“Lucy Meets Charles Boyer”

(S5;E19 ~ March 5, 1956) Directed by James V. Kern. Written by

Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh, Bob Carroll, Jr., Bob Schiller, and Bob Weiskopf. Filmed on January 19, 1956 at Ren-Mar Studios. Rating: 50.4/68

Synopsis ~ Just because Lucy has left Hollywood, doesn’t mean that she won’t be wreaking havoc in the lives of celebrities. In the second of three episodes set in Paris, she thinks every man she sees ‘dans la rue’ is film star Charles Boyer. When she spots the real Boyer, Ricky first manages to convince him to pretend to be Maurice DuBois, a second rate actor who just happens to look like the star.

This episode was originally written with Maurice Chevalier in mind. The series had mentioned Chevalier several times in the past when the subject turned to France. Instead, Chevalier (somewhat incongruously) guest stars when “Lucy Goes to Mexico,” a 1958 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” 

Charles Boyer (1899–1978) appeared in more than 80 films between 1920 and 1976. French-born Boyer started on the stage, but he found his success in American movies during the 1930’s. His most memorable films include The Garden of Allah (1936), Algiers (1938), Love Affair (1939), and the 1944 mystery-thriller Gaslight. Overall, he received four Academy Award nominations for Best Actor. 

During World War II, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt recruited Boyer, Desi Arnaz, and other stars to be part of her “Hollywood Victory Caravan.” 

In this episode, Boyer mentions “Four Star Playhouse” (1952-56), an anthology series sponsored by Singer and Bristol Myers. The premise of the series was that Boyer, Ida Lupino, David Niven, and Dick Powell would take turns starring in episodes. By the time this episode of “I Love Lucy” aired, the series (also on CBS) was in its final months. Ida Lupino turned up as herself in “Lucy’s Summer Vacation” a 1959 episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour.” 

The day this “I Love Lucy” episode was filmed (January 19, 1956) the series aired “Tunnel of Fear” (S4;E14) starring David Niven and Sir Cedric Hardwicke. 

That same night, just prior to “Tunnel of Fear” Desilu aired their CBS variety series “Shower of Stars” presenting “The Life of Jack Benny” (S2;E4) starring  Benny, his good friend George Burns, Shirley MacLaine (”Gypsy In My Soul”), Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson, and William Lundigan (”K.O. Kitty”). 

In 1970, Lucille Ball did her own version titled “Lucy and Jack Benny’s Biography” (HL S3;E11) with Lucy playing all the women in Jack’s life and a cameo by George Burns. 

The day before this episode first aired (March 5, 1956), another famous Lucy got an earful about television in the Sunday funnies! 

Charles Boyer was also in six Broadway plays, winning a special Tony in 1952 for Don Juan In Hell (no relation to Ricky Ricardo’s shelved MGM picture).

When Lucy thinks she’s seen Charles Boyer in the Paris streets, Ethel says she said the same thing with Clark Gable in Hollywood. This is the 8th mention of Gable on “I Love Lucy,” making him the ‘most mentioned’ celebrity who never appeared on the show – not counting Lucy’s Gable disguise for nearsighted Carloyn Appleby in “Lucy Meets Harpo Marx” (S4;E28, above). 

When Fred denies placing the above item in the paper, Ricky attributes it to agent Don Sharpe. Described by Television Magazine as “Mr. Big” in 1953, talent agent Don Sharpe assisted in the formation of both Four Star Productions (producers of “Four Star Playhouse”) and Desilu. Sharpe was a key proponent of shooting “I Love Lucy” on film in Hollywood, instead of on kine-scope from New York City. His name reoccurs as the name of Danfield’s retiring salvage man in “Lucy Drives a Dumptruck” (TLS S1;E24) in 1963.  

All three Paris-based episodes had café scenes, but all took place in different restaurants with different waiters. In this episode, the café is called the Café du Monde.  

