This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Good start, but then it gets ruined

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The acting in this movie is really good.

Unemployed Lucille Ball, the worst student at secretarial school, is hired by a phony reality company precisely due to her innocent ignorance--and her nice legs! William Holden is her boss who doesn't mind if she can't type, as long as she provides a good cover for his private bookie joint in the back room. It took four writers to concoct this slapstick un-merriment, which has very few jokes (never mind good ones). It's a treat to see Ball and Holden together in a film, but the movie has been conceived on the most basic comedic level (and even there it fails, what with Lucy suddenly becoming an office firebrand and whipping Holden's non-business into shape). It gives several fine character actors (like Gloria Henry and Charles Lane) fairly decent supporting roles, but nobody gave much thought to the heroine, and Ball can't carry the movie on charm and legs alone. ** from ****

Some funny antics are shown in this 1949 comedy with Lucille Ball and William Holden.Ball immediately showed her comedic gifts as a dimwitted secretary hired by a bookie (Holden) to watch over the office.Trouble is that she is the niece of a judge. Thinking that Holden is in real estate, she begins to bring prospective customers and builders to him. Frank McHugh and James Gleason co-star and do well as comic foils.Some of the scenes are hilarious where Ball shows her "stupidity" and other happenings. Holden is young, adept at comedy but was chain smoking throughout the film.This movie was a definite pre-test for Lucy Ricardo. Too bad Vivian Vance and Bill Frawley weren't in it as well.

Before Lucille Ball would become forever famous as the star of the beloved TV series "I love Lucy" and William Holden would become one of the biggest stars, if not the biggest star of the fifties, they were both dependable leading man and lady respectively in fluffy comedies for the studio system. Movies that were not very deep, did not charm the critics but did well at the box office as this one did. This is more Lucille's show than Holden who was already growing into his craggy, weary, doggerel expression that would serve him well in later years. Plot must be a twist on a popular fifties phenomenon of hard to find affordable housing in Washington DC and the scam artists who bilk the people desperate for affordable prices. Lucille is a dumb red-head who wants to do good things while being inept and dyslexic. Holden needs a not too bright secretary who won't ask questions and will not catch on to the underground shenanigans of his front real estate business. Lucille proves to be more headache than bargain, and gets Holden into a tight spot. He tries to fire her in a funny and unsuccessful attempt. She learns the truth, hates him, loves him and an ending comes. There is also another girl involved. You know it already it's a romantic comedy, Hollywood style. That said, the first two-thirds of the movie is very funny and sharp as the two of them grate each other's nerves, well it's Holden doing all the gritting. But the last third is very weak and not very intelligent, especially the final scene. So it's good but not quite there. Passable entertainment for the house-wife or loved one.

Miss Grant Takes Richmond is an OK comedy starring Lucille Ball as a somewhat dizzy secretary who is hired by Mr. Richmond, a bookie using a phony real estate business as a front. Lucy, of course, doesn't know this, and she believes that he will build low-cost homes for her friends. This film is, unfortunately, not very funny. There are a couple of humorous sequences, but overall it should have been funnier. There's also very little slapstick, which is strange considering that Lucy was so adept at it. She and Holden do have some chemistry, though, and the supporting cast is good. A 5 out of 10.