Television is certainly a vast landscape, filled with thousands of iconic shows, especially when it comes to sitcoms. However, the unarguable crème de la crème of the genre is I Love Lucy. even decades after the show’s end. The exploits of Lucy Ricardo (Lucille Ball), her husband Ricky (Desi Arnaz), and their best friends, Ethel and Fred Mertz (Vivian Vance and William Frawley), are the stuff of legend. The show even inspired something of a franchise, with several follow-up specials and similar series after it ended. But its biggest take-off was made for a much larger screen. Following the success of the show’s first season, I Love Lucy: The Movie sought to bring Lucy’s adventures to movie theaters. However, even after it was filmed and tested, the picture was shelved for decades before home media finally brought it back to where the franchise began.
‘I Love Lucy: The Movie’ Has an Odd Story
These days, many TV shows have made the transition from the small to the big screen, but back in the day, such a practice was uncharted territory. Yet, I Love Lucy was unafraid of trailblazing. The thought was that, to bring the Ricardo’s to the big screen, it would work best to simply transition three episodes from the recently wrapped first season into a conjoined format. The chosen episodes were “The Benefit,” “Breaking the Lease,” and “The Ballet.”
“The Benefit” sees Ethel and Lucy try to coax Ricky into participating in their clubhouse play, while “Breaking the Lease” follows a battle between the Ricardo’s and the Metz’s. “The Ballet” is one of Lucy’s many attempts to get into show business, as she sets her sights on becoming a ballerina. While all three are iconic episodes in their own right, the three plots are so obviously different that they don’t fit together cohesively. However, the idea faced another unique issue because these episodes were filled in front of different live studio audiences. In an effort to accommodate the varied story elements and changes in the audience’s laughter, the picture goes for a movie within a movie trope.
Breaking the fourth wall, Ann Doran and Benny Barker star as a married couple attending a taping of I Love Lucy. They even filmed a sequence featuring Arnaz welcoming the audience to the tapping and introducing the set-up before the film transitions into the episodes. The segments themselves remain largely intact, except for their opening credits and closing sequences, which were obviously cut. While it’s certainly a lot of fun to see any additional footage of the legendary performers, they play more as bumpers than an actual story. In many ways, it can be a little jarring to see the picture jump between its “reality” and “episode sequences.” Still, the film was set for a full-fledged release until its studio became nervous about its own competition.
‘I Love Lucy: The Movie’ was Shelved
I Love Lucy: The Movie may not have been a conventional picture, but according to the LA Times, the film was all set for a big release regardless of that fact. A test screening was held and received raves from the audience. Arnaz invited MGM executives to the screening in hopes they would partner with Desilu to release I Love Lucy: The Movie. The mega-studio had just signed both Arnaz and Ball for the film The Long, Long Trailer. However, despite the positive reviews that the film received, MGM had a few concerns.
Per the LA Times, the studio felt nervous about the prospect of releasing two films starring the iconic couple. The film’s editor, Dann Cahn, worked for Desilu for a decade and said MGM thought that it “was not smart exploitation.” Because of this, Desilu had to shelve I Love Lucy: The Movie. On the bright side, The Long, Long Trailer became a huge hit when it was released in 1953. According to TCM.com, the movie received rave reviews, did fantastic business at the box office, and led to the studio treating Arnaz and Ball like major movie stars of the day. However, due to the unfortunate overlap in timing, it created a mystery that would last decades for I Love Lucy: The Movie.
‘I Love Lucy: The Movie’ Went Missing
After I Love Lucy: The Movie was shelved, it was put into the infamous film vaults. However, which vault it ended up in was something of a mystery even to those involved with the film. As stated by the LA Times, Dann Cahn never forgot about the venture. “I was determined to find it,” said the editor. “I looked at every vault in Hollywood.” But it took some time to locate it. Finally, he tracked it down in one of Paramount Pictures’ vaults, which was located in the San Fernando Valley. Interestingly, a mistake had been part of the reason it was so hard to find.
The film had been mislabeled as “Desilu Playhouse Movie” when it was archived, making Cahn’s search all the more challenging. But finding it was only half the battle. The film had been cut in pieces. In a case of déjà vu, Cahn had to reassemble the film, but he performed the task. Though it may have been a passion project for the master editor, his efforts finally brought the film to the public. In 2001, I Love Lucy: The Movie finally had its proper premiere at the Loving Lucy convention in Long Beach, California. An article from ZapIt which covered the event, stated that the premiere also honored Cahn for his efforts to bring the film to Lucy fans after so many years. Since then, I Love Lucy: The Movie has been released along with various I Love Lucy collections and has even gotten its own DVD.
Though it may never have received the theatrical release that was intended originally, I Love Lucy: The Movie is a fascinating, not to mention slightly odd picture. But after being shelved in lieu of another collaboration between Ball and Arnaz, it finally made a grand debut thanks to Dann Cahn. Now, it lives on with the rest of I Love Lucy lore and serves as a reminder of the power the franchise holds so many years after its conclusion.