Of the many background performers in the café is Sam Harris, who did more than a dozen films with Lucille Ball, all as background characters. 

Oops!  Ricky tells Charles Boyer that Lucy’s messy encounter with Bill Holden at the Brown Derby happened during dinner time. It was actually during lunchtime. This is a callback to “Hollywood at Last!” (S4;E16). Ricky also  reminds her about Van Johnson (”The Dancing Star” S4;27) and John Wayne (”Lucy and John Wayne” S5;E2) just by mentioning their names. 

It features an actor known for playing waiters, Jack Chefe. Russian-born Chefe had recently played a bellhop in “Lucy and John Wayne” (S5;E2) and had also appeared in five films with Lucille Ball, including playing a waiter in the recently released Forever, Darling. In fact, of Chefe’s 358 film roles, 165 were waiters! He also did three films with Charles Boyer, including Around the World in 80 Days, which was released just a few months after this episode.

Lucy convinces DuBois / Boyer to drop by her suite at the Hotel Royale in order to make Ricky jealous. She even gives him lessons on romance, telling him to deepen his voice and make a face like he smells cauliflower cooking! 

Boyer, however, is in on the plan with Ricky and gives Lucy a dose of her own medicine! 

The Ricardo’s hotel room in Paris is decorated with the same owl bookends previously seen in the Ricardo’s living room and later in the Mertz’s living room (when they got Lucy’s old furniture). The book appears to be titled An Introduction to French.   

In the end, everything that can go wrong, does, and Boyer leaves with a sat-upon hat, an ink-stained shirt, a torn overcoat, and a nasty lump on his forehead.  

Because a real fountain pen wouldn’t squirt as much ink as the scene required, props master Jerry Miggins went to Bert Wheeler’s Magic Shop on Hollywood Boulevard to buy a trick pen that squirted ink. Charles Boyer was reportedly so vain about his appearance that he refused to wear his own clothes for the scene. (It was Desilu practice not to supply wardrobe for guest-stars.) Boyer also didn’t want to wear clothing from Desilu’s wardrobe department, which he deemed inferior. Desi had to give Boyer one of his own overcoats and wanted disappearing ink had to be used instead of real ink. Before Boyer agreed to do the scene, Miggins actually had to try out the disappearing ink on his own shirt to prove it would not stain. 

Detail-oriented Miggins made arrangements to fly in the Paris edition of the Herald Tribune for Boyer to read during the opening café scene. He also expertly dressed the newsstand were Ethel uses the telephone with copies of Paris Match and Jours de France. 

This episode bears more than a passing resemblance to “Don Juan is Shelved” (S4;E21) in which Hollywood producer Dore Schary also pretends to be an out-of-work actor instead of himself. Like Boyer, Lucy hires him to pretend to be the person he really is!  Unfortunately, the real Dore Schary backed out at the last moment, leaving the role to Phil Ober and marring the meta nature of the story. 

LUCY: Au revoir!
BOYER: No, don’t say au revoir. Say goodbye!

LUCY: “Who needs Boyer?!?” 

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FAST FORWARD

This episode inspired 1964′s “Lucy Teaches Ethel Merman To Sing” (TLS S2;E18). Like Charles Boyer, superstar Ethel Merman tells Lucy Carmichael she’s really an ordinary person (Agnes Schmidlap) in order to stay away from the press and her adoring fans. The chemistry between Ball and Merman was so good the episode expanded to a second show. 

In 1967′s “Lucy Gets Mooney Fired” (TLS S6;E9), Lucy Carmichael and Mary Jane (Mary Jane Croft) watch Gaslight  (1944) on TV. Lucy sums up the plot for Mary Jane: “Charles Boyer tries to convince Ingrid Bergman that she is seeing things that aren’t there.”  This is the inspiration for Lucy making Mr. Cheever think he’s hallucinating and then hopefully re-hiring Mr. Mooney.

A scene from this episode was included in “I Love Lucy’s 50th Anniversary Special” in 2001.