A Handy Dandy Guide To Halloween in the Lucyverse

FILM

LURED is a 1947 suspense film directed by Douglas Sirk starring Lucille Ball, George Sanders, and former Frankenstein monster Boris Karloff.

SYNOPSIS: Sandra Carpenter (Lucille Ball) is a London-based dancer who is distraught to learn that her friend has disappeared. Soon after the disappearance, she’s approached by Harley Temple (Charles Coburn), a police investigator who believes her friend has been murdered by a serial killer who uses personal ads to find his victims. Temple hatches a plan to catch the killer using Sandra as bait, and Sandra agrees to help. But complications arise when Sandra becomes engaged to a nightclub owner.

This example of film noir is more suspenseful than scary, but it is nice to see Ball in a different genre than comedy.

RADIO

“Liz’s Superstitions” (aka “Superstition”) is episode #59 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on October 21, 1949.

SYNOPSIS: A chirping cricket in the Cooper’s hearth is driving George crazy, but Liz is convinced it means good luck. When Liz insists that it isn’t lucky to banish a cricket, George gets upset with her superstitions.

MR. ACME: “There are only three of us in this room. Only two of us will leave here alive.”

LIZ: “I hope one of them is not a cricket!” 

“Halloween Surprise Party” (aka “The Halloween Party” aka “The Surprise Halloween Party”) is episode #60 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on October 28, 1949.

SYNOPSIS: The Atterburys decide to throw a Halloween surprise party for Liz and George, but when Liz hears about their party at the beauty salon, she thinks that she and George just weren’t invited. When the subject turns to everyone’s plans for Halloween, the Atterburys lie and tell the Coopers that Iris’s mother is ill so they are having dinner with her.

RUDOLPH: “Yes, we always spend Halloween with the old witch!” 

“The Ten Grand” was an episode of radio’s Suspense broadcast on June 22, 1944. The script is by Virginia Radcliffe. It was her only Suspense script in a long radio writing career. This story was included in Suspense Magazine #3.

SYNOPSIS: A broke chorus girl inexplicably finds ten thousand dollars in her purse after it’s been temporarily stolen on the subway. She’s not sure what to do about it, and it soon leads to trouble. She has been set up.

Lucille Ball had done a previous episode of Suspense in January 1944 titled “Dime a Dance”. 

“Early To Death” is an episode of Suspense that aired April 12, 1951. It starred Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz in a script by John Michael Hayes and E. Jack Newman, produced and directed by Elliott Lewis.

SYNOPSIS: Ben is a co-pilot on a plane and he and his partner Evie (Lucille Ball) call in that their plane is in trouble. But the plane wasn’t in trouble, it was carrying the company’s payroll and the two of them jumped from the plane with the money and took it as they had planned and buried it in the mountain where they planned to leave it until things had died down. A few days later they strolled in to a nearby town like two plane crash survivors. They knew there would be questions to answer but they had rehearsed for this over the year. When the wreckage was found it was assumed that the money had burnt in it. It seemed that they were clear and all they had to do was wait but then a guy named Rico Sebastian turned up claiming that he had seen them bury the money in the mountains.

“I’d killed, then he’d killed. The way I looked at it, it was my turn again.” ~ Evie

TELEVISION

“The Seance” is the seventh episode of season one of “I Love Lucy” aired on November 26, 1951. Directed by Marc Daniels. Written by Jess Oppenheimer, Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr.

SYNOPSIS: Lucy is obsessed with astrology and numerology just as Ricky is about to be interviewed by a producer who also believes heavily in the supernatural.  To appease him, the gang hosts a séance to contact his dear departed Tilly.   

This episode is based on an episode of Lucy’s radio show “My Favorite Husband” titled “Numerology,” which was first broadcast on Christmas Day 1948. 

MEDIUM RAYA (in a trance): “Ethel to Tilly. Ethel to Tilly. Come in, Tilly. Over.”

“Little Ricky’s School Pageant” is the tenth episode of season six of “I Love Lucy” aired December 17, 1956. Directed by James V. Kern. Written by Madelyn Martin, Bob Carroll, Jr., Bob Schiller and Bob Weiskopf.

SYNOPSIS: Little Ricky is cast as the lead in his school play, with Lucy, Ricky, Fred and Ethel also getting into the act. Lucy plays a wicked witch who threatens to kidnap Susie and her little brother Billy.

“Lucy and the Monsters” is 18th episode of season three of “The Lucy Show” aired January 25, 1965.

SYNOPSIS: When Lucy and Viv decide to check out the horror movies their boys have been watching, Lucy has a nightmare in which she and Viv are trapped in a haunted castle where they encounter a variety of horror movie characters – until their host turns them into witches themselves!  

LUCY: “The over-abundance of spooky stuff in movies and TV can cause traumatic experience in our youngsters.”

This is as close as Lucy gets to a Halloween episode, although it was first aired in January! It includes all the horror movie tropes: haunted house, vampires, werewolves, witches, mummies, and creatures.

“Lucy Cuts Vincent’s Price” is the 9th episode of season three of “Here’s Lucy” aired November 9, 1970, one week after Halloween.

SYNOPSIS: Lucy mistakenly buys a painting at an auction and brings it to art connoisseur actor Vincent Price to be appraised.  Price thinks Lucy is an actress coming to audition for his new horror movie and terrorizes Lucy in his study turned laboratory.

“Lucy and the Little Old Lady” is the 17th episode of the fourth season of “Here’s Lucy” aired January 3, 1972, starring Helen Hayes.

SYNOPSIS: When a kindly widow from out of town (Helen Hayes) comes to the Unique Employment Agency looking for a part-time job, Lucy gives her a place to stay and Harry buys some real estate from her. Kim becomes suspicious that she may be running a con game so they plan to hold a fake séance to get Harry’s money back.

To be truthful, there’s nothing particularly scary about this episode, even the séance!