The Affairs Of Annabel (1938)

Since in her next movie, she'll play a maid, a studio publicity man (Jack Oakie) arranges for a movie star (Lucille Ball) to go undercover as a maid in a real household to get publicity for the film. But everything backfires on the stunt. Directed by Benjamin Stoloff (THE LADY AND THE MOB). A fast paced, fast talking comedy that's undercut by rather stupid characters doing stupid things that are more irritating than funny. The film's main premise has Oakie's publicity man getting Ball's actress in hot water by continually putting her in crazy situations. Ball's Annabel is supposed to be savvy so why does she constantly agree to these crazy publicity stunts that don't work out? Why does Oakie continually do them when they don't work out? On the plus side, Ball proves early in her career that she was an ace comedienne long before TV's I LOVE LUCY. RKO had enough confidence in it that they already had a sequel in the works before this was even released. With Ruth Donnelly, Bradley Page, Elisabeth Risdon, Thurston Hall, Fritz Feld and Madame Sul Te Wan.