their overly-helpful new neighbors, played marvelously by Alpha-Female Marjorie Main and fussy, folksy Howard McNear (later of Floyd the Barber fame on Andy Griffith), Tracy makes matters much worse. When poor Nicky nearly gets rid of the hoard of locusts that descended upon his wedding night, he finds his blushing bride is unconscious for the next several hours, thanks to a helpful dosage of sleeping pills...it's pitiful and hilarious. Regardless of what some people say, this movie is definitely not "an extended episode of I Love Lucy." Minnelli is much more gifted and inventive a director to earn that sort of put-down. He and Lucy work together stupendously to work in some fresh, sophisticated gags that would've been too much for a half-hour TV show. Lucille Ball proves that she can make you grin wide and even laugh furiously without resorting to the schemes and slap-stick devices she'd already perfected on the small screen...true, she does try to prepare a 4-course meal in the trailer while Nicky drives over rough, winding roads at 60 miles per hour, with hilarious results of the face-covered-in-salad-oil-and-flour variety. But, in TLLT, Lucy portrays a more aware, decisive and assertive character than the Mrs. Ricardo we know so well. While her edgy hubby is always fretting about what could go wrong in towing his monstrous trailer, Lucy takes the wheel 3 days into their cross-country trek and steers both car and mobile home with casual assurance and skill. Desi also extended his acting skill by jettisoning Ricky's male-dominator role in favor of almost Clousseauesque persona; he's unsure of his financial future, his auto-piloting skills, his ability to make a happy marriage and provides us with some wonderful sight-gags along the way. Nicky's shower-scene was the greatest one in movie history until Psycho came along...us men think it's funny becuz we know the infuriating apparatus is just about to conk him in the gonads, while women have enjoyed the thought that one of their favorite male celebs was doing it buck-naked. This is truly one of the best traveling comedies of all time, right up there with "Planes Trains & Automobiles". Minnelli and Keenan Wynn collaborate to give us one absolutely side-splitting scene, with Keenan playing a silent, sarcastic traffic-cop...worthy of Chaplin's praise. The story is told in flashback and near the end we recognize that the couple is going to divorce after Tracy's awful subterfuge - after all, her Nicky is an engineer and she tries to violate several of Newton's Laws of Gravity & Thermodynamics, bringing on wreck, ruin and economic disaster. There's just no hope for this marriage. Too bad, sniff, sniff. You guess the ending.