Miss Grant Takes Richmond

A bookie (William Holden) hires an inept secretary (Lucille Ball) to front what she thinks is a real estate business.

Miss Grant Takes Richmond is Lucille Ball’s movie. Not only does she have top billing, but her character is practically a warm-up for her Lucy Ricardo character from her “I Love Lucy” television show. In fact, the whole film plays like an extended episode from the series, with a well meaning, but oblivious, Lucy getting into one jam after another.

Unfortunately, much like on her television show, Lucille Ball’s character just annoys me. I don’t find her antics particularly funny because they’re derived from her character’s self-absorbed nature. This film compounds that problem by making the very people she’s trying to help even more self-absorbed. The only really likable characters are Holden and his fellow bookies and, as a result, I found myself hoping they would come up with some way to take the poor townsfolk’s money and run.

Granted, Ball does have one truly hilarious bit at the film’s end, where she slaps Holden around, but by then it’s too little, too late.

That said, if you’re a fan of Lucille Ball’s long running “I Love Lucy” television series, you’ll probably enjoy this film, if not, skip it.