DIRTY GERTIE

S5;E10
~ November 13, 1972

Directed
by Coby Ruskin ~ Written by Bob O’Brien

Synopsis

Lucy
gets a surprise fruit basket and heads downtown to share her good
fortune with her hairdresser. On the street she is mistaken for
Dirty Gertie, an apple peddler who just happens to be the good luck
charm of a local gangster. The police recruit Lucy to help capture
the mobster by dressing her up as Gertie once more and having her spy
on the gambler in his own nightclub.

Regular
Cast

Lucille
Ball (Lucy
Carter), Lucie
Arnaz (Kim
Carter)

Gale
Gordon (Harrison
Otis Carter) does not appear in this episode nor does he receive
opening title credit.

Guest
Cast

Craig
Stevens
(Lieutenant Egan) is probably best remembered for playing the title
role in the crime series “Peter Gunn” (1958-61).  He was married
to stage and screen star Alexis Smith.  This is his only appearance
opposite Lucille Ball.

Egan
says he has a wife about Kim’s age.  A police officer named Egan was
featured in “The Case of the Reckless Wheelchair Driver” (S5;E6)
played by Ed Hall, who here plays ‘Numbers’ Smith.  

Bruce
Gordon
(Rocky, right) played Frank Nitti on “The Untouchables” (a Desilu show)
as well as a parody of that program on “The Lucy Show”
called “Lucy
the Gun Moll” (TLS S4;E25).
Gordon had appeared on Broadway in the long-running play Arsenic
and Old Lace (1941-44)
with Boris Karloff. He was also on Broadway with Charlton Heston and
Katherine Cornell in Antony
and Cleopatra (1947-48).
This is his third and final episode of “Here’s Lucy.”  

Johnny
Silver
(Benny, left) was a busy Hollywood character actor who was seen on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and “The Jack Benny Show.”  He was
previously seen in “Lucy and Carol Burnett” (S3;E22).  This is
his final appearance on the series. 

John
Harmon
(‘Moose’ Murdock, left) previously appeared as a criminal in two
crime-themed episodes of “The Lucy Show.” This is his only
episode of “Here’s Lucy.”  

The
surname Murdock is only found in the final credits, but is not spoken
in the dialogue. 

Ed
Hall (‘Numbers’
Smith, right) was a stage actor from New England making the second of his
two appearances on “Here’s Lucy.”  He previously
played a policeman named Egan in “The Case of the Reckless
Wheelchair Driver” (S5;E6).  

The
surname Smith is only found in the final credits, but is not spoken
in the dialogue.

Larry
J. Blake (Passerby)
first appeared as a Native American Medicine Man in “Lucy
the Rain Goddess” (TLS S4;E15).
He was an ex-vaudevillian making the seventh of his eight “Here’s
Lucy” appearances. 

Hal
Smith
(Max) is probably best remembered as Otis Campbell, the Mayberry town
drunk, on “The Andy Griffith Show” (also filmed at Desilu) even
though in real life he never drank alcohol. He appeared with Lucille
Ball in the 1963 film Critic’s
Choice.
He made three appearances on “The Lucy Show.” This is his final
appearance opposite Lucille Ball.

Smith
once again is playing a drunk.  

Sid
Gould
(Delivery Man) made more than 45 appearances on “The Lucy Show”
and nearly as many on “Here’s Lucy.” Gould (born Sydney
Greenfader) was Lucille Ball’s cousin by marriage to Gary Morton. 

Other
passersby on the street and the two arresting officers are
uncredited.

The
script for this episode was finalized on April 3, 1972.  

This
episode was inspired by the 1961 Frank Capra film Pocketful
of Miracles in
which
Bette Davis played Apple Annie, a poor woman reduced to selling
apples on the street.  At the start of the episode, Rocky tells Benny
that he always gives ‘Apple Annie’ a c-note [$100] to bring him good
luck at the track because he “saw it in a picture once.”  The
film featured previous “Lucy” co-stars Edward Everett Horton, Jay
Novello, Ann-Margret (film debut), Sheldon Leonard, Jerome Cowan,
Fritz Feld, Ellen Corby, Benny Rubin, Hayden Rorke, Bess Flowers,
Vito Scotti, Bert Stevens, Arthur Tovey, and Romo Vincent.  

