I Love Lucy - "Off to Florida!" (1956)

Lucy and Travel equal Trouble... and in "Off to Florida," that's exactly what she finds herself in. Granted, Lucy isn't to blame for most of the trouble she and Ethel encounter in this episode, but that doesn't make it any less funny.

Ricky, Fred, and Little Ricky set off to Florida for a few days of fishing, with Lucy and Ethel planning to join them later via train. Naturally, Lucy loses the train tickets, so the only option (or rather, the cheapest) is for them to scour the classifieds for someone looking to share a ride. That someone is none other than Elsa Lanchester. Lucy and Ethel think the ride sharing will work great until they set off with this Mrs. Grundy. She insists on driving from 4 a.m. to midnight, avoids the main highways, won't stop at any restaurant along the way or at any hotel, so Lucy and Ethel are left hungry and frazzled after sleeping in the car.

They turn on the radio one night to lull themselves to sleep and hear about Evelyn Holmby, the hatchet murderess who escaped from prison. The gray-haired woman was last seen in a cream-colored convertible, just like the one Mrs. Grundy has, heading south from New York City. Lucy instantly puts two and two together ("only travels at night... on back roads... won't stop anywhere...") and jumps to the conclusion that Mrs. Grundy and Evelyn Holmby are one and the same—an idea that Ethel at first dismisses until she remembers seeing the hatchet in the trunk!

"Hatchet!" - Lucy and Ethel

"We're just jumping to conclusions. She brought that hatchet along to, uh...to, uh..." - Ethel

"To what? Chop watercress?!" - Lucy

"Off to Florida!" was aired on CBS on November 12, 1956, as episode 6 in the sixth season of I Love Lucy. Lucy and the gang had already been to California and to Europe, so a trip to Florida was a great addition. The crazy redhead had already encountered every kind of character imaginable in previous episodes, so having her and Ethel meet up with a potential killer was a new one for the books—and what a great basis for comedy it made!

The episode is chock-full of humorous scenes, and the laughs escalate the nearer they get to the Sunshine State. The best scene is when they stop at a roadside coffee shop in Florida and Lucy, Ethel, and Mrs. Grundy all rush inside to call the police. When they learn the phone is out of order, they decide to gesture signs of distress to the waiter (Struther Martin), who says, "Y'all must be from up north," after watching the looney birds in action. 

"We have to stop so I can call my landlady and tell her my tub is running over." - Lucy

"I thought you said she [pointing to Ethel] was your landlady?" - Mrs. Grundy

"Oh....[facing Ethel] Landlady, my tub is running over!" - Lucy

Elsa Lanchester was perfectly cast as the dotty driver. This was her first appearance on I Love Lucy and one of her rare television roles in a sitcom. She always played eccentric characters so it seemed perfectly natural that she'd be an escaped criminal, or so Lucy thought. 

"Off to Florida!" is slightly different from the usual I Love Lucy episodes in that Ricky and Fred are only seen in the introduction and closing scenes. I guess the writers couldn't imagine a scenario with all four of them hitching a ride with a killer. Normally, their presence would be missed but this one is filled with so many funny moments you wouldn't even notice their absence. Check it out some time, it's well worth a watch! 

This post is our contribution to the 12th Annual Favorite TV Show Episode Blogathon being hosted by A Shroud of Thoughts. Click here to check out other reviews of favorite Classic TV episodes written by other bloggers. 

The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady (1950)

In 1943, Betty Grable starred in the colorful Fox Technicolor musical Sweet Rosie O'Grady. Seven years later, her screen sister, June Haver, was featured in a sort of follow-up film, The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady, which was equally colorful and just as entertaining. 

