jhkp
A sort of Southern California version of Brief Encounter, reinvented to suit Bob Hope and Lucille Ball, who play married (but not to each other) Pasadena country club types who find themselves on an Acapulco vacation without their spouses - and fall in love. Lucille Ball plays Kitty very well and without undue sentiment. This is a type of character you may not have seen her play before. It's her performance that draws you into the story and makes you care. Bob Hope, as Larry, isn't really in Ball's league, as far as dramatic acting goes. He was never an emotional actor. But Norman Panama and Melvin Frank (who wrote for him so many other times), do something brilliant. They make his character a frustrated amateur comic. A wannabe Bob Hope, if you will. So that he can, in a sense, play himself. And it works.Overall, there are some missed opportunities for a really sharp comedy such as Billy Wilder might have made. But Panama and Frank are experts at writing funny yet entirely natural dialogue, and creating realistic characters and situations. The black and white film also features Philip Ober (Vivian Vance's husband, at the time), and in the smallish but important roles of the spouses, Ruth Hussey and Don DeFore.
nycritic
Two people meet, fall in love, but are married to other people. Formula, formula, formula. It has made memorable movies and flat-out unbearable ones. This one should have been closer to a drama, but due to circumstance, it was made into a comedy -- and a slapstick one at that. Bringing in Lucille Ball and Bob Hope, already icons of television who'd worked together in her hit show, was a good move for both. It gave people a chance to see Hope in a real comedy instead of the ROAD TO (insert city name here) fare. Lucille Ball also benefited; her screen appearances were sporadic once she'd ventured into television, but the ones she chose were better than average -- nothing award-winning, but good material. THE FACTS OF LIFE (not to be confused with the TV show) is an above-average story of crossed lovers, sanitized to squeaky-clean perfection by its sitcom presentation, which has Ruth Hussey's last on-screen performance, and is fun to watch whenever it's on TCM.
moonspinner55
Unmerry marital mix-up amongst the country club set: bored society wife Lucille Ball finds herself inexplicably drawn to neighbor Bob Hope despite the fact they've been married to others for years. Melvin Frank comedy that doesn't so much expose the funny desperation of the Marital Blahs as it does tweeze it relentlessly (Frank is not the gentle sort of writer-director--he goes for the gut, much like Neil Simon). Ball is thoroughly up to the challenge of a sharp, brittle suburban comedy, but Frank has given old pal Bob Hope the same type of groaning witticisms he supplied him with back in the 1940s (Lucy: "You're a painter??" Bob: "What do you want me to do? Cut off my ear?"). Playing to the camera, referencing Francis X. Bushman and riffing on his own stand-up routine, Hope is the wrong actor for a sophisticated comedy about infidelity. Too bad, because Lucy does very well, the black-and-white cinematography is expressive, and occasionally the writing rises above smarminess to actually reveal something substantial and amusing about marriages in a rut. ** from ****
LarryBrownHouston
This movie surprised me. I really enjoyed it. Lucy is stunning as a glamor star. She gets the soft focus and lighting, the glamor hair and makeup, but the showstopper is the glamor wardrobe. I've never seen her look more beautiful.I did not know that Lucy had made it so far in her movie career as to be able to star as a glamor girl, opposite Bob Hope yet. Another notch on the resume of this fascinating woman.My wife and I had just been discussing Lucy's talents as a straight actress and by coincidence this movie came on the next day. I had the opinion that Lucy was best in comedy and was not quite right in a straight role. This movie proved me wrong on that! She is convincing and when she kissed Bob I really believed it.Bob is also great. His comedy style here is more subtle than usual, playing funny bits off in a straight style without the usual hamming. The bit with the hankie made me belly laugh.The subject matter of this movie is similar to other movies of the early 60s as the sexual revolution was just starting...all clean and above board on the surface, yet doing their best to titillate us with sexual situations and innuendo. As I said in my review of Bob's "I'll Take Sweden," I find this juvenile and boring. There's no shock value left by now, so it falls flat. However, this movie tackles more serious subjects than simply titillating sex, namely the subjects of infidelity, marriage, and marital boredom. That is more interesting and even in 2005 I found the subject matter moving and thought-provoking.The script is tight and witty, with good dialog. The plot is also more or less water tight with plausible motivations.Good stuff....worth watching.
AD