This
episode is in no way related to the 1946 race film
Dirty Gertie from
Harlem U.S.A.
directed
by
Spencer
Williams.  In the film, the wordy “dirty” has a sexual
connotation.  Here, it means untidy and unclean.

Craig
Stevens (Lieutenant Egan) gets a round of applause on his entrance.
No doubt audiences remember him from “Peter Gunn.”  

Lieutenant
Egan questions Lucy and says he’s “just
trying to get the facts, ma’am.”
This is a paraphrase of a quote from another famous TV detective,
Joe
Friday on “Dragnet.”
The role was played by Jack Webb (above) from 1949 (on radio) until 1970.
Craig Stevens (Egan) even imitates Webb’s deadpan delivery of his
lines.

Lucy and Kim use the $100 that Rocky gave her for the apple to buy clothing at the Paree Boutique.  

When
Lieutenant Egan asks Lucy if Kim is her daughter, Lucy replies
“Well, I didn’t get her at Abbey Rents.”
Abbey
Rents
is a party rental company that was founded by Stanley Slotkin and
opened in Los Angeles in 1937.  The company is still in business
today. 

Rocky’s
club is called the Pink Rooster Cafe.  

When
Lucy goes undercover as Dirty Gertie, Lieutenant Egan briefly
narrates her activities for the viewers, a storytelling technique
frequently used on crime shows.

When
Max puts the bite on Benny for five bucks for his wife, he says he
was going to ask for ten, but the President froze her salary.
President Richard M. Nixon signed the
Economic
Stabilization Act of 1970 to stabilize rents, prices, rents, wages, salaries, interest
rates, dividends and
similar transfers.
 The
law was dissolved in 1974.  

Lucille
Ball later famously played a homeless woman in the 1985 CBS TV movie Stone
Pillow,
a rare dramatic turn for the star. It was Ball’s last film and her
penultimate scripted TV appearance.

It
is revealed that the real Dirty Gertie has a son named Sylvie.

While
at her most drunk, Lucy/Gertie sings an a cappella chorus
of “With
a Little Bit of Luck,”
a song from the stage and screen musical My
Fair Lady.
It was written by Alan J. Lerner and Frederick Loewe in 1956.  

During
the poker game, Rocky thinks he’s won with “ten
high flush – all black.”
‘Numbers’ trumps his hand with “Jack
high flush – all Caucasian!”
This is a rare instance of a joke based on race – and the studio
audience responds with laughter and applause!

When
a drunken Lucy/Gertie slips and calls the undercover waiter
“lieutenant” he quickly responds with a salute and his rank in
the Korean war serving under a General Baxter.

Rocky
tells Lucy that an undercover hat check girl who was found out was
tied to the propeller of an ocean liner “like
one of those wristwatch commercials.”  This
is a reference to the Timex
TV
commercials in which a waterproof watch was strapped to a boat
propeller, submerged in a water tank, proving that it “takes a licking and keeps on ticking.”  

The
story line here is similar to “Lucy, the Gun Moll,” (TLS S4;E25) which was also written by Bob O’Brien. In both episodes Bruce Gordon
plays a mobster similar to the one he played on “The
Untouchables” (1959-63), and Lucy goes  undercover to catch the criminals. 

Lucy swigging alcohol straight from the bottle (and her hilarious reaction to it) is visually reminiscent to Lucy Ricardo’s experience with Vitameatavegamin (23% alcohol) in “Lucy Does a TV Commercial” (ILL S1;E30).  

Continuity!
Lucy is back wearing her leg cast, which she did not have on in the
previous episode “Lucy and Jim Bailey” (S5;E9) indicating that
these episodes were aired out of filming order.

The
Eyes Have It!  When
Lucy is undercover as Dirty Gertie, she blacks out her teeth and
sports a mole, but Lucille Ball still has on her usual glamorous eye
make-up!  

Sitcom
Logic Alert!
Rocky and Benny somehow do not recognize that Lucy Carter is not the
same Gertie they formerly encountered outside (and inside) the Pink
Rooster Cafe.

“Dirty Gertie” rates 4 Paper Hearts out of 5

This is classic Lucille Ball comedy.  No music, no celebrity guest stars playing themselves – just Lucy doing what Lucy does best!