Best movie of this year hands down!

Excellent but underrated film

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Forever Darling was one of the attempts to make Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, arguably the hottest show business couple at the time this came out to make a jump to the big screen as a comedy team. It was mildly amusing, like a long episode of I Love Lucy.The passion's just kind of gone out of the marriage of Lucy and Desi, sadly as it was in real life. She's a socialite and he's a scientist and that was the part of the film that I had the most trouble swallowing.So after one boring evening once too often with Lucy's idiot cousin Natalie Schaefer and husband Ralph Dumke, Desi's ready to call it quits. But Lucy's guardian angel who appears in the form of her favorite movie star James Mason advises that she take more of an interest in Desi's work as a scientist. He's looking for the ultimate bug spray.Lucy's not an outdoor girl, but she goes on a camping trip with Desi and that last third of the film is just one I Love Lucy episode. The inflatable rubber raft truly gets the better of both of them.As for Mason he has an extended sequence when Lucy and Desi are watching a film that stars James Mason and Lucy in a blond wig. Mason satirizes himself rather nicely. For the rest of the film he looks somewhat uncomfortable.Fans of Lucille Ball and they sure are legion in the part of the country I reside in which is Western New York state should be pleased with Forever Darling. But three episodes of I Love Lucy will satisfy your craving better.

Squabbling marrieds Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz are given help from Lucy's guardian angel, played with self-bemusement by James Mason. The big joke in the material is that Ball's character sees the angel as a dead-ringer for Mason the Movie Star, but that's about the only laugh to be had in this leadweight scenario. Knowing what we do now about the troubled real-life relationship between Ball and Arnaz (big television stars by this point), it's only unease we get from watching them constantly bickering on screen. I doubt the film was very fresh even in 1956, mostly due to the turgid, hapless screenplay by the normally talented Helen Deutsch. Nothing on display here is diverting, with the jokes, costumes, pacing and production all sub-standard. Any mid-run episode of "I Love Lucy" runs rings around this comedic misfire. NO STARS from ****

First of all, I am a big I Love Lucy fan. I own this movie as part of the three movie DVD set (Forever Darling; Long Long Trailer; Too Many Girls). This is the least enjoyable of the three. Even being a big Lucy/Desi fan, I didn't find much to enjoy about this movie. Even the funny scenes weren't funny. This is a pretty boring movie. It's kind of like a long, unfunny I Love Lucy episode in color. And when the two main characters fight, you can't help but think of how Lucy and Desi fought in real life.I will say that the camping scenes looked so beautiful that it made me want to take my husband up on his standing offer to go camping together.

Lucy and Desi return in a film about what happens when the love starts to leave the marriage of their characters, Susan and Lorenzo. It's not a wacky comedy like The Long, Long Trailer or I Love Lucy, but it's more sweetly poignant and gently humorous. I especially like the scene where Susan and Lorenzo are at a movie and he falls asleep, and she screams and wakes him up right away! The startled, confused look on Desi's face is priceless! And for 60s TV buffs, Nancy Kulp (Jane Hathaway on the Beverly Hillbillies) and Natalie Schafer (Mrs. Howell on Gilligan's Island) are both in this film. Definitely worth renting.