Lucille Ball is justifiably most famous for I Love Lucy, but it's not true that she was only a struggling starlet before hitting it big on TV. In this, one of three starring roles she had in1938, Ball plays a madcap heiress who, per instructions in her father's will, has to marry a regular Joe instead of her choice, the gold-digging Count Georgi (Lee Bowman), if she wants to see any of her $20 million inheritance. Hatching a scheme to find some "pick and shovel" schmuck who can be conned into a hasty Reno divorce, she snatches up ditchdigger Anthony J. Anthony (James Ellison) and marries him on the spot -- only to find out, as many people on their way to Reno do, that what's done impulsively can't easily be undone. Ball's wacky exploits -- setting a trailer on fire in order to draw attention to herself, sneaking around disguised as a man, and fuming over a mysterious "Caroline" in her new husband's past -- will satisfy any fans of her slapstick work on the small screen.

By Violet LeVoit