Who hasn’t heard the buzz about tiny homes, glamping, van life, and so on? It seems like those videos are everywhere on YouTube, and some are better than others, to be honest. That’s why it’s always interesting to see that trailer life isn’t a new phenomenon, and one of the best movies about that in my opinion is 1954’s The Long, Long Trailer.
Based on a popular novel of the same name and with a screenplay written by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, the film was a bit of a gamble for everyone involved in more ways than one.
Nicky (Desi Arnaz) tells the story is told in flashback. He and his fiancee, Tacy (Lucille Ball) are about to get married, and Nicky has just gotten a job as a civil engineer in Colorado that will require travel.
Tacy thinks it would save money if they bought a trailer and hit the open road. It’ll be romantic, she says. It’ll be cheaper, she says. They’ll have a wonderful home on wheels, she says. It’s better than saying goodbye all the time, she says. Nicky has misgivings, but he finally relents.
From the beginning, though, everything seems doomed, not necessarily to failure, but to not go as planned. The supposedly economical trailer Tacy is jonesing for turns out to be teeny-tiny, and they’re just about to give up when Tacy spies an absolutely gorgeous New Moon trailer. It’s graciously appointed, with lots of storage and a cute little bedroom, with twin beds, of course, plus there’s a shower and a full stove with an oven. It’s everything a literally forward-moving couple would want in a honeymoon cottage, except that most honeymoon cottages don’t have wheels.
A reluctant Nicky signs the deed and makes the downpayment, but then he finds out that he needs a heftier car to tow such a big trailer and he also needs a super-special trailer hitch and modified brakes, so the costs keep mounting.
And oh yeah, they have to consider the Getting Married stuff and all the wedding presents. Poor Nicky can’t even hang his clothes because all of Tacy’s friends are helping put her wedding gifts into the trailer.
After the wedding, Nicky and Tacy set off, and they find very quickly that driving the trailer is tough and slow, plus turning around is a chore. Still, they feel hopeful, and are quickly introduced to the RVer community at their first campground, where their well-meaning neighbors mistake Nicky carrying Tacy over the threshhold to mean Tacy sprained her ankle. One impromptu housewarming party for Nicky and a sleeping pill for Tacy later, their wedding night flies by.
Yep, things get pretty stressful. From bad roads to mud to smashing part of Tacy’s family’s house to a tense trip up the mountain carrying twelve jars of pickalilly preserves and souvenir rocks, trailer life is not easy. It’s not all bad, either, because there’s plenty of great scenery and Tacy can cook, but it’s a lot more than anyone bargained for.
The problem is, Tacy and Nicky think they can do things their own way instead of going the safe route of campgrounds and trailer parks, and that doesn’t end well, natch. But these crazy kids just might make things work somehow.
The Long, Long Trailer is a mostly fun movie. It’s got a lot of familiar faces in it, such as Keenan Wynn and Marjorie Main, both of whom are only onscreen for a few minutes apiece, and to be honest, I wish they had gotten more time, but clearly the movie was all about the ins and outs of trailer life as well as about Lucy and Desi, who were basking in the success of I Love Lucy.
MGM was taking a gamble on putting Desi and Lucy in a movie together. Even though both of them made movies before they got married, there was still the mindset that the public wouldn’t pay to see stars they could watch for free on TV, not to mention studios initially didn’t want there to be any crossover between TV and movies. If a star started doing TV shows, then they were a TV actor. As we’ve all seen from the passage of time, however, the studios were forced to allow crossovers. Bob Hope might host a variety show or something, but that didn’t stop him from making movies as well.
Leo the Lion obviously wanted his money’s worth, as Lucy and Desi carried the whole movie, and it can’t be denied that they had great chemistry. The movie was also used to promote Mercury autos, New Moon trailers, and Youngstown kitchens but stops just short of overt product placement.
Well, with one exception: Lucy and Desi wanted to give their sponsor, Phillip-Morris a shout-out, so a pack of the company’s cigarettes were prominently displayed.
That aside, there are some serious plays on the cred going on. Yeah, I know The Long, Long Trailer is just a movie, but these were some pretty big flubs. The trailer can only get stuck in the mud so many times before the funny starts to wear off.
On a personal note, my parents used to own a 33-foot RV that we bought from someone at church. Or rather, agreed to take over the payments from. Anyway, it had a bus chassis and a periscope, which make a world of difference in terms of maneuverability. Did they have those kinds of RVs in the fifties? I don’t know. I would hope so.
Either way, we had a lot of memories in that RV. Besides making various trips around California, we’d also use it to take our entire family of (at the time) ten up to the snow, and it was absolutely luxurious. We’d go sledding and throw snowballs for a while, then come back to the RV for clam chowder and saltines. That is roadtripping. We’d also use it as an extra bedroom for various purposes, like the day my nephew was born at home and my nieces got to sleep in the RV while my dad got donuts. Or the time I watched Requiem For A Dream on the sly in the RV because no one else wanted to see it.
So yeah, our experiences with that RV meant I watched The Long, Long Trailer kinda like those office ladies did 9 to 5. Only instead of yelling at Judy to push the star button on the copy machine, I was groaning every time Tacy and Nicky forgot to latch their cabinets, oven and refrigerator, especially given the unreasonable amount of stuff Tacy tried to haul in that thing. Or when Tacy waxed lyrical about pulling off to the side of the road to have a romantic dinner without those pesky RV-ers popping in, I told her that gray water has to be dumped sometime.
The capper, of course, is when Tacy tries cooking dinner in the RV while it’s moving, which is not only a disaster in terms of rocking and rolling (it’s amazing that the chafing dish didn’t slosh over), but the trailer has to be stationary in order to turn on the generator, so she wouldn’t have been able to cook anything anyway.
Trailer’s reviews were generally mixed but still favorable. Modern Screen said, “Sometimes the minutes surely drag, times when Lucy is rolling on the trailer floor wrapped in flour and salad greens. But in general The Long, Long Trailer will hit the spot.”
Motion Picture Daily opined, “It is, in simplest terms, the account of the distressing, surprising, amusing and occasionally astonishing experiences of a young couple honeymooning in a trailer. It is also the account of the delights and pleasures, the stimulating sights and the sublime communings with nature, that are the offsets, in a minority sort of way, to the troubles encountered. It’s splendid on both counts.”
Yes, the movie can definitely be splendid. I can’t speak for today’s audiences, but what with our current trends of alternative living situations, The Long, Long Trailer is both a novelty and a cautionary tale.
A new Substack update is on the way Thursday. Thanks for reading, all, and I hope to see you then…
The Long, Long Trailer is available on DVD and Blu-ray from Amazon. It is also free to stream on Tubi.
~Purchases made via Amazon Affiliate links found on this site help support Taking Up Room at no extra cost to you.~
If you’re enjoying what you see on Taking Up Room, please subscribe to my Substack page, where you’ll find both free and paid subscriber-only reviews of mostly new and newish movies, documentaries, and shows. I publish every Wednesday and Saturday. You can also subscribe to my Club 15 Tier, which gives you at least one extra Taking Up Room post every month for a small fee.
Taking Up Room 
I love The Long Long Trailer. It is my all-time #1 favorite movie. I’ve seen it at least a hundred times (no exaggeration). Last year, I was ecstatic when TCM showed it at the film festival. I was #1 in line, because of course I would be. I bought the Warner Archive blu ray the day it came out. It was an upgrade from the DVD copy I had. The DVD was my second DVD. I also wore out 2 VHS before getting the DVD.
LikeLiked by 1 person
That’s cool. It’s definitely a fun one.
LikeLike