Still image from the 1954 film The Long, Long Trailer.

The Long, Long Trailer

Directed by Vincente Minnelli

Life on the road isn't what it's cracked up to be when a honeymooning couple invests in an oversized motor home.

1954 1h 36m Comedy TV-G

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CAST
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0

Vincente Minnelli, Director
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Vincente Minnelli
Director

1

Lucille Ball, Tacy Collini
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Lucille Ball
Tacy Collini

2

Desi Arnaz, Nicholas Carlos Collini
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Desi Arnaz
Nicholas Carlos Colli..

3

Marjorie Main, Mrs. Hittaway
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Marjorie Main
Mrs. Hittaway

4

Keenan Wynn, Policeman
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Keenan Wynn
Policeman

5

Gladys Hurlbut, Mrs. Bolton
91088|62129
Gladys Hurlbut
Mrs. Bolton

FULL SYNOPSIS

On a rainy night, Nicholas Carlos Collini arrives at the Laramie Trailer Park in Colorado and pounds on the door of his trailer before noticing the "for sale" sign. In the park manager's office, Nick meets Mr. Tewitt, who is thinking of buying a trailer. Nick urges Tewitt to avoid such a purchase for the sake of his marriage, adding that he has been searching for his own wife for the past three days. Nick describes how the trailer came to blight his life: Two months earlier, in Los Angeles, Nick laughs uproariously when his fiancée Tacy proposes buying a trailer, but she tearfully insists that a trailer would be the only way for them to have their own home while Nick travels on business. Tacy shows Nick a brochure for the fully furnished "Bungalette" model and says a honeymoon in a trailer would be very romantic. They attend a trailer show and look at the Bungalette, which turns out to be disappointingly small. Tacy is then dazzled by an enormous, very expensive trailer and persuades Nick to buy it. The salesman recommends that they have the trailer professionally moved to Colorado, where a job awaits Nick, but Tacy insists that pulling it themselves would be much more fun. Nick buys a new car and has it modified for hauling a trailer, and the mechanic gives the inexperienced Nick a quick lesson in driving with a trailer. Nick and Tacy get married and leave on their honeymoon, although Nick finds driving with the forty-foot, three-ton trailer nerve-wracking. E...


VIDEOS
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Ben Mankiewicz Intro...
Hosted Intro
Ben Mankiewicz Intro...
Hosted Intro
Michael Feinstein Intro...
Hosted Intro
ites Good For?
Movie Clip
erness
Movie Clip
The Bungalette
Movie Clip

ARTICLES
In 1953, Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz were America's favorite married couple, thanks to the huge success of their television series, I Love Lucy. During the 1952-53 season, Lucy's second pregnancy and the birth of their son Desi, Jr., had been incorporated into the storyline. The birth of "Little Ricky" episode in January had racked up an astonishing Nielsen rating of 71.7 percent, and garnered as much news coverage as the inauguration of President Eisenhower. Just a few years earlier, Ball had been a contract player at MGM. Although she'd had some starring roles, she was usually cast as the wisecracking pal of the leading lady, or the foil for such actors as Red Skelton. Arnaz, who had met Ball when both appeared in RKO's Too Many Girls (1940), had an even spottier movie career - there weren't many roles for Cuban conga players. It wasn't until they turned to television in 1951 that the couple became superstars on the small screen. Meanwhile, back at MGM, the same team that had made Father of the Bride (1950), and its sequel, Father's Little Dividend (1951) - producer Pandro Berman, director Vincente Minnelli, and screenwriters Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett - had another domestic comedy in the works. The Long, Long Trailer (1954) was based on a non-fiction book about a middle-aged couple who spent a year traveling cross-country in a mobile home. By making them honeymooners, and making the husband Latin and the wife wacky, the script was perfect for the king and queen...

NOTES
According to a modern source, Desi Arnaz sought the film rights to the novel The Long, Long Trailer in May 1952, but was outbid by M-G-M. A January 22, 1953 item in Hollywood Reporter's "Rambling Reporter" column reported that M-G-M was talking with William Holden about a role in the film. Portions of the film were shot on location in Yosemite National Park, CA. The end credits include a statement thanking the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, for permission to photograph scenes there.
       At the time The Long, Long Trailer was made, the husband-and-wife team of Lucille Ball and Arnaz were the producers and stars of the country's most popular television comedy, I Love Lucy (CBS, 1951-57). In his memoir, director Vincente Minnelli quoted producer Pandro S. Berman as saying that the studio initially was unenthusiastic about signing the famous couple: "[M-G-M] subscribed to the theory that the a...

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