Lucy and the French Movie Star

S6;E3
~ September 25,
1967

Synopsis

A
French movie star (Jacques Bergerac) is considering doing business
with the bank. When Lucy is invited to his hotel suite to get the
papers signed, she indulges in a bit too much champagne.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Carmichael),
Gale Gordon
(Theodore J. Mooney), Roy
Roberts
(Mr. Cheever)

Mary
Jane Croft (Mary
Jane Lewis) does not appear in this episode.

Guest
Cast

Jacques
Bergerac
(Jacques DuPre) was born in Biarritz, France in 1927 as Jacques
Gilbert Henri Bergeruc. He was seen on screen in Gigi
(1958),
Les
Girls
(1957)
and The
Hypnotic Eye
(1960).
He ultimately left show business to work for Revlon in Paris.
Bergerac was the fourth husband of Ginger Rogers, the famed dancer /
actress who appeared on “Here’s Lucy” in 1971. They divorced in
1957. He died in 2014 in his homeland.

DuPre
has formed the DuPre Production Company and is interested in doing
business with Westland Bank.

This
episode was filmed on May 11, 1967. This is one of a very few
episodes with just four characters; three regulars and a guest star.
“Lucy and Viv Reminisce” (S6;E16), will feature just three
actors: Lucille Ball, Vivian Vance, and Gale Gordon.

Jacques
Bergerac gets both entrance and exit applause from the studio
audience. It is, however, hard to tell if this is due to his showy
entrance and exit or his celebrity status. Lucy gets entrance
applause (and some “ahhhs”)
in scene two, but this may be due to her blue floral print dress.
Lucy coyly tells DuPres she ran home and “tossed
on this little old thing.”

Lucy
says she saw DuPre in the film Kisses
at Dawn
where he did his own stunts playing a lion tamer. He even goes so
far as to demonstrate, using an office chair and a whip (Lucy’s
raincoat belt) with Lucy acting as the lion. When Mr. Mooney bursts
in and sees the reenactment, he jumps to the conclusion that Lucy is
attacking DuPre, instead of the other way around!

DuPre
is staying at the (fictional) Plaza Royale Hotel. In her drunken
haze Lucy thinks she is on a very large boat. She mentions getting
off at Catalina. Catalina,
an island off the coast of Southern California, has been mentioned in
a couple of previous episodes: “Lucy
Helps the Countess” (S4;E8)
and
“Lucy
and Tennessee Ernie Ford” (S5;E21).

Reeling
out of DuPre’s suite, Lucy does Jackie Gleason’s famous “Away We
Go” exit move. She has done this on several previous episodes,
starting with “Lucy Helps Danny Thomas” (S4;E7).

DuPre
says that the Champagne is Chateau Bergerac 1959. Lucy says (and
later sings) that it was a very good year. In actuality, 1959 was
NOT such a very good year for Lucille Ball. She was facing the
imminent cancellation of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” and her
divorce from Desi Arnaz. It was a very good year, however, for Jacques Bergerac, who attended the Academy Awards to see his film Gigi win Best Picture. Bergerac lends his own surname to
the Champagne vintage.

“It
Was A Very Good Year”
is a
song Ervin
Drake
composed
in 1961 for Bob
Shane
and the
Kingston Trio.
It
was subsequently made famous by Frank
Sinatra, who
won the Grammy
Award for Best Male Vocal Performance
in
1966. The single peaked at #28 on the US
pop charts
and
became Sinatra’s first #1 single on the Easy
Listening charts.
While under the influence, Lucy sloppily croons “Darling,
Je Vous Aime Beaucoup,” which
was
written by Anna Sosenko in 1935. It
was introduced in the film Love
and Hisses by
Hildegarde
and
charted at # 21 in 1943.
The best-selling version of the song was recorded by Nat
King Cole in
1954
which
reached a peak Billboard
position
# 7.

When
Lucy doesn’t know how to reply in French, she says “Mademoiselle
from Armentières”
and then “Hinky-dinky
parlez-vous.”
“Mademoiselle
from Armentières” (aka “Hinky-Dinky Parlez-Vous”),
was a song sung by soldiers during World War One. In
“The French Revue” (ILL S3;E7) when
Fred Mertz (a veteran who fought in France and Germany) is frustrated
that he cannot read a French menu, Ethel reminds him that he was only
there for three weeks and that the restaurant doesn’t serve
Hinky-Dinky Parlez-Vous. Fred also sang the song in “Paris at
Last!” (ILL S5;E18).

Lucy
gets the hiccups from the Champagne. Then tries to get rid of the
hiccups by drinking even more Champagne. In
“Lucy
and the Sleeping Beauty” (S4;E9)
Lucy
says she always gets the hiccups when she’s hungry. In “Lucy’s
Last Birthday” (ILL S2;E25)
Lucy
Ricardo says she gets hiccups from crying. In “Lucy
Takes a Cruise to Havana” Lucy McGillicuddy tells Susie MacNamara (Ann Sothern)
that she doesn’t get the hiccups very often at all!

DuPres
very convincingly “puts the moves” on Lucy and she responds with
a great deal of girlish charm. It is an interesting side of the
character not often seen on the series due to Ball’s determination
that the Lucy not sacrifice her female independence by being in a
relationship. When the series began, Ball herself was going through
much the same thing.

Callbacks!

Lucy
Ricardo was also enamored with a French movie star in “Lucy Meets
Charles Boyer” (ILL S5;E19). In “Lucy Goes to Mexico” (1957)
Lucy Ricardo is impressed by the talents of Maurice Chevalier, a
French-born film star who appeared in Gigi
with Jacques Bergerac.

This
is the third time we have seen Lucy Carmichael completely blotto.
The first was with Viv in “Lucy’s Sister Pays a Visit” (S1;E15)
when she over-spikes the wedding punch. The second was at a wine
tasting in “Lucy and the Countess” (S3;E19). Lucy Ricardo
famously got intoxicated on Vitameatavegamin (34% alcohol) in “Lucy
Does a TV Commercial” (ILL S1;E30).

Blooper
Alerts!

Lucy
tells DuPre that her mother is old fashioned Irish. In previous
episodes Lucy touted her Scottish heritage.

A
light-weight aluminum chair replaces the usual plush guest chair next
to Mr. Mooney’s desk in order to accommodate DuPre’s (and later Mr.
Mooney’s) lion tamer bit.

The
ugly piece of bric-a-brac featured in “Lucy and the Ceramic Cat”
(S3;E16), now painted bright yellow, is seen on the table in the
hallway outside of DuPre’s hotel suite.