Reviews (58)

It's Okay, But It Doesn't Do the Play Justice
"The Diary of Anne Frank," as directed by George Stevens, is certainly not a bad movie. However, it seems to lack the certain spark, sincerity, and tight acting of a truly great movie, and come to think of it, the play on which it is based. The movie is hurt severely by Millie Perkin's, who is whiney and lifeless as Anne Frank. Of all the worthy talent out there, why did they have to pick someone who was not only bad, but 10 years to old for the part. Ed Wynn is dreadfully miscast as grumpy dentist Dussel, and the whole movie is dragged on for so long that the ending is anticlimatic. On the positive side, Joseph Schildkraut and Lou Jacobi recreate the roles they held on Broadway with sincerity and gusto, and Shelly Winters won an Oscar for her delightful performence as Mrs. Van Daan. The screanplay by Albert Hacket and Francis Goodrich is also quite moving. Not a bad showing, but Stevens could have done better.

This play is an inspriation to me&I'm sure to others as well
I rented this movie from Blockbuster last night and I watched it (I'm watching it again right now).It is a wonderful movie.I know that it was/is based on the real thing and I am glad to know that I can not only read her diary and other books to know what Anne,her family,and the Van Daans suffered through,I can watch a movie and/or play about it as well~! I really did enjoy it and I reccomend it to everyone,old or young.It should make you think that no one in this world should be killed just because they are Jewish,America,Chinese or any other race.We are all one and will always be one as long as we all work together.I honestly believe what Anne said:
(quote)Anne Frank:"In spite of everything,I still believe people are really good at heart."(/quote)So please,watch and/or read "The Diary of Anne Frank".I guarentee that it will touch your heart;it touched mine all 10 times (and forever more when I read about Anne Frank)! =}~Jackie

Anne Deserves Better
There is no excuse why the best and most widely read Holocaust narrative couldn't have been made into a far superior movie than this disorganized and boring flick. For most Americans, The Diary of Anne Frank is the only Holocaust book they will ever read and most Americans won't even read that. Consequently, it is vitally important there be an excellent film adaptation of the book. This dull, watered down and not particularly well cast or acted film is not the perfect film memorial to the 7 million victims it needs to be.

This is the definitive movie for Anne's Diary
*** SPOILER if you have not read the diary or seen any of its movies yet

Absolutely no scene in movie history is as simultaneously gripping and gently conveyed as the final scene, when Peter Van Damme and Anne Frank hold hands and look out to the sky as the Gestapo beat down their door to take them to a death camp. The adults look down in the direction of the door and stand or sit still and wait for them to enter, resigned to the fact that they just can not escape the fate that the Nazis have assigned to them.

Nobody runs or even speaks, and Otto Frank puts down the newspaper and hands his wife her bag, as if they are going on a trip. Such small simple movments convey such finality for these 7 people who have shared the unimaginable experience of being caged liked animals to escape being killed like animals, because one man in power decided people of their religion and race should not live.

That scene says more than a million car chases and explosions. Watch it and see what I mean.

unfortunate timing
there was only one reason this monumental film was not awarded the "Best Picture" oscar at the academy awards. that reason is simple; the year of its release. 1959 was an unfortunate year for George Stevens to release this masterpiece of filmmaking, because released that same year was "Ben-Hur". any connesieur of classic films can attest to the magnitude of "Ben-Hur", winner of 11 academy awards. inspite of the legendary status of "Ben-Hur", "The Diary Of Anne Frank" deserves just as much recognition.
"The Diary Of Anne Frank" deserved the oscar just as much if not more than "Ben-Hur". the film was based on the diary written by Anne Frank while she was hiding out in the attic of an old house with her family and several others to avoid Nazi capture during those tragic days of WWII.
the movie is nothing less than monumental and a perfect tribute to Anne Frank and her family. it is nearly 3 hrs. long but easily maintains one's interest throughout.

there exist no words to justly express greatness of this magnificent opus of filmmaking. accolades to George Stevens for giving us this film. and God bless the entire Frank family for continuing to bring hope to the hearts of people globally for over 60 years. AMEN ... Read more

Amazon.com

They just don't make musicals like this any more. There are some who would be grateful for that--the plot is but a flimsy excuse to string together song and dance numbers. Some of us, however, love big, splashy, overdone musical scenes, of which there are many. Glittering stage numbers showcase a commanding Barbra Streisand as Dolly Levy, a New York matchmaker who can find a mate for anyone. Anyone but herself, that is. Determined to marry wealthy Walter Matthau, she lures him out of Yonkers and sets about wooing him.

