Customer Reviews

Lucy's Really Lost Moments - In COLOR! Also Includes the Original Black-and-White Version which has been Beautifully Restored and Enhanced!

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

First, my bona fides as a Lucy fan: I've named my four dogs Lucy, Ricky, Ethel and Fred.

I Love Lucy is one of those iconic shows that essentially defined an era in television entertainment, and consequently American culture. Even today, with the multitude of distractions available, kids are still growing up watching and laughing at poor Lucy's antics. Shows like I Love Lucy engender a strong bond with their resulting fans.

Lucy's Really Lost Moments is a package for the hardcore Lucy fan, primarily because it focuses on extraneous material as opposed to the cut and dry episodic formula of most compilations. Don't come expecting a sequence of familiar show episodes, this disc doesn't contain any. What this disc does contain is a host of stuff you've never seen before, like Lucy and Desi's appearances on the Bob Hope Show, game shows, Westinghouse infomercials, all sorts of commercials and trailers and bloopers and the pilot episode from the show. All of this lush material has been re-imagined in full color, thanks to Legend's high-tech process, which honestly makes it look as real as if it had originally been filmed with a first generation color camera (sans grain and other uncorrectable evils). Truly a must-own for the Lucy fan, as you will never find this same material elsewhere!

First of all, to paraphrase the old saying, don't judge this DVD by it's cover, which is rather generic and uninspired and looks like a dollar store public domain LUCY SHOW release. What we have here is an awesome collection of vintage television appearances by Lucille Ball outside of her various series (although on occasion she is joined not only by Desi but Vivian Vance and William Frawley as well). This is really a set for Lucy fanatics (who number in the millions) as opposed to the casual viewer who wants to watch a comedy show.

You get
THE BOB HOPE CHEVY SHOW special from the 1950's with the whole I LOVE LUCY cast - and Bob as Ricky Ricardo! This segment is about 21 minutes long and includes Hope's opening and closing monologues and credits.

I LOVE LUCY WESHINGTON HOUSE SPECIAL promotional film for ILL's new sponsors Weshington House done in sitcom format with the full ILL cast. About 30 minutes.

I'VE GOT A SECRET - Lucy makes a guest appearance on the popular quiz show and has a secret. The panelists include a young Johnny Carson. About 10 minutes.

THE VICTOR BORGO SHOW - comedy sketch with Lucy and future co-star Gale Gordon. About 9 minutes.

One has the option of watching all of the above either in original black-and-white or a surprisingly good colorization print.

The bonus features are (note these have not been colorized):

Lucy movie trailers - THE FULLER BRUSH GIRL, BEST FOOT FORWARD, DUBARRY WAS A LADY, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD, THE LONG LONG TRAILER, FOREVER DARLING. B&W and color.

WHAT'S MY LINE - Lucy and Desi are the mystery guests. About 6 minutes.

I'VE GOT A SECRET - Lucy's a panelist and Desi has a secret. About 11 minutes.

TV commerical for daytime I Love Lucy reruns. 20 seconds.

Phillip Morris commercial with Lucy and Desi. 1 minute.

ADVENTURES OF A MODEL - Lucy and Desi appear as themselves in a skit at the end of an episode of the Joanne Dru series. About 3 minutes.

US SAVINGS BOND FILM - Lucy (on the set of The Lucy Show) makes a pitch for savings bonds. 6 minutes.

BLOOPERS AND BEHIND THE SCENES - Lucy segments from Ken Murray's Hollywood Home movies show (candid footage), Lucy and Bob Hope on one of his show's introducing bloopers from their film, and Lucy guests on Steve Lawrence special and shows behind the scenes footage of her famous TLS episode with dolphins. 12 minutes.

WESHINGTON HOUSE SPECIAL DELETED SCENE - speech by Desi Arnaz. About 6 minutes.

A further bonus is promo trailers for other colorized DVDs by this company of Shirley Temple, Laurel & Hardy, the Three Stooges, Abbott and Costello, and Jackie Robinson that look fantastic. Colorization has come along way from the garish early days of the 1980's and most of these look wonderful.

This is a DVD that every Lucy fanatic will love, for the small group of people who don't fall into that category may also enjoy it as well.

I loved it! It's got lots of things I couldn't find anywhere else... being a huge Lucy fan, it's a must have! I wish some of it wasn't cut down so much, though... Like the 'Whats My Line' and 'I've Got a secret' portions were edited quite a bit - they're nicer on 'lucy and desi: a home movie' - wish more would have been on the dvd - but I loved it! 4 stars because I thought more could have been on the dvd, but it's amazing none the less. Totally worth it. Much of the things I've never seen!

