Lucy and Desi – first-look review

In 1953, I Love Lucy was num­ber one in the US rat­ings and the birth of Lucy and Ricky Ricardo’s baby knocked Pres­i­dent Eisenhower’s inau­gu­ra­tion off the front pages. Tele­vi­sion was still in its infan­cy and this rev­o­lu­tion­ary sto­ry­line cement­ed Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz as the first fam­i­ly of sit­u­a­tion com­e­dy. The real-life mar­ried cou­ple didn’t get the same hap­pi­ly-ever-after as the Ricar­dos, but the on and off-screen antics of the trail­blaz­ing duo still cap­ti­vate audi­ences decades later.

Hot on the heels of Aaron Sorkin’s biopic, Amy Poehler makes her doc­u­men­tary direc­to­r­i­al debut with an inti­mate por­trait of the pair that cap­tures tri­umphs, pas­sion, heart­break, and an indeli­ble lega­cy. It is a part­ner­ship that con­tin­ued after their divorce and the array of talk­ing heads – that includes their daugh­ter Lucie Arnaz Luck­in­bill, Bette Midler, Car­ol Bur­nett, Nor­man Lear and aca­d­e­m­ic experts – paints a vivid pic­ture for new and old fans alike.

“It’s too bad Lucille and Desi weren’t Lucy and Ricky,” says Arnaz dur­ing open­ing cred­its that mix archival footage, home movies, I Love Lucy clips, and news­pa­per head­lines. Poehler skil­ful­ly weaves the wealth of mate­r­i­al she had access to through­out Lucy & Desi, which includes the ten­der (and some­times fraught) per­son­al record­ings that point to how much of the couple’s home life was caught on camera.

Tak­ing a pre­dom­i­nant­ly lin­ear approach estab­lish­es cen­tral themes ear­ly on, from the impor­tance of fam­i­ly to Ball’s meth­ods that placed a pre­mi­um on rehearsal, obser­va­tion, and ​“the enchant­ed sense of play.” Arnaz’s nat­ur­al sto­ry­telling charm is evi­dent from clips of him recount­ing the rom-com wor­thy first meet­ing in the RKO com­mis­sary and his belief that ​“my whole life has been a bunch of acci­dents.” While Arnaz under­plays his con­tri­bu­tion and lays most of the suc­cess on Ball’s shoul­ders, Poehler illus­trates his cul­tur­al impact both in front of and behind the camera.

Not only did I Love Lucy shape pro­duc­tion meth­ods, but the mar­ried on-screen pair­ing of a Cuban-Amer­i­can man with a white woman was vir­tu­al­ly unheard of in the ear­ly 1950s. Famous­ly, the cou­ple toured the US to prove to TV net­work CBS that audi­ences would believe this union. ​“Desi brought sophis­ti­ca­tion where Lati­nos had hard­ly ever been seen as sophis­ti­cat­ed,” observes Cuban play­wright and pro­fes­sor Eduar­do Macha­do about the enter­tain­er who proud­ly embraced his roots.

Peel­ing back the lay­ers reflects the cli­mate of mid­cen­tu­ry Hol­ly­wood (includ­ing the Com­mu­nist scare that is the focus of Being the Ricar­dos), as well as the con­ver­sa­tion sur­round­ing the couple’s per­son­al and pro­fes­sion­al rep­u­ta­tions. Arnaz’s drink­ing and phi­lan­der­ing are not brushed under the car­pet, but Poehler man­ages to avoid tabloid-style missives.

Sim­i­lar­ly, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Nation­al Com­e­dy Cen­ter Jour­ney Gun­der­son dis­cuss­es how in recent decades there has been ​“dis­pro­por­tion­ate focus on how hard-nosed” Ball was behind the scenes and she puts it into con­text with work­ing in that era. Insights from Gun­der­son and the Nation­al Com­e­dy Center’s Direc­tor of Archives & Research Lau­ra LaPla­ca are a wel­come addi­tion that expands the nar­ra­tive beyond old talk­ing points while still acknowl­edg­ing Ball’s edges.

Thank­ful­ly this nev­er veers into ​“girl­bossi­fi­ca­tion” – even when cov­er­ing Ball’s reign as the pres­i­dent of Desilu Pro­duc­tions – and Ball’s hands-on approach to men­tor­ing can be traced back to her ear­ly days at RKO. Poehler’s suc­cess­ful com­e­dy career no doubt informs this explo­ration and her unique per­spec­tive ben­e­fits the mate­r­i­al. It is con­ver­sa­tions about method and inno­va­tion that sets Lucy & Desi apart from oth­er depic­tions of this cou­ple – in fact, there could have been more of this.

While divorce isn’t the res­o­lu­tion view­ers saw on TV (like most episodes, their final on-screen appear­ance end­ed in a kiss), ten­der­ness between the pair out­last­ed this breakup and adds a bit­ter­sweet lay­er to the rich sto­ry. ​“I Love Lucy was nev­er just a title,” reflect­ed Arnaz in a let­ter writ­ten 35 years ago, and Poehler’s doc­u­men­tary proves this still rings true today.