Richard Keenam

I admired Lucille Ball, and always will. While she was never one of my favorite actresses, I always enjoyed every role I saw her play, and notably so in her "I Love Lucy" series. I originally thought Ms. Ball had been given this role in "Mame", because of Warner Brother's atrocious habit, of far too often, replacing highly regarded Broadway stars, with those in Hollywood. And I also heard that Warner Brothers gave this role to Ms. Ball as a farewell gift. But only recently was I made aware that Ms. Ball had actually sought this role. She was well past the age of Angela Lansbury when she played this role, so how could she not have realized how inadequate she was going to be, compared to the way Ms. Lanbury had been able to play it? Through the sometimes intense struggles in which she lived, I would have thought that with her realizing the popularity she had ultimately gained, primarily through her personal struggles, that she would have simply preferred being thankful for having reached this level, with often relaxing in the comfort of retirement. And I never stopped liking and admiring Ms. Ball, and even with the reviews, I still enjoyed this movie, but not as much, had Angela Lansbury been cast in the role she had played so well on Broadway. But by most people's standards, Lucile Ball was a lady to be respected and admired. And as we all know, especially the stars of yesteryear, they clawed and fought for specific roles they want to play, and that's what Lucille did. But for her, it's unfortunate that her very last movie, was not one that should have given her the credit she deserves.