mark.waltz
When the brains behind a bookie racketeers the worst secretary in the world, you know he's up to something. "I'll take that girl!", determined William Holden tells curmudgeon secretarial school professor Charles Lane who is perplexed but fooled. Lucille Ball is the clumsy secretary who ruins typewriters like she was skeet shooting. Ribbons pop off their axles, the carriage shoots off like a champagne cork, and her waste basket is never empty. So in other words, she's perfect for the job of front for Holden's gambling operation.With tough talking James Gleason and perpetually confused Frank McHugh as Holden's staff and Janis Carter as Holden's jealous girlfriend, Lucy doesn't realize what she's up against which is why she ends up doing better than anybody suspected she would. Of course, it doesn't hurt that her a uncle (George Cleveland) is a prominent judge and one of her suitors (Stephen Dunne) is the assistant D.A.As Ball turns Bill upside down with her interference in his operation, he plots to get her to quit only to make her more determined, even though she does briefly quit after he makes a pass. This wasn't Lucy's first opportunity for wacky comedy, but the three farce comedies she made at Columbia showed the creation of Lucy Ricardo, Carmichael and Carter. Gleason and Carter get some really good lines, while it's ironic to see Lucy with Lane (who appeared on a majority of her sitcoms) and Holden who was memorable as himself on one of "I Love Lucy's" most notable episodes. This rates A+ as a smart comedy about corruption, with city slickers of tough attitudes deliciously taken down several notches thanks to "that girl".
MartinHafer
Lucille Ball made this film couple years before starring in "I Love Lucy" and in many ways she plays a character with a lot in common with her Lucy Ricardo--clumsy, ditsy and yet quite eager."Miss Grant Takes Richmond" begins with Lucy in a secretarial school. She is utterly hopeless and stands almost no chance of graduating. However, oddly, a guy (William Holden) comes to the school looking for a secretary and picks, of all people, Lucy. You find out later that he's actually running a bookmaking business and wants a really stupid person to pose as a secretary--and just sit there and ask no questions. However, he doesn't anticipate that while Lucy's character isn't very bright, she is full of enthusiasm and drive. So, instead of just sitting around doing nothing, she decides to 'help' Holden with his business (he's posing as a real estate broker). Without his knowledge, she begins making business deals and suddenly Holden and his friends find out they actually have an honest to goodness land development--and new owners! What are they to do? They can't just fire her and abandon the deal, as she has a very well-connected family--including a local judge! What are they to do? Aside from one rather bad slapstick scene where Holden things Lucy was buried alive, the film actually is pretty clever and fun. While the film isn't all that deep, it is enjoyable and a nice vehicle for Lcuy.
RanchoTuVu
A small comedy with a nicely paced story about a bookie played by William Holden who tries to hide his operation behind the front of a real estate office that he opens in a medium sized town. He hires a secretary played by Lucille Ball who can't even type. To his consternation, she attracts interested first-time home buyers, WW2 vets and their wives and children. It almost has, at times, the feeling of George Bailey in Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, building homes for the emerging middle class. Taking us out to the construction site, Lucy is nearly crushed under tons of earth in a rather incredible scene, while Holden and his associates (who are given many funny lines) are reluctantly led by the positive goodness of the buyers into being pioneers in real estate development and early suburban sprawl.
Neil Doyle
This is a not so funny comedy that does at least provide a few laughs, mostly because it's a set-up for some shenanigans that are reminders of what would happen when LUCILLE BALL left films for television to become America's number one comedienne with I LOVE LUCY.There are more than a few hints of her deft handling of physical comedy and there's a nice chemistry between Lucy and her handsome boss, WILLIAM HOLDEN. Then too, there's the additional advantage of having JAMES GLEASON and FRANK McHUGH as supporting actors for a thin story about a daffy secretary who is slow in catching on to the fact that the real estate office she works for is really a front for bookies.MISS GRANT TAKES RICHMOND has all the appearance of a low-budget programmer and it's surprising to find WILLIAM HOLDEN still drifting around in this sort of weak material when he had so many golden opportunities just ahead of him. Still, he's not bad and shows a definite flair for handling light romantic comedy. But there's no doubt about it, this is a vehicle designed to promote the comic flair of his co-star, soon to become famous as a scatterbrained housewife.The thin script plays more like a half-hour TV comedy padded to the running time of a feature film. The funniest bits are the slapstick elements, particularly Lucy avoiding a building crane that seems intent on burying her in a pile of dirt and mud. But the stronger laughs are few and far between when the script is as painfully weak as this one.Strictly for Lucy's most ardent fans.
AD