Don't worry about the lack of a solid story or Gene Kelly's pedestrian direction. Watch instead for the musical numbers and the lavish costumes. Listen to Jerry Herman's score, and dance around the living room when a sequined Streisand arrives in a club as Louis Armstrong strikes up the title tune for her benefit. (Just pull the shades first.) Based on Thornton Wilder's playThe Matchmaker, Hello, Dolly! won Academy Awards for best sound, art direction, and musical score.--Rochelle O'Gorman ... Read more

Reviews (79)

"Hello, Dolly!"
Mrs. Dolly Levi is inarguably the most endearing film character I have ever encountered. She is beautiful, fashionable, clever, and humorous. One cannot help but wish that Dolly actually existed. Indoubtedly, I cannot imagine anyone other than Barbra Streisand playing the part of Dolly. Her stunning voice and captivating performance make "Hello, Dolly!" a truly wonderful movie.
Besides Streisand's amazing performance, this movie includes some wonderful songs and exciting dancing scenes. However, the dancing scenes do become a bit tedious and long.
What is "Hello, Dolly!" all about? It is the story of a widow who arranges an unimaginable amount of events and places. She assists a couple's elopement, two friends' trip to New York City, and a bored man's romance.
This film features other loveable characters, too, such as a head waiter in a posh restaurant, an orchestra conductor at the same restaurant, and a hatmaker who desires to be "evil."
I would highly recommend this romantic comedy to anyone. Although the dance and song scenes are too long, watch the complete movie. Streisand's performance is extremely wonderful and endearing.

Hello, Dolly! Barbra's best intentions
Only Streisand's second movie, filmed during the politically and meteorlogically hot summer of 1968, Ms. Streisand turns in a performance that could have won her first best actress Oscar, instead of the much better "Funny Girl," filmed in 1967. Why an Oscar? Streisand knew from the start that she was terribly miscast as the middle-aged widow, Dolly Levi. Opposite Walter Matthau, twice her age at the time, it's not a believable story. The Oscar comes from Barbra's totally tongue-in-cheek performance. She is not Dolly Levi, she's really Mae West, Fanny Brice, Brooklyn Barbra, even a twinge of pre-star Dolly Parton. Listen as Barbra throws in a little southern accent here and there. But mostly watch an incredible actress do what she can with a story so silly that by the end of the film, 26 year-old Streisand changes the supposed-to-be 50+ widow into one of the sexiest screen performances in film history. Even Matthau can't hold back his disbelief when watching Barbra do her numbers. When there's no Barbra on screen, there's no film. You watch in anticipation until Barbra's next scene, wondering who she'll be. The film looks like Gene Kelly directed it in three days with many technical flaws in the continuity of blocking scenes and dialogue. Just watch Barbra. Forget that she's the best female singer of the 20th century (no pun intended). Think of her as a young, sexy actress who has such energy, fearless ambition to get her movie career going. Of course, the sets are incredible and her duet with Louis Armstrong (his last film performance) is classic, albeit about two minutes long. Watch Barbra whisper under her breath while filming the dance numbers in The Harmonia Gardens with seasoned dancers. She looks like she's saying, "What the hell am I doing here?" Actually, she's making pure movie magic happen, almost impromptu. Movie: three stars, Barbra: Five plus stars. Nice to see Michael (Phantom of the Opera) Crawford pretend he can't dance. Barbra doesn't talk about this movie, but being the most costly musical in history up to that time, 20th Century Fox got their money's worth a million times over by convincing the apprehensive Barbra Streisand to star. Sorry Carol Channing, but Barbra was the best choice.

Elephantitis
Thornton Wilder's modest little play "The Matchmaker" has been blown up as big as a zeppelin in this out-of-control Streisand vehicle. A couple of songs had been added in the original musical conversion of the play on Broadway but this Hollywood monstrosity was never on Wilder's drawing board. The play had in fact been filmed ten years earlier with Shirley Booth, Paul Ford, Anthony Perkins and Shirley MacLaine in the leads. They should have left it at that. The original point of the story of the middle-aged Dolly Levi's pursuit of Horace Vander Geller is swallowed up here by the vast sets (the New York street set was one of the largest ever constructed and was forbidden to Paul Newman for "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" for fear "Butch" would reach the theaters before "Dolly") and interminable and generally idiotic production numbers. This must be some of the worst dancing ever filmed. Hard to believe a couple of Hollywood veterans like Gene Kelly and Ernest Lehman rode herd on this fiasco.

