Lucy is hosting a friend named Carolyn Appleby and has lied that she knows many celebrities. Thing is that Ricky is still up-and-rising, so he doesn't know any celebrities. To sell the scheme, Lucy decides to steal Carolyn's glasses and dress up as various Hollywood actors. She and Ethel get blindsided when Ricky and Fred run into Harpo Marx and ask if he can do a favor for them.
Tropes for this episode include:
- Actually Pretty Funny: Lucy laughs after Harpo uses his trick hat to break the Mirror Routine. She hugs him and asks him why he came upstairs.
- Blind Without 'Em: Carolyn can't see well without her glasses. Lucy at first tries to take them off on the pretense of cleaning them, only to see they're tied to a string. Ethel has to cut the string and hide them so that the scheme can work.
- Chekhov's Gag: Harpo's trick wardrobe. He uses his bouncing hat to break the Mirror Routine illusion when he and Lucy imitate each other.
- Graceful Loser: Lucy hugs Harpo when he manages to break her Mirror Routine using a trick hat. She and Ethel admit it was Actually Pretty Funny.
- Hidden Depths:
- Harpo is revealed to be an accomplished harpist. He plays "Take Me Out To The Ballgame" for Carolyn and Ethel, who both admit that it's quite lovely.
- Lucy does an impromptu pantomime routine when attempting to pass herself off as Harpo Marx, and imitates him perfectly in the Mirror Routine. It's quite impressive.
- Mirror Routine: In a Shout-Out to Duck Soup, Lucy and Harpo do this at the end of the episode when Harpo is suspicious about seeing someone that looks like him in the apartment. He tries to figure out if it's a mirror or not.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Lucy's disguises aren't that great, which is why she "borrows" her friend's glasses. The most accurate one may be the Harpo Marx one, given that Harpo is confused when he sees her hiding in the alcove. In the colorized release, it is a little harder to tell the two apart given they have the same hair color, but Lucy is noticeably taller than him, which should have given the illusion away.
