Carole Cook Movies

Sid Caesar pulls double duty in this episode, playing "himself" and his lookalike, Frankie the Forger. Upset that Frankie is going around time forging checks with his name, Sid conspires with Lucy (Lucille Ball) to catch the crook in the act. Alas, Lucy is so confused by the plethora of Caesars that she ends up "capturing" only Sid and herself--over and over and over and over again! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tennessee Ernie Ford, who'd made three major guest appearances on the old [#I Love Lucy, is back for more on The Lucy Show. With Mr. Mooney's job in jeopardy unless he can land a big bank account, Lucy (Lucille Ball) tries to persuade millionaire country singer Homer Higgins (Ford) and his singing family (The Bank Porch Majority) to invest their savings in the bank. To expedite this plan, Lucy passes herself and her boss off as the countrified couple Irma and Josh Mooney--and then arranges for the bank to host an after-hours hoedown! Roy Roberts makes his first series appearance in the role of Mooney's boss Mr. Cheever, while Tennessee Ernie Ford sings "The Ladies' Auxiliary Barn Dance." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arthur Godfrey, at one time the most popular (and powerful) personality on radio and TV, makes a guest appearance in this episode. Hoping to persuade Godfrey to appear in the Riverboat musical being staged by the Danfield Little Theater, Lucy (Lucille Ball) is willing to go to great and near-impossible lengths to achieve her goal. She is even willing to travel all the way to Godfrey's home in Virginia--and then the fun (?) begins. The original songs heard in this episode were written by Max Showalter), who appears as Lucy's former beau Vinnie Meyers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this amusing fantasy, a combination of live-action and animated effects, Don Knotts plays scrawny bookkeeper Henry Limpet, who longs to help the U.S. after the outbreak of World War II. He becomes depressed after being turned down by the Navy, particularly after his pal George (Jack Weston) is accepted. When Henry takes a walk on the Coney Island pier with his wife Bessie (Carole Cook), he falls into the water and is transformed into a fish, complete with his reading spectacles. Henry finally gets to help the war effort by helping to track down Nazi U boats for the Navy. Andrew Duggan and Larry Keating play the admirals who spearhead the secret mission involving the transformed Henry. Longtime Disney production associate John Rose was the producer of this film, and the influence of the animation is evident. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Ever on the lookout for extra money, Lucy (Lucille Ball lands a temp job as a process server. Her first assignment is to serve a subpoena to a prominent local banker--Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon), of course. Through a series of mishaps, Lucy is unable to hand over the subpoena at Mooney's home, forcing her to trail him to the train station, which is the first leg of his summer vacation. Finally, Lucy catches up with Mooney in the stateroom of an ocean liner--whereupon Mooney graciously accepts the summons, laughing over the fact that he's going to spend a glorious summer far, far away from the troublesome Mrs. Carmichael...or is he? Watch for Richard Keith, the former "Little Ricky" on I Love Lucy, in the train-station scene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When the Danfield fire department is rezoned to another community, Lucy (Lucille Ball) angrily demands to the city council that a new department be formed immediately. This explains how Lucy and Viv (Vivian Vance) find themselves organizing their own fire battalion--comprised entirely of women. After a slapsticky "training session", the first fire bell rings, and the girls are given their first chance to put out a fire--one that they accidentally started themselves in their own firehouse! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The all-female Danville Volunteer Fire Department needs new uniforms, but there's no money in the treasury. Hoping to raise the necessary funds--and to save her job as fire chief--Lucy (Lucille Ball) organizes a paper drive. Assuming that this undertaking will merely entail collecting old newspapers and depositing them in a truck for shipment out of town, Lucy and Viv (Vivian Vance) never imagined that they would be obliged to drive the truck themselves! Richard Reeves, a busy utility actor who popped in dozens of I Love Lucy episodes, is here cast as a cop. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The most elaborate--and longest--of Universal's Frankenstein series, Son of Frankenstein represents Boris Karloff's last appearance in the role of the Monster. The title character is played by Basil Rathbone, who with wife Josephine Hutchinson and son Donnie Donegan returns to the Old Country to take over his late father's estate. Rathbone receives a cool reception from the local villagers, who remember all too well the havoc wreaked by his father's monstrous creation. Though he assures his neighbors that he has no intention of following in his father's footsteps, Rathbone is hounded by suspicious town constable Lionel Atwill, whose stiff artificial arm is an unfortunate legacy of an earlier confrontation with Karloff. Also hanging around Frankenstein Castle is crazed shepherd Bela Lugosi), whose neck was broken in an unsuccessful hanging attempt. Lugosi wishes to exact revenge on the city fathers who'd tried to execute him, and to that end persuades Rathbone to revive the hideous Karloff. At first resistant, Rathbone becomes as obsessed as his father with the notion of creating artificial life. Now the fun begins, directed with Germanic intensity by Rowland V. Lee. Though Mel Brooks's Young Frankenstein has rendered Son of Frankenstein virtually impossible to take seriously, the film remains an excellent marriage of the slick, sanitized production values of the "New Universal" and the Gothic zeitgeist of the earlier Frankenstein epics. Best line: Lugosi, looking over the dormant body of The Monster, explains raspily that "He does...things...for me." Hans J. Salter's intense musical score for Son of Frankenstein would continue to resurface in Universal's Mummy B pictures of the 1940s. Watch for Ward Bond in a bit part as a police officer...and see if you can spot Dwight Frye, whose supporting part was excised from the final release print, among the villagers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide