Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter (1991) on Netflix
PG19911h 35mBiographyDramaHistoryRomance
Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz meet as actors under contract. Both chase careers in show business while their marriage is often rocky, and together they set out to build a television show.
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- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.5/10303 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
The film opens as the debut episode of I Love Lucy is being filmed, then goes back about a decade to where the two of them began. Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz meet in show business, both of them actors under contract at the same studio, and they fall in love. Their careers develop while their marriage goes through hard stretches. Together they work toward a television show of their own, the project that becomes I Love Lucy. Scenes from I Love Lucy episodes are recreated in the film, among them "Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her" and "Lucy Does a TV Commercial."
Cast
- John Wheeleras William Frawley
- Joyce Blairas Roxana
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Lucy & Desi: Before the Laughter (1991)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- After Desi Arnaz died in 1986, his daughter Lucie Arnaz and manager Raymond Katz made a deal with CBS for a TV film called The Desi Arnaz Story, but CBS rejected the script despite rewrites by her husband, Larry Luckinbill. Lucie backed out when she was denied script approval; producer Larry Thompson pushed on alone.
- In 1990, a highly publicized nationwide casting search was held for actors to play Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, and Frances Fisher won the role of Ball. She studied I Love Lucy episodes and choreographed her scenes to prepare.
- Lucie Arnaz publicly criticized the film as an inaccurate portrait of her parents' marriage and called it a network attempt to cash in on their legacy so soon after their deaths.