In this film, "Junie Baby" (as Fred MacMurray would call her) played Patricia O'Grady, the daughter of Rosie O'Grady, a once-popular music hall entertainer. Along with her two sisters, Katie (Marcia Mae Jones) and Maureen (Debbie Reynolds), Patricia resides with her father, Dennis O'Grady (James Barton), a stern Irishman who works as a trolley conductor. He loves his daughters and wants to keep them by his side. He also wants them to go nowhere near the theater district for fear they will want to become performers themselves and, as Papa claims, "That's no life for anyone!" He and his dear departed Rosie spent years living out of a trunk and traveling from one town to the next. He wants his daughters to marry college-educated men and settle down.

Little does he know that his eldest daughter is already secretly married to a policeman and about to have a child, and that darlin' Patty has fallen in love with none other than Tony Pastor (Gordon MacRae), the owner of the local musical—and, saints preserve us!—wants to join his acting troupe!

You can guess that there is enough drama in the film to fill its 105-minute runtime. Nevertheless, squeezed in between the Irish fighting spirits are plenty of musical interludes, including a lovely rendition of the titular song. When Gordon MacRae isn't singing, Gene Nelson entertains the audience with his impressive dancing skills. June Haver was quite a dancer herself and does many a fancy step with Gene, while S.Z. Sakall adds some comic relief as Papa O'Grady's co-worker and family friend.

Overall, it's an entertaining entry from the Fox film factory, although not very memorable... Within a year of viewing, you'll probably get this title confused with Sweet Rosie O'Grady or When Irish Eyes are Smiling!

Rewind Review: Alive and Kicking (1958)

Every once in a while, you might come across a wonderful film and wonder why it is not more well-known than it is. At least, I do that.... and, unfortunately, it is quite rare to find hidden gems; but Alive and Kicking is one such movie. I saw it for the first time a few weeks ago and loved it instantly. Granted, its plot would not appeal to a large audience so I can understand why it is as obscure as it is. 

Sybil Thorndike, Estelle Winwood, and Kathleen Harrison star as three elderly women who escape from a nursing home when they learn that they will be relocated to other nursing homes and separated. They take what little belongings they have and hike out on foot. After an escapade at sea, they arrive on a small island off the coast of Ireland and discover an abandoned stone cottage. However, the cottage isn't empty for long. Shortly after they claim it, a gentleman (Stanley Holloway) arrives and tells them that he just purchased the cottage and plans to move in. Darn the luck! 

They hope to discuss renting one of the rooms of the cottage from him, but lo! he disappears from the cliffside where they left him. All they can find is his hat floating on the ocean waves below. Since no one in the village met the man yet, the three crafty dames decide to pretend that he is living in the house and that they are his nieces (!). Much of the film after this point deals with how these women settle into the village and make a new life for themselves in Ireland. 

Alive and Kicking was probably banned from being shown in nursing homes because of its uplifting message of independence for the elderly. These three women have only a few pounds in their purse but somehow manage to procure a house, furniture, and plenty of food (thanks to one of them being a good shot). Most impressive however, is the positive effect they have on the villagers, even going so far as to start a new industry for the sheep farmers and their wives. 

Among these villagers are some familiar faces including Marjorie Rhodes (who was excellent as the mother in The Family Way), a young Richard Harris, Paul Farrell, Liam Redmond and Colin Gordon as a bird watcher who decides to perch on their property.

The comedy has a definite "Irish air" to it...but shush, don't tell the Irish...the movie was actually filmed on Easdale, one of the Slate Islands of Scotland. Life on a small island in the 1950s centered around agriculture and the village people and, with a village of that size, the arrival of three strange women would not go unnoticed for long so our heroines must be given credit for coming up with so many delicate lies to fool the villagers as long as they did. 

Sybil Thorndike is the ringleader of the group and she boasts the most brains as well. It is her idea to start a sweater-making industry to earn money for themselves and for the village. Estelle Winwood is clever too, while Kathleen Harrison plays her usual kindly cockney character. All of the principal players went on to live long lives after this film with both Winwood and Harrison "alive and kicking" past the age of 100. 