Tune Vs Crawford: Palpable Onscreen Tension
The tension that erupted between Tommy Tune and Michael Crawford whenever they were onscreen together in this fine film was delightfully electric. Their intramural competition propagated palpable intensity not really visible or audible (they had no exchange of dialogue) -- it was more a matter of pride between two spunky bachelors, a jousting of the male wills: Tune's learned dance talent meets Crawford's raw dance energy. Both portraying young men pursuing women in the movie, their performances conveyed much more deep and lusty a purpose between them, a cocksure attitude of stretched wide smiles and leggy high-hop dancing, a genuine duel of actors in their prime. Don't miss this one because, despite their competition, both Crawford and Tune emerged victorious and grand.

The Last of the Great Movie Musicals
By Streisand's own admission, she was too young in 1967 to have made a movie about an middle-aged woman making a personal "comeback"... and we all know how wonderfully different and marvelous the film would have been with Carol Channing... however, this does not take away from the fact that this is an incredible, lush, entertaining and musically rich film. The transfer to DVD is superb and crystal clear in picture and sound. The widescreen is anamorphic and color corrected. The only drawback is Walter Matteau's typical characterization which often detracts from the scenes he appears in, and his song "It takes a woman" is only saved by the beautiful setting and the male singers and dancers that accompany him. His voice really should have been dubbed by someone who could sing. Not to worry, Marianne McAndrew (who is stunningly beautiful) is a treasure in this film.... and her songs are wonderful (not sure if that is really hear voice, but its terrific). The sets are incredible and who wouldn't give anything to dine and dance at the Harmonia Gardens? The set designs, art direction, cinematography and costumes are exquisite. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Killed By A Poison Dart
Another pre-WWII film by 20th Century-Fox. Charlie is giving a weekly Crime League radio broadcast at the museum when an escaped convict seeks revenge on him for helping to put him in prison. One of Charlie's panelists is mistakenly killed by a poison dart intended for the great detective.

Sidney Toler plays Chan while Sen Yung is again cast in the role of Jimmy Chan. The screenplay is by John Larkin and the movie's director is Lynn Shores.

CHARLIE CHAN AT THE WAX MUSEUM is one of the best entries in the series.

Entertaining entry in the popular series
Charlie Chan films are frequently accused of pandering to racial stereotypes. There is a certain truth to this, but Charlie Chan and company were neither more nor less stereotypical than such other popular series as the "Blondie" or "Dr. Kildare" series, and--while we may occasionally roll our eyes at a few 1930s sensibilities--its stereotypes are never mean-spirited and Charlie (along with his various sons) is always presented in a positive light.

This particular Chan episode is one of the best of the Sidney Toler vehicles, and unlike most other Chan films actually generates considerable atmosphere with its tale of a killer run wild in a mysterious wax museum, where all is not as it seems. Victor Sen Yung plays "number two son" Jimmy Chan very broadly, and the film is rounded out with a very able and entertaining cast. As with most Chan films, everything is "over the top," but WAX MUSEUM never goes so far over the top that it becomes pure camp; it remains an unpretentious, simple little movie that is quite a lot of fun to watch, and both fans of the series as well as newcomers will enjoy it quite a bit.

Person Who Not Like This Movie Need Head Examined.
This is an amalgam of several mystery/horror themes, and that is exactly why it is good. There are the chills of the wax museum setting, the whodunit aspect, the revenge plot of the gangster, some locked-in-an-old-dark-house elements, plus the comedy of #2 Chan (Toler) and his pithy interaction with #2 son. The labyrinthine mystery is eventually solved in fairly conventional fashion, but the movie is a lot of fun. ... Read more

