With 1943’s Du Barry Was a Lady, we get a film that stars two actors whose fame would peak via television. The movie pairs Red Skelton and Lucille Ball, both of whom would achieve major successes via their 1950s TV shows.

Louis Blore (Skelton) works the hat check counter at a club and maintains a crush on singer May Daly (Ball). Dancer Alec Howe (Gene Kelly) also pines for May, but she cares more about money than love.

When Louis accidentally downs a drugged drink, he enters a fantasy in which sends him to 18th century France. He believes he’s King Louis XV, May is the desirable Madame Du Barry, and others take on period parts as well. Even as a ruler, Louis still finds himself in competition for May’s/Du Barry’s affection.

Try as I might, I find it intensely difficult to view Ball as a romantic leading lady. Like most of my generation – heck, like most born after 1940 – I know Ball primarily via I Love Lucy, and that show didn’t exactly paint her as a lovely object of desire.

Not that Ball was unattractive, of course, and she seems reasonably fetching in Lady. However, she still lacks the beauty necessary for this part.

If Lady made so many men obsessed with May due to her talent, then sure – I could potentially swallow that. However, the film implies May offers a gorgeous specimen.

That just doesn’t work with Ball as the lead. This means we get perplexing elements, such as the way dorky Louis shoots down sexy cigarette girl Ginny (Virginia O’Brien), a woman a) more attractive than May who b) desperately wants him.

Even without the impression Ball lacks the looks for the role, she feels wrong for the part because she doesn’t seem suited to play the cynical money-grubbing May. Again, perhaps my years of association with wacky Lucy Ricardo make it tough to see Ball in any other light.

Nonetheless, Ball can’t display the cutthroat vibe that part needs. Granted, Lady doesn’t turn May into a total gold digger, but I still think someone who feels more mercenary would fit the film better.

The supporting actors fit their roles better, at least, though it doesn’t develop them well. That happens because Lady comes with a paper-thin “plot” that exists mainly as an excuse to stage a bunch of musical numbers.

We get 11 of those across the movie’s 101 minutes, and they run long enough to take up a lot of that running time. Indeed, May doesn’t get a line of dialogue until more than 18 minutes into the movie, and it spends a huge chunk of its first half-hour on songs.

I get that audiences of the era ate up this sort of content, but I nonetheless think it acts as flawed filmmaking. If the production numbers advanced the story, that would become a different situation, but here, they exist as entities unto themselves.

Why do we see Tommy Dorsey and His Orchestra? For Dorsey’s star-power, I guess – and also to fill big hunks of space with his two long performances.

Other numbers use the main characters and make more sense, but even there, the film pads matters too much. Also, I can’t figure out why cigarette girl Ginny does a song, as the film never explains her leap from smoke peddler to stage songstress.

As for the fantasy aspects of Lady, these feel almost entirely superfluous. Oh, Louis does experience a revelation that allows the movie to wrap up with a bow, but otherwise, those elements fail to add much beyond the chance to see the actors play 18th century versions of their roles.

Lady takes almost an hour to get to the French segments, and these last about 37 minutes. Like everything else here, the fantasy moments run longer than necessary, mainly as an excuse for more songs.

Don’t take all this criticism to mean Lady offers a cinematic experience devoid of charm, as it comes with some enjoyable moments. We find more than a few funny bits, and the cast adds pep.

Kelly proves engaging as always, and Zero Mostel gleefully devours scenery in a small part as “Rami the Swami”.

These elements mean that Lady largely keeps us with it. However, the movie simply drags too much due to its thin story/characters and too many superfluous musical numbers.

Du Barry Was a Lady appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.37:1 on this Blu-ray Disc. Warner Archive never seems to botch their Technicolor presentations, and this became another winner.

In terms of sharpness, the movie usually demonstrated nice delineation. A few shots seemed just a smidgen soft, but those issues occurred infrequently, so the majority of the flick looked concise and accurate.

No issues with jagged edges or shimmering materialized, and no edge enhancement became apparent. Grain remained appropriate, and no specks, marks or other defects showed up at any time in this fresh presentation.

Colors were strong. With a broad palette, the hues seemed vivid and full.

Blacks seemed deep and dense without too much heaviness. Shadow detail worked similarly well, as dimly-lit shots were appropriately clear and thick. I found little about which to complain here and thought the Blu-ray brought the movie to life in a positive manner.

The DTS-HD MA monaural audio of Lady appeared fine for its era, and speech was appropriate. The lines showed age-related thinness, but they were always perfectly intelligible and without edginess.

Effects became a minor aspect of the track, and they resembled the dialogue. Those elements lacked much depth but they were without notable problems.

Music was acceptable for its age, as the songs and score tended to be a bit tinny. There wasn’t much range to the music, but again, that stemmed from the limitations of the very old source. This became a perfectly adequate mix for its vintage.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we get a 1943 animated short titled Bah, Wilderness. It spans seven minutes, 16 seconds and shows Barney Bear as he deals with the struggles related to camping in the woods.

Which sets up questions such as “why is a bear anthromorphized into semi-human form but all his fellow forest creatures aren’t?” Bah doesn’t stink but it lacks much real cleverness.

Du Barry Was a Lady boasts a solid cast, and it comes with occasional moments of humor and charm. However, it feels terribly padded and struggles to fill its 101 minutes with engaging content. The Blu-ray brings terrific visuals, acceptable audio and minor supplements. Lady offers sporadic pleasures but stretches itself too thin.