Director Cyril Frankel does a wonderful job of keeping the movie entertaining from start to finish and composer Philip Green penned a delightful score with an especially lovely folksy tune "One I Truly Love" performed by Olive McFarland. 

Film Albums: That Travelin' Two-Beat (1965)

Bing Crosby was always the hippest cat in the music industry and when it came to toe-tapping rhythms, he really knew how to swing it. Dixieland music was a particular favorite of his, so he decided to team up with his gal pal Rosemary Clooney and band leader Billy May to create a Dixieland album in 1965. They went to Bing's old friends, songwriters Jay Livingston and Ray Evans, to help them create some new tunes and Jay came up with the idea of making it a world tour of Dixieland music. He penned the new and catchy tune "That Travelin' Two-Beat" as well as rewriting some of the lyrics to old favorites like "The Poor People of Paris", "Ciao, Ciao, Bambina", and "Knees Up, Mother Brown"... all of which were "swung" way out in jive land by Billy May. It's a rollicking good album! Rosemary Clooney and Der Bingle were a great team and you can tell by the playful sound of their voices that they had a great time putting this album together -- check it out yourself and see if it doesn't put a smile on your face.

Listen to the full album here on YouTube.

Track List

Side One:

That Travelin' Two-Beat

New Vienna Woods

Knees Up, Mother Brown

Roamin' in the Gloamin'

Adios Senorita

Come to the Mardi Gras

Side Two:

Hear That Band

The Daughter of Molly Malone

The Poor People of Paris

I Get Ideas

Ciao, Ciao, Bambina

That Travelin' Two-Beat (Reprise)

Top Picks: That Travelin' Two-Beat, Roamin' in the Gloamin', The Daughter of Molly Malone, I Get Ideas

The Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie Game

What could have caused such a pileup! These cars were evidently distracted by something or someone to crash into each other.... we'll leave it to you to figure out how this happened. All you have to do is remember the movie this scene came from and you'll know how these cars crashed. 

As always, if you are not familiar with the rules to the Impossibly Difficult Name that Movie game or the prize, click here.

Good luck! 

From the Archives: That Darn Cat! (1965)

Oh, no! Things can get really dirty when you are trying to fingerprint.. ahem, pawprint.. a cat. Federal agent Zeke Kelso (Dean Jones) finally found the perfect print - he took it off his forehead! Hayley Mills looks on at Zeke and the mess he made in this NBC-TV release photo from Walt Disney's That Darn Cat! (1965). 

From the Archives is our latest series of posts where we share photos from the Silverbanks Pictures collection. Some of these may have been sold in the past, and others may still be available for purchase at our eBay store: http://stores.ebay.com/Silverbanks-Pictures 

The Model World of Robert Symes (1979)

The British Broadcasting Corporation, better known as the BBC, has released on Youtube a wealth of fantastic television programs and documentaries from their vast archives. These programs vary in subject from gardening to travel to education to the histories of just about anything and everything related to England. The documentaries about crafts and craftsmen are the most fascinating and top of this line-up is The Model World of Robert Symes, a 48-minute presentation released on BBC in 1979.

Robert Symes was a teddy-bearish television host best known for co-hosting Tomorrow's World in the 1960s. Off-screen, he was a railway enthusiast and a model builder, two loves which he merged in the 1970s when he hosted the ten-part series Model World (1975). This series showcased various types of models and how to build them.

The Model World of Robert Symes spins off of that concept slightly and instead briefly spotlights the pleasures to be found in each different kind of model hobby: model railroading, toothpick modeling, R/C planes and automobiles and model dioramas. The only subject he neglected to cover was model sailboat racing. Symes examines each of these crafts and talks with an expert in each field. We also get to see Robert's own garden railway line in the backyard of his property.

Whether you are a miniature enthusiast or not, this is a highly entertaining program worth watching. Programs like these introduced youngsters and adults to the pleasures that can be found in model making. If only a new program would do the same!

Ready to watch The Model World of Robert Symes? Simply click here.