I Watch Movies: The Long, Long Trailer

Sometimes I manage to dig up some real gems on Netflix or Amazon. This occasional series will serve as my gift to you: quirky flicks, even quirkier side stories of my own. Maybe you'll just find something new to put in your queue.

Movie #1
Title: The Long, Long Trailer (1953)
Starring: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz
Amazon Instant Video synopsis: Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz live slaphappily ever after as newlyweds honeymooning in The Long, Long Trailer. They quickly find that the interior of a moving trailer is ideal for tossing a Caesar salad -- and everything else.



I guess it was pretty damn exciting to own a vacation trailer in mid-century America. Either that or Lucy is certifiably insane (also likely). Is getting married and buying a home good enough for her? Not nearly! She talks her fiance into buying an enormous and overpriced trailer instead. That way, wherever they are, they're home. Awwww.

It's not long before terrible things start happening, including but not limited to getting stuck in the mud and nearly causing a house to collapse after backing into it. Lucy all the while keeps a happy face on, collecting enormous (and I do mean enormous) rocks from each stop.

When Desi tells her she must lose some of her precious cargo so they can climb an 8,000-foot mountain on narrow roads, she does what any logical person would do: hide the extra poundage instead. No one will ever know, right?

I don't know about you, but I would want a divorce.



I remember camping when I was growing up. There were tents, of course, and pop-up campers. Some of them with A/C units (oh the glory!). But nothing was ever as exciting as when my grandparents bought a real trailer. By real trailer I mean TOILET and SHOWER and TV. No more creepy nocturnal visits to the spider-filled public shower by the lake. And I could watch "Wheel of Fortune" after breakfast, every 12-year-old girl's dream! Ahem.

My grandparents' real trailer was probably a lot more aerodynamic than those metal torpedoes people used to haul around in the 1950s, even though those 1950s models were infinitely cooler to look at. Check out these roundups for some trailer love.