I Love Lucy: The Movie – DVD Review

DVD Reviews, Reviews



After faithfully buying the seven season sets, quite a few Lucy fanatics were in a tizzy when they discovered I Love Lucy: The Complete Series had a bonus disc. This wasn’t merely a dumb bonus feature like Lindsay Lohan discussing how Lucille Ball influenced her life. The extra DVD had the never released I Love Lucy: The Movie. There is a price to being a completest and in this case it was a retail price over $200. There were folks who sold their old sets to buy the new package. Others decided to buy The Complete and give the incomplete to a friend they wanted to convert to Lucy fanatics. There were quite a few people who kept resisting that a pang of temptation when they spotted the Complete boxset at the store. Was that single DVD worth it? Thankfully after two years, these people can add the bonus disc to their shelf without having to get a second mortgage on their house. I Love Lucy: The Movie has finally escaped the Complete box.

I Love Lucy: The Movie (81:07) is the centerpiece of the DVD. Many shows of the era were done live with video cameras. I Love Lucy was shot on 35mm with Karl Freund in control. The legendary cameraman had shot Metropolis and directed The Mummy. He made Lucy and Desi look good. The movie consists of three first season episodes (“The Benefit,” “Breaking the Lease” and “The Ballet”) brought together with new scenes to make it seem like a seamless story. This isn’t as evil of a cash grab as some might perceive. Why pay for a ticket when the show aired for free? Back in 1950s, people’s TVs were tiny and only received signal from their antenna. It made sense to send out a few episodes as a movie so fans could enjoy the show without constantly adjusting the rabbit ears to eliminate Lucy’s ghost. The movie opens with the line waiting to see a taping of the series. This is a movie about a TV show being made. We finally get to see the audience and the soundstage with the Ricardo’s apartment. William Frawley appears as himself while giving a wave to the folks in the seats. Desi talks to them before the episode starts. Once the comedy starts, the actors don’t break character. The bridging segments do a smooth job connecting the three episodes to play as a single comic adventure. This should have been a hit.

The movie didn’t get a theatrical release since MGM didn’t want it taking away the heat of Lucy and Desi in The Long, Long Trailer. They shelved the production and it languished in the vault for decades in mislabeled cans. This is a shame since fans of I Love Lucy would have enjoyed having this rerun on weekend afternoons on UHF channels. This is a lot more entertaining than The Long, Long Trailer.

The second big addition on the DVD is “Lucy Goes to Scotland” in Color (26:27). Don’t think they sprung for Technicolor and lost this episode for over half a century like the movie. This was recently colorized from the black and white original. The colorizing isn’t a random job. There was color film shot during this episode that served as a hue reference. This isn’t just a technician using cool colors. The episode is a musical where Lucy dreams of going back to her Scottish hometown to battle a two headed dragon that looks like Fred and Ethel. It only makes sense that this moment of unreality bathed in plaid gets a wash of color.

I Love Lucy: The Movie is an exciting addition to the classic series.The fresh elements in the film elevate the piece into a real film instead of a cheap way to make another buck off the episodes. “Lucy Goes to Scotland” is an example of how to properly colorize a black and white TV show. This bonus disc is an essential DVD for fans of the crazy redhead.

The video is 1.33:1 full frame. The transfers of The Movie and “Scotland” are proper restorations. The audio is Dolby Digital Mono. The levels are just right to enjoy the mellow sounds of William Frawley. The subtitles are only in Spanish. The Closed Captions are in English.

Lucy and Desi’s First Joint TV Appearance (2:59) from The Ed Wynn Show on Dec. 24, 1949. The kinescope footage has Ed wanting Desi to sing “Babalu.” Ed goes off camera to get a congo, hat and jacket, Lucy sneaks onto the set with Desi’s stuff till Ed finds her. Ed plugs Lucy’s radio show. Desi gets frustrated as Ed fawns over Lucy. Ed cracks up Desi hard. It’s a magical introduction to the iconic couple.

“I Love Lucy” at the Sixth Annual Emmy Awards (5:34) includes Vivian Vance getting Best Supporting Actress and show receiving Best Comedy Show. Desi spends part of the time campaigning to the voters to include writer categories next season. Nice to see someone sticking up for the faceless scribblers at a glam event. He also gives a shout out to William Frawley. Somehow the Academy nominated him five times for Fred Mertz, but he lost every time to either Art Carney or Carl Reiner.

On-Set Commercial from the Series Premiere (2:17) is all about the smokes. Turns out the first person seen in the Ricardo’s living room was John Stephenson pushing Phillip Morris cigarettes. He asks a very personal question about inhaling. Turns out John would become the voice of Mr. Slate on The Flintstones. There’s a second clip showing the window on the other side of the Ricardo’s fireplace. He wants us to buy a Christmas carton of Phillip Morris. There’s also a bio on Johnny Roventini, the bellhop for Phillip Morris. Turns out he was a real bellhop when an ad agency guy discovered him. There’s clips of him or his image in the background of the show. We also get Lucy impersonating him from inside a TV. A “lost” short has the stick figure Lucy and Ricky telling the folks to buy smokes for Christmas with Johnny showing up at the end. But remember no matter how charming these ads appear – don’t smoke.

I Love Lucy: The Movie is a joy and relief on the shelf. This truly does complete the series with the film and bonus elements. It allows us a peek into the audience and the set. If you’ve bought the seasons sets, this final DVD brings the show together. It’s also the perfect gift for Mother’s Day if you’d spent the last seven giving mom the season sets individually.


CBS DVD presents I Love Lucy: The Movie. Starring: Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, William Frawley and Vivian Vance. Running Time: 81 minutes. Released on DVD: April 27, 2010. Available at Amazon.com.

Joe Corey is the writer and director of "Danger! Health Films" currently streaming on Night Flight and Amazon Prime. He's the author of "The Seven Secrets of Great Walmart People Greeters." This is the last how to get a job book you'll ever need. He was Associate Producer of the documentary "Moving Midway." He's worked as local crew on several reality shows including Candid Camera, American's Most Wanted, Extreme Makeover Home Edition and ESPN's Gaters. He's been featured on The Today Show and CBS's 48 Hours. Dom DeLuise once said, "Joe, you look like an axe murderer." He was in charge of research and programming at the Moving Image Archive.