Amazon.com

This reverential, well-crafted 1951 biopic starring the hulky Burt Lancaster as Native American Olympian Thorpe is hardly the definitive word on one of our greatest track stars, but it does remind us how unfair and demeaning it once was for athletes of color. Concentrating on Thorpe's track and football victories (he also excelled at boxing, swimming, and golf), director Michael Curtiz and screenwriters Douglas Morrow and Everett Freeman (working from Thorpe's autobiography) chart their hero's rise from reservation poverty to Carlisle College track star to 1912 Olympic decathlon/pentathlon winner. Thorpe was stripped of his medals when it was learned that he had taken a few bucks as a football player. Lancaster is even better at playing Thorpe in the depths of drunkenness and despair than in his jock heyday.Charles Bickford is Pop Warner, the legendary coach who encouraged Thorpe to go for the gold, and Phyllis Thaxter appears as the athlete's supportive wife. Thorpe, who served as technical adviser, died two years after this film was released. Thirty years later, the International Olympic Committee overturned the earlier ruling and returned Thorpe's medals to his family. "What does it mean now?" a bitter Lancaster was quoted as saying at the time. --Glenn Lovell ... Read more

Reviews (5)

4 1/4 stars for a great slice of american history
This film certainly has limits: none of the performances are overwhelmingly good, there are too many white people playing natives, and the story sometimes borders on the formulaic. But with that said, do yourself a favor and see it.

Jim Thorpe - All American is a fascinating look at a period of American history (the early 20th century) that doesn't get enough coverage. Thorpe was born just before the death of the Old West (1887 or 88), won a college football championship at the Carlisle Indian School, won gold medals in the 1912 Stockholm Olympics, played Major League Baseball before WWI, was a founding presence as an all-star halfback in the early National Football League (and its first commissioner), and went on to a long career as a bit player in such Hollywood films as King Kong and White Heat. On the darker side, over half of his brothers and sisters died in childhood, he was an orphan before 18, his first son (Jim Junior) died at age 2 from pneumonia, he had poor financial habits, wasn't much of a team player, moved around incessantly, had problems with alcohol and tobacco, two wives left him, and he died in poverty.

Director Michael (Casablanca) Curtiz does a wonderful job of keeping the campy 50s to a minimum while moving Thorpe's whirlwind life forward on screen. The real strengths of the film (beyond the historical subject matter) are the wonderful nascent images of early sporting events: the college lettermen's sweaters, old track shoes, baseball uniforms, leather football helmets, etc. Lancaster was quite fit and looks the part of a young athlete very well. He is perhaps best when portraying Thorpe's dark decline; these scenes foreshadow De Niro in Scorsese's Raging Bull. And finally, the scenes from the opening ceremonies of the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles look so real I am sure that Curtiz must have cut actual footage into the film, including an aerial flyover and a speech by then vice-president Charles Curtis (these would have been the first Olympics after the widespread proliferation of sound video recording, in the vibrant young city which created it).

All in all Jim Thorpe - All American is a fine cinematic achievement; this is what movie-making is all about.

Whats wrong with this picture?
Not to long ago an athlete was picked as the best(athlete)in our century...Mohammid Ali. He was a great fighter...but what else? How did this man become the greatest athlete of the century? "Whats wrong with this picture"? Jim Thorpe should have been named as the best as is appearent by his accomplishments in several sports. Did Ali win the decathalon or the Pentathalon...25 total events. Was Ali a champion football and baseball player? How can anyone who excels at only one sport be called the greatest of the century...whats wrong with this picture? The wrongs done Jim Thorpe have not been corrected with this kind of judgement. We have the sports writers to thank for this injustice.

Jim Thorpe: Strong but Bitter
JIM THORPE, ALL AMERICAN is based on the autobiography of the same name, and in the hands of director Michael Curtiz, Thorpe, as played by the athletic Burt Lancaster, comes across as a man beset by a multitude of demons. The film begins with Thorpe as a boy living on an Indian reservation. He runs constantly, almost as if he were trying to outrun the bitter dregs of an anti-Indian racism that he saw as dogging his heels for his entire life. He grows to maturity and attends the Carlisle Indian School on a track scholarship. Much of the film focuses on Thorpe's obvious athletic skills and as long as it does so, Lancaster manages to imbue his character with the pathos of a tragedy that would not disappear. One of the most memorable scenes in a film filled with them (not all of them pleasant) is the one in which he has just arrived as a freshman at Carlisle. He is dressed in his best clothes and shoes, and then suddenly,he is filled with the need to run. He does run, right over and through Carlisle's track team. The track coach looks at his assistant and tells him, "Find out who that is and bring him here." His first years at Carlisle show a relaxed Thorpe. He meets his future wife played by Phyllis Thaxter and excells at every sport of the school. Paradoxically,however, the more success that Thorpe achieves, the more is in unable to handle it. His reaction to fame is colored by his previous reaction to racism. He grows bitter and anti-social. He fails to understand that amateur athletics does not involve money nor does he see that his wife loves him and would continue to do so until his increasing world hate drowns out all else. Thorpe's anger at having his Olympic medals taken away simply justifies his own self-destruction. As the film moves toward the end, it becomes painful to watch a proud and skilled student-athlete inch closer to a self-imposed ostracism from those who truly want to understand and to help. Lancaster is superb as a man who forgets that a world of athleticism cannot compensate for a world of bitterness that no gold medals can heal.

