Miss Grant Takes Richmond (1949)

This is a screw-ball comedy starring Lucille Ball as the klutzy, energetic, seemingly dull-witted stenographer, Miss Grant. She was at the bottom of her stenography class and had a very low chance of graduating, but on the day of her last class a business man came to her class to choose a secretary, and of all of her more qualified classmates he chooses her to work in his office! She is excited and ready to work hard for her new employer at what she thinks is a real estate office. Little does she know her new employer is just using real estate as a cover and he and his associates are actually bookies. They only chose Miss Grant because she seemed to be the stupidest girl in her class, and wouldn't figure out what they were up to.

Much to the chagrin of her new employers, Miss Grant charges headlong into the business. She finds clients and even sets up a deal for the company to buy a large and expensive piece of land to build houses on. They try to get rid of her, but when that fails due to her sense of duty to the people she's trying to help, they put her in charge of an operation doomed to failure. Things seem to be going downhill until Mr. Richmond's conscience kicks in and decides to sell himself into the service of his former associates in order to bail out Miss Grant. She then goes off to save him.

The film is very funny. To those who enjoyed the I Love Lucy tv show, this is the same kind of comedy. Miss Grant is a very strong, proactive heroine. Even though she isn't the best at what she does she struggles hard to try to find a place for herself in the world before succumbing to the life of a housewife, as is expected of her. She attacks any assignment given to her whole-heartedly, and even though she can be a bit slow at times, she has a good heart which endears her to the audience.