In this ongoing series on film classics of the last century, we've looked at The Net, Your Friends & Neighbors, Shampoo, The Player, Dick Tracy, How To Marry A Millionaire, Blow Out, You Only Live Twice, Sleeper, Diamonds Are Forever, Sleepless In Seattle, My Little Chickadee, Tootsie, After Hours, Edward Scissorhands, Christmas in Connecticut, Desk Set, When Harry Met Sally . . ., Who Done It?, That Darn Cat!, Cactus Flower, Family Plot, House Sitter, and Outrageous Fortune. Film classics are the films that grab you, even on repeat viewings, especially on repeat viewings.
To many, Lucille Ball is one of TV most beloved stars. But context is everything.
For Jess, who did not grow up in a TV family. Exposure to Lucille Ball came via films -- such as the film noir classic The Dark Corner, or Du Barry Was A Lady, Room Service with the Marx Brothers, Stage Door with Katharine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers, Fancy Pants and Sorrowful Jones with Bob Hope, etc.
The Fullerbrush Girl is a 1950 comedy Ball starred in with Eddie Albert as a couple in love. They want to buy a house but the land development company is down to their last house. A five hundred dollar deposit is required. They might make that with savings but how could they ever manage the monthly payment?
Things look up when Albert gets a (fake) promotion. But then Ball is fired from the same company.
She ends up becoming a door-to-door Fuller Brush Girl.
And that promotion Albert got?
Part of the intrigue that snares the couple into a murder and much more.
Throughout Lucille Ball is the strong steady actress we expect her to be in a comedy, executing one liners, slapstick and so much more.
By 1950, the screwball comedy era was sadly over. But just as What's Up Doc? would prove in the 70s, The Fuller Brush Girl proved in the 50s: a well made screwball comedy is always timely.