Terrific story about American History
Jim Thorpe was an important man in American history, and I think this film should be shown in schools.

Burt Lancaster is a shining star.

God rest both their souls

Great story, well-told
_Jim Thorpe_ is nominally a story about a great athlete; it is more a complex, bittersweet portrayal of a man whose frustrated ambition threatens to tear him and his family apart. This movie underlines in bold strokes the damaging effects of racism, both external and internalized, and the fact that material success is no compensation for dignity and self-respect. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

like molasses, a little slow but very sweet
Based on Russell Janey's novel, the Ben Hecht/Quentin Reynolds script for this film is sometimes sappy and often uneven, but it's also a nice sentimental story, told in flashback, by William Dunnigan (played in a somber manner by Fred McMurray), a press agent who was never a very happy guy, and is burying the woman he loved (but was never able to tell her so).
The real reason to watch this film is to see Alida Valli play Joan of Arc, in a "film within a film" segment. She is luminous and incredibly beautiful, and would have made a terrific Joan. Coincidentally, the lavish "Joan of Arc" production starring Ingrid Bergman was released the same year as this film.

Another reason to view "The Miracle of the Bells" is to see Frank Sinatra, skinny as a rail, in the unlikely part of a soft spoken priest; this was five years before his success in "From Here to Eternity", and he is surprisingly good, but far from great. He sings "Ever Homeward", a cappella, as he sits among the grave stones; there's a lot of gloomy aspects to the film, one of them being that the setting is a poor coal mining town...though it all has a nice pay-off.
Lee J. Cobb is Marcus Harris, the film producer making "Joan of Arc", and he has the humorous moment in the film with his "I won't stand for any press agent miracles !" rant, which was funny enough to make me laugh out loud, a rarity for me.
Some might say it's improbable that headlines of "Nation Mourns For Movie Star" could ever happen, especially when the "movie star" is unknown, but seeing how today's media obsesses about inconsequential stories, and runs with them for days (nay, weeks !) on end, on a slow news cycle, anything could happen.
Total running time is 120 minutes.

Memorable Movie
Orginally, I saw this movie about ten years ago and it really left an impression on me. It brilliantly grabs the viewer's heart...You would have to be dead not to be touched by this film. I loved it and I'm getting ready to purchase a copy for my 15-year-old daughter to watch. I've shared with her many other classics I've valued in my lifetime, i.e. Jane Eyre (Orson Wells), Wuthering Heights, and Alice Adams. I hope she will treasure the classics as much as I do.

A Feel-Bad Christmas Movie
The first time I saw "The Miracle of the Bells" was a New Year's Eve party in 1980, and man, it was a bring down. Here is a somewhat nasty Fred MacMurray mourning the loss of Valli (from "The Third Man"), who had only just completed filming her Joan of Arc movie, the movie that would have catapulted this obscure nobody into a major star, it seems, but fate would have it otherwise, since she up and died. Frank Sinatra plays against type big time as a gentle young priest. I really disliked this movie, and I bet you would too.

