Forever Darling [1956] Lucille Ball Desi Arnaz

Forever, Darling (1956)


http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049225/

Forever, Darling is a 1956 American romantic comedy film with fantasy overtones, starring Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, and James Mason, and directed by Alexander Hall. The original screenplay by Helen Deutsch focuses on a married couple whose troubled marriage is saved with the help of a guardian angel.


Lucille Ball ... Susan Vega
Desi Arnaz ... Lorenzo Xavier Vega
James Mason ... The Guardian Angel
Louis Calhern ... Charles Y. Bewell
John Emery ... Dr. Edward R. Winter
John Hoyt ... Bill Finlay
Natalie Schafer ... Millie Opdyke
Mabel Albertson ... Society Reporter
Ralph Dumke ... Henry Opdyke
Nancy Kulp ... Amy, the Maid
Willis Bouchey ... Mr. Oliver Clinton (as Willis B. Bouchey)
Ruth Brady ... Laura


The script originally was entitled Guardian Angel and had been written by Deutsch as a vehicle for Myrna Loy and William Powell a dozen years earlier. And later, Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy were set to be in the same scenario, but eventually fell through. When Lucy and Desi Arnaz expressed interest in another film, the studio, Metro Goldwyn Mayer, dug this script out of their unused screenplay archives for the comedy couple's new scenario for the film.

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release partially was filmed on location in Yosemite National Park. Interiors were shot at the Desilu Studios in Culver City, California. It was the first time Desilu was involved in feature film production.

Forever, Darling was the second film made by Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz during hiatus from their weekly CBS television sitcom I Love Lucy, following The Long, Long Trailer in 1954. The couple's marriage was showing signs of severe strain, and Lucy optimistically hoped the project would bring them closer together . They promoted the film via a cross-country train tour aboard a special car provided by the Santa Fe Railroad, with stops in Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, New York City, and Ball's hometown of Jamestown, New York.

Cary Grant was the original choice for the Guardian Angel sought by Lucy and Desi. However Grant demanded a far higher salary that Ball and Arnaz were willing to pay. James Mason was then sought and hired with the salary that Grant had rejected. I Love Lucy writers Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. were called in to help salvage what Arnaz felt was a weak script. Their uncredited contribution was a lengthy slapstick camping sequence that had little to do with the plot that preceded it . The film was considered "sub-standard" by programmers at Radio City Music Hall, where Trailer had premiered, and it opened instead at the Loew's State Theatre, where the newlywed couple had performed their first vaudeville act in 1941. It was a critical and commercial flop that barely recouped its $1.4 million cost. As a result, MGM opted out of its agreement for a two-picture deal with Desilu, and Arnaz decided to forgo plans to create a feature-film division at his studio.

The title song, with lyrics by Sammy Cahn and music by Bronislau Kaper, was recorded by both Arnaz and the Ames Brothers, who performed it over the opening credits and ultimately had the bigger hit. The tune became an Arnaz family tradition, sung by Desi at special events, including his daughter Lucie's marriage to actor Laurence Luckinbill.


The phenomenal success of the television series I Love Lucy had convinced MGM to star Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in a feature film, The Long, Long Trailer (1954). It was also a hit, one of the biggest of the year. Studio head Dore Schary then offered the couple a two-picture deal, with terms highly favorable to Arnaz and Ball. The first film would be shot at the Motion Picture Center, Desilu's studios, which would increase their profit participation, and establish the company as a feature film producer. In addition, Arnaz would produce the film, which would be a joint production of MGM, Desilu, and the Ball-Arnaz company, Zanra. In exchange, MGM would receive big plugs in the forthcoming I Love Lucy episodes in which the Ricardos go to Hollywood. In the show, "Ricky Ricardo" would be signed to star in an MGM film.

For the first film in the deal, Schary suggested a property the studio had bought in the 1940's as a vehicle for Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn -- about as far from Lucy and Ricky's personas as MGM was from TV sitcom. Extensive revisions would be necessary. In Forever, Darling (1955), Arnaz plays a research scientist so involved in his work that he neglects his wife, Ball. Her guardian angel, who happens to look like her favorite movie star, intervenes to save the marriage. The couple wanted Cary Grant to play the angel, but he was too expensive. The suave James Mason got the role, and played it elegantly. Two decades later, Mason would play a similar celestial creature in Warren Beatty's Heaven Can Wait (1978).

Lucille Ball was well known for her loyalty to old friends and colleagues, and she hired one of them to direct Forever, Darling. Alexander Hall was an old boyfriend and mentor of Lucy's from her starlet days in the 1930's. In fact, she'd dumped Hall when she met Arnaz, but they'd remained friends. Hall had not worked much recently, and was happy to get the job. But one Desilu executive recalled that "they hired Al Hall, but wouldn't let him direct." As they were used to doing, Ball and Arnaz ran the show, and brought in I Love Lucy writers Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll for some uncredited script doctoring. All their efforts, however, didn't help the film. Officials at Radio City Music Hall called Forever, Darling "substandard," and refused to premiere the film there. Instead, it opened at Loew's State, where the newlywed couple had performed their first vaudeville act in 1941.

Reviews were not good, and Forever, Darling was a disappointment at the box office, barely returning its production cost of $1.4 million. By mutual agreement, Ball, Arnaz and MGM cancelled the second picture in their deal. Plans for Desilu to move into feature film production were dropped as well, and the couple went back to doing what they did best, I Love Lucy.

In spite of Forever, Darling's failure, it left a lasting legacy to the Arnaz family - the tender title song, with music by Bronislau Kaper and lyrics by Sammy Cahn. It became a family tradition, sung by Desi at anniversaries and other events, a tradition that endured long after the marriage ended. When he sang it at daughter Lucie's wedding to actor Laurence Luckinbill, his ex-wife wept, and they hugged and kissed after the song.