At the height of their TV fame, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were contracted by MGM to make two theatrical films. The first of these, The Long, Long Trailer, stars Lucy and Desi as an upwardly mobile couple who decide to buy a trailer so they can live together while his job takes him around the country. Thanks to their naivete in such matters, they end up with a huge, bulky RV that costs five times what they planned. Their "seeing America" trip turns out to be a slapstick disaster, topped by Lucy's foolish decision to hide a heavy rock collection in the trailer; as Desi tries to maneuver a treacherous mountain road, the weighted-down home-on-wheels nearly loses its balance and almost tumbles off a cliff. The story is told in flashback, as Desi 'splains the breakup of his marriage to a motel court manager. Happily, Lucy shows up, goes "Waaaaah" a little, and all is forgiven. Despite the fact that audiences were getting Ball and Arnaz for free each week on television, The Long, Long Trailer was a big hit at the box-office. The film was adapted by Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich from a novel by Clinton Twiss, with uncredited assistance from the I Love Lucy writing staff. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
The Long, Long Trailer is a star vehicle through and through, and it's fortunate that it has the inimitable likes of Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz to give it power. It doesn't hurt that the reliable Vincente Minnelli is on hand to steer it, either; while Trailer may not allow Minnelli to really strut his stuff, he still gives it a professional, polished production, and the movie definitely benefits visually from his keen eye, especially in his use of color. Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich's screenplay is serviceable, but it's really nothing more than a series of comedic incidents -- some of them well worn, indeed -- that give the stars a chance to shine. There's very little here that wouldn't be right at home on Lucy and Desi's TV show, and that familiarity becomes a bit wearing after a while. Many viewers will probably keep waiting for something fresh, but neither that nor a satisfying payoff ever comes, making the film ultimately seem as if it has been stretched too thin over too long a time. Still, Trailer is worth watching if for no other reason than to see the comedic duo going through their always engaging paces in color for a change. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
The Long, Long Trailer is a novel by Clinton Twiss from the 1950s. It is about a couple who buy a new travel trailer home and spend a year traveling across the United States.
Nicky Collini and his fiancée Tacy, buy (despite Nicky's extreme reluctance and dire predictions), a large trailer home (a 32-foot (9.8m) 1953 New Moon, which cost $5,345 at the time), so that they can save money that would otherwise be spent on a house, and also be able to travel around the USA to civil engineering projects that Nicky is employed on.
They have to buy a more powerful car to tow the trailer, a 1953 Mercury Montereyconvertible with a 125 HPflatheadV8 engine, and the money spent starts to mount up. The honeymoon trip to the Sierra Nevada mountains rapidly becomes a catalogue of disasters. These include Tacy's attempts to cook dinner in a tilted trailer, and a cliffhanging ride on a narrow road through the mountains.
Relations deteriorate between the couple and finally Tacy storms off in a huff. But by the film's end, they are tearfully reunited.
Production notes
The dangerous mountain road featured in the movie is Whitney Portal Road, which leads up to Mount Whitney in the Sierra Nevada mountains in California. The hairpin turn featured in the film offers scenic views of the Owens Valley.
According to Turner Classic Movies' host, Robert Osborne, the studio was not sure if this film would be a success because they thought that people would not pay money to see Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in a movie when they could watch the couple on television for free (I Love Lucy). Arnaz made a $25,000 bet with the studio that the movie would make more money than the current highest grossing comedy at that time (Father of the Bride starring Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor and also directed by Vincente Minnelli). Arnaz won the bet.
The Long, Long Trailer was released on DVD on May 2, 2006 by Warner Home Video in Region 1 coding for the U.S. and Canada. It was released as a single disc and as a part of a 3-DVD set featuring two other Ball/Arnaz movies, Forever, Darling and Too Many Girls.
