I'm not sure those unfamiliar with the show will get too much out of this and even a semi-fan like me probably could have lived without every seeing this thing. I think at best this works as a curio and will probably appeal to die-hard fans of the TV show who have to see everything that the comic duo did.

The three episodes are quite different in tone so they just don't go together and in the end there's no question that you're watching three episodes and not one movie.

We get the laugh track from the TV show, which shouldn't be in a movie and there's no question that the three episodes thrown together don't make a complete movie. So, why watch them here when you could just watch the episodes on their own? The second problem is that this is a movie and as one it really doesn't work. However, as funny as the TV stuff is, they're also edited to 'fit together' in this movie. On one hand, the TV stuff has some terrific moments with 'Breaking the Lease' being one of the funniest bits of TV history. This 'movie within a movie' is rather hard to judge for a couple reasons. What we have here are three episodes (The Benefit, Breaking the Lease, The Ballet) of the TV series edited together with new footage (directed by Sedgqick) of the cast on a stage filming the scenes. I Love Lucy (1953) ** (out of 4) Forgotten 'movie' had one screening back in 1953 but MGM pretty much forced Desi Arnaz to shelve the movie where it pretty much sat for the next fifty years, forgotten and considered lost until the footage was found and restored.

Lucille ball i love lucy