I Love Lucy, aka I Love Lucy The Movie is a 1953 American feature film spinoff of the sitcom I Love Lucy. Except for one test screening in Bakersfield, California, the film was never theatrically released and was shelved.
The film plays out with three firstseason episodes edited together into a single story The Benefit, Breaking the Lease, and The Ballet, with new footage included between episodes to help transition the episodes into one coherent storyline. As the series routinely took the format of filming scenes in chronological order, this adds to the show within a show within a show format of the film, as viewers watch the cast perform the episodes live. The film itself ends with a curtain call, as the cast comes out and Arnaz thanks the audience for their support.Shortly after the end of the first season of I Love Lucy, Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball decided to cash in on their shows popularity by compiling several episodes of the first season of the series into a movie. ........
Source: Wikipedia