Image copyright © by Marcus Trahan

The Long, Long Trailer

(1953)

I remember seeing this when it was new, so I must have been about six. It’s all about the misadventures of Lucy and Ricky (sorry, actually Tacy and Nicky, though everybody knew who they really were) in a 40-foot trailer. I wouldn’t want to tow one of those even today, with a truck, and it was much harder back then. I recall laughing a lot when Lucy was trying to cook a meal in a moving trailer. She also collected a lot of rocks, big rocks, tons of them, and didn’t get rid of them when Ricky told her to, before crossing a one-lane road over the Sierras. Pretty hair-raising. It’s only a so-so-comedy, but still some fun to watch. To my surprise, I see that it was directed by Vincente Minnelli, the great musical director, at the height of his career.