Look Who’s Laughing (1941) starring Edgar Bergen, Lucille Ball, Jim Jordan, Harold Peary
Look Who’s Laughing is a movie comedy, featuring then-famous radio stars and Lucille Ball, about true love and an aircraft factory …
For fans of Lucille Ball, it should be pointed out that in Look Who’s Laughing, she’s neither a clown nor a comedian. She’s the beautiful love interest, and part of a romantic triangle. There’s basically two or three intersecting conflicts here:
- Julie (Lucille Ball) is Edgar Bergan’s co-star and right-hand person, whom he’ll be lost without. And she’s engaged to his best friend and business manager, Jerry.
- Fibber McGee wants to coerce an aircraft factory to build in his town. And his friend, Throckmorton P. Gildersleeve, is being blackmailed into preventing it.
- Julie’s really in love with Edgar, though neither of them realizes it initially. But she does, after a touching conversation with Edgar’s famous ventriloquist dummy, Charlie McCarthy. When Edgar isn’t there!
Julie Patterson: Marriage is a strong institution, Charlie.
Charlie McCarthy: So is Alcatraz, but I wouldn’t want to live there.
It’s a funny movie, that’s probably more funny if you’re already of fan of Fibber McGee & Molly, or The Great Gildersleeve radio programs — which I am.
Look Who’s Laughing is available as part of Lucille Ball RKO Comedy Collection Volume 1
Product Description
Rounding out the collection is 1941’s Look Who’s Laughing, featuring a now glamorous Lucy. James V. Kern, who would later direct I Love Lucy, pens the tale, while screen pioneer Allan Dwan directs this rollicking satire which also stars Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy.
Editorial Reviews
Lucille Ball adds her own brand of zaniness to a fast-paced comedy starring some of the great names from the Golden Age of Radio. Fibber McGee(Jim Jordan) is the center of a lot of commotion when he tries to lure an aircraft factory into the vicinity of Wistful Vista. True to his style, however, and to his wife Molly’s (Marion Jordan) dismay, Fibber does so through a series of hair-brained schemes. It’s enough she has to put up with entrepreneur Fibber’s totally unreliable household inventions! Fibber does manage to involve the likes of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen and his wise-cracking sidekick Charlie McCarthy to help complete the factory deal, with assistance from a certain red-headed secretary (Lucy).
Cast of characters
- Edgar Bergen (Fun and Fancy Free) … Edgar Bergen. Radio star, who has mixed feelings about Julie marrying his best friend Jerry. Although he’s not sure why …. Comically forgetful here.
- Charlie McCarthy (You Can’t Cheat an Honest Man) … Charlie McCarthy
- Jim Jordan (The Rescuers) … Fibber McGee
- Marian Jordan (Heavenly Days) … Molly McGee
- Lucille Ball (I Love Lucy, The Long Long Trailer) … Julie Patterson. Edgar’s beautiful radio costar and girl Friday, that he’s helpless without. She’s engaged to Jerry, despite her feelings for Edgar.
- Lee Bonnell (San Quentin) … Jerry. Edgar’s business manager. He’s engaged to Julie, but Edgar “borrows” her on his wedding day. While trying to track her down, he falls in love with …
- Dorothy Lovett (Meet Doctor Christian) … Marge. Julie’s replacement, and Jerry’s former fiancée. A nice young lady, that Jerry falls in love with on their road trip.
- Harold Peary (Gildersleeve’s Ghost, Seven Days Leave) … Throckmartin P. Gildersleeve. The blustery, self-important, yet likable character from his radio program. Here, he’s been blackmailed into undercutting his best friend Fibber’s aircraft factory proposal. Until Julie cleverly comes to the rescue …
- Isabel Randolph (The Missing Corpse) … Mrs. Uppington
- Walter Baldwin (The Best Years of Our Lives) … Bill
- Neil Hamilton (Batman, Tarzan the Ape Man) … Hilary Horton. Owner of the Horton Aircraft Factory, and Edgar’s friend.
- Charles Halton (Stranger on the Third Floor) … Sam Cudahy, the rival business owner. Who doesn’t want the aircraft factory built there. And blackmails Gildersleeve to make sure!
- Harlow Wilcox … Mr. Collins
- Spencer Charters (Alibi Ike, The Raven 1935) … Motel Manager
- Jed Prouty … Mayor
- George Cleveland (Miss Grant Takes Richmond) … Kelsey
Secondary characters
- Sterling Holloway (The Jungle Book,The Aristocats) … Rusty– Soda Jerk. Actually both funny and sweet in his role, serving malted to someone who’s trying to drown his sorrows.
- Charles Lane (Miss Grant Takes Richmond, The Invisible Woman) … Club Secretary