My fellow reviewer "Tee" has already outlined the bounty of treasures contained in this DVD, but I'm going to be adding my voice to the choir. Between this DVD from Legend Films, and the extras-laden seasons sets of "I Love Lucy", "The Lucy Show" and "Here's Lucy" distributed by CBS and MPI respectively, we now have access to an entire treasure trove of Lucy memories and laughs that will last a lifetime!

For many of their programmes in the late Fifties, Desilu was sponsored by Westinghouse Electricals (a decidedly more 'family-friendly' option to their first big "I Love Lucy" sponsor, Phillip Morris Cigarettes), giving way to countless promotional spots, many featuring longtime Westinghouse spokeswoman Betty "The Dramatic Sand Test" Furness. Several are included here, and they are a delight. The Lucy skit from "The Victor Borge Show" (directed by Desi and co-starring Gale Gordon) was later recycled for the "Lucy Flies to London" episode of "The Lucy Show". It's even funnier here, with a set which actually lurches and rolls like a real aeroplane in turbulent flight!

The brief promo for "Adventures of a Model" is much appreciated from this corner. This was a sitcom that was especially-tailored by the "Lucy" creators for actress Joanne Dru, but it never got past an initial pilot for the "Colgate Theater". There's also a fun segment from "I've Got a Secret", where Lucy plays havoc with panel members Johnny Carson and Betsy Palmer; Ball is visibly tired (this was during the period when she was on Broadway in "Wildcat") but she soldiers on magnificently.

The colourized versions of the main features are nicely done, but a lot of Lucy's charm in the early days was the high quality of the black-and-white photography. Happily we have the choice, so you can view these classic Lucy moments in whichever format you choose. This will be an essential purchase for the Lucy fans. Recommended.

This was a very enjoyable DVD. It was refreshing to see Lucille and Desi in other elements. Additionally, it was interesting to see how advertising was handled back then, as well as the marketing genius of Desi behind the scenes, and also the success of Desilu Productions. I would recommend this DVD for diehard I love Lucy fans.

I had this ordered for me by a friend in the States. I am so happy I received
it in the mail that I sat down right away to watch it. It is just great! Things that you didn't see before about Lucille Ball. Anyone who is a "Lucy" fan has to have this DVD. Enjoy, enjoy!

I got this as a present for my sister-in-law and it was a great hit! The season one episodes were first aired before any of us were born but we still laughed ourselves silly. She's looking forward to many more hours of fun and laughter

I bought this for a friend of mine for her birthday and she loves it she is a lucy fan thanks Amazon for the quick delivery.

I did not like this DVD. First of all, with the first scene being that of Bob Hope and his stand-up comedy routine, which went on and on for no good reason, thus felt quite incongruent for a "Lucy" moment. Apparently, it was a segment from his TV show whereby after about 15 minutes of his dry humor and non-funny monologue about who knows what, he eventually got to the purpose of my buying this DVD in the first place--to see a "Lucy lost moment." However, to me, it felt inappropriate to have Hope's face be the first seen when I pushed "play."

I actually thought the Amazon.com seller had punked me by putting the wrong DVD into the daggone DVD case, at first. I was about to really have a "lose it moment" and pitch an absolute conniptic fit!!! But nah, it was real; there it was, a scene featuring the entire "I Love Lucy" cast with Bob Hope and that seal act, which was extremely unimpressive and tired. Besides, I did not like Hope's disparaging racists remarks about Desi, his accent, etc. Coming from him, and not Lucy, it felt disingenuous and extremely un-welcomed.

However, the only good thing I enjoyed about this act was that I had the opportunity to see the "I Love Lucy" set in color, which was fascinating, actually.

In addition, the rest of the "...really lost moments" on this DVD were comprised of a few hodgepodge performances, which didn't seem to be in any particular sequential order, and none of which were impressive to me. And that second to the last dolphin scene went on for waaaaaayyyyy toooooooooo longgggggggggggggg; it felt like about 30 minutes, actually. It must have been on some kind of loop. I got it during the first 2 minutes, so geeesssshhhh!

As you can see, I did not like this DVD. It felt very opportunistic to me, a way for somebody to cash in on the "Lucy & Desi" franchise, but was full of junk that would have been best left un-pressed as it was un-impressive!

Now, with all this said, I would hope that their children had nothing to do with this, nor sanctioned or endorsed it in any kind of way, as it was a disgrace. Actually, I could have done this myself, that's how un-impressive it was.