Tuesday, September 10, 2013

Doris Day and Lucille Ball team up for the hilarious Have I Got A Story To Tell You (1960)



Doris Day and Lucille Ball are a perfect pair in the comedy, Have I Got A Story To Tell You. The story has our two gals as rival bookstore owners who are forced to team up to stop a major bookstore chain from pushing their small stores out of the picture. Doris plays Lucy Street, whose store is called The Happy Book Store. Lucy plays Ann Morgan, whose store is called Friends and Books. Their stores are located right across the street from one another and have been for over 10 years. Lucy and Ann are respectful of each other and even share coffee every now and then but for the most part remain rivals. That is until major chain Big City Books seeks to expand their chain by opening up a store right in their small town of Kanesville, Colorado. They send their best PR man, Jerry McQueen (played by Tony Curtis) to convince the ladies that this is the best option for their businesses and town. Lucy and Ann band together to declare war on Big City Books but Jerry with his smooth talking ways tries to convince them otherwise. Jerry ends up romancing both women who fall hard until they come to their senses. When Jerry fails at his job, the president of Big City Books, Mr. Langford (Claude Rains) comes to town to handle the deal himself. 

Lucy as Ann Morgan

This is a simple comedy that may be light on story but great on chemistry between Day and Ball. It's a treat to see these two women converse and engage in pratfalls and getting one up on romeo Tony Curtis. It has a breezy run time of only 90 minutes but there are great comic scenes. Including the opening scene where both Lucy and Ann arrive at work to their respective stores and kind of mirror each other. It's a funny scene that lets both actresses mimic each other wonderfully. And then the scenes where Tony Curtis tries to seduce both women are funny as well. Have I Got A Story To Tell You is worth a look.

Tony Curtis and Doris Day

Cast:
Doris Day.................Lucy Street
Lucille Ball................Ann Morgan
Tony Curtis...............Jerry McQueen
Mr. Langford............Claude Rains
Patsy Kelly...............Esther
Pamela Tiffin.............Jilly

Oh btw in case people start scratching their heads about this movie, this is another in my series of fantasy films I just thought of and posted. In short, it doesn't exist. Just a fun exercise for me to work my imagination! Hope you guys liked it.

1 comment:

  1. Drat! I was hoping this was an actual film! It would have been terrific. :)

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