Setzer's Amazing Vocals and Stronger Edge of Music, Yet...
On this '86 effort the Cats try for a little harder rock-a-billy edge.The only problem is that there is nothing really memorable that stands out (except for one country twang-like tune on which Brian Setzer's vocals soar). By '86 the public's interest with Stray Cat strut had started to become diluted. However, because of the type of music or genre the Stray Cats have mastered it is a true collector's keeper. While I do not own the c.d., my vinyl copy is flawless and the track listing is exactly the same (no extras or bonus tracks on the import c.d.).

kinda silly, kinda nice
One theme of this movie is the importance of becoming a movie star. Contrary to one review below, Sinatra does sing in this movie--and tries to act, too (he's pretty wooden, in my own humble opinion). The contention in the movie that the entire American nation would hysterically mourn the loss of an actress they'd never met, seen, or heard of, is, in a word, hysterical. But, all that said, this is a kinda fun movie to watch. VALLI is MAGNIFICENT! She should have played Joan of Arc--watch the movie and you'll see why. I've heard rumors that the film will be re-made with Tom Hanks as the actor and Meg Ryan as the agent! ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Looking for a benchmark in movie acting? Breakthrough performances don't come much more electrifying than Marlon Brando's animalistic turn as Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire. Sweaty, brutish, mumbling, yet with the balanced grace of a prizefighter, Brando storms through the role--a role he had originated in the Broadway production of Tennessee Williams's celebrated play. Stanley and his wife, Stella (as in Brando's oft-mimicked line, "Hey, Stellaaaaaa!"), are the earthy couple in New Orleans's French Quarter whose lives are upended by the arrival of Stella's sister, Blanche DuBois (Vivien Leigh). Blanche, a disturbed, lyrical, faded Southern belle, is immediately drawn into a battle of wills with Stanley, beautifully captured in the differing styles of the two actors. This extraordinarily fine adaptation won acting Oscars for Leigh, Kim Hunter (as Stella), and Karl Malden (as Blanche's clueless suitor), but not for Brando. Although it had already been considerably cleaned up from the daringly adult stage play, director Elia Kazan was forced to trim a few of the franker scenes he had shot. In 1993, Streetcar was rereleased in a "director's cut" that restored these moments, deepening a film that had already secured its place as an essential American work. --Robert Horton ... Read more

Reviews (82)

the Wicked versus the Tender
Shortly after Blanche Dubois (played by Vivien Leigh) moves in with her sister Stella for temporary shelter, Stella's husband (Stanley, played by Marlon Brando) begins to suspect that Blanche is a fallen woman who's on the run and masquerading as a respectable lady. Stanley then decides he'll stop at nothing to destroy Blanche's hopes for a normal life. What happens in this movie will have you glued to the screen from start to finish. ASND has realistic , powerful acting from Leigh, Brando, Malden and Hunter .......This film makes my Top 5 Movies of All Time. If you consider yourself a "tender" person (as opposed to wicked/ruthless) then do yourself a favor and watch ASND. It's a primal reminder that the Gentle/Tender should always be watchful of their archenemy, the Wicked! It's no wonder ASND won so many Oscars. Blanche is a highly demanding role for any actress and Vivien Leigh steps up to the plate and hits a grand slam with her perfect performance ...and yes, Leigh won the Oscar for Best Actress. Even more amazing is the fact that Leigh is from the U.K. and Blanche is pure Mississippi ex-plantation debutante

AFI's Great Love Stories: #67 A Streetcar Named Desire
In "A Streetcar Named Desire" Marlon Brando as Stanley Kowalski gives what is clearly the best acting performance not to win an Academy Award (he lost to Humphrey Bogart in "The African Queen"). Vivien Leigh as Blanche DuBois, Kim Hunter as Stella Kowalski, and Karl Malden as Mitch all won in their respective acting categories. Years later, with "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" this same thing happened, with both of the ladies winning that time around.

Tennessee Williams' play is one of the major works in American drama, especially after the Second World War, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1947 (with Jessica Tandy as Blanche the only cast change from the film; although I should point out Leigh opened the play in England on stage). Although Brando's performance is riveting, representing the new "modern" method of acting at its best, the play is really about the mental and moral disintegration of Blanche, a neurotic former Southern belle whose genteel illusions are no match for the brutish realities of her brother-in-law, Stanley. The fact that Hollywood changed the ending to reflect conventional morality remains one of the great sins in movie history, but I have always thought the fact Brando's legendary stage performance was essentially preserved on film offsets that in the final judgment. Leigh's performance is often seen as an extension of the Scarlett O'Hara role that made her famous, but of course now we know her personal life was as tortured as the character she was playing.

I heard an argument once that "A Streetcar Named Desire" was, at least on some level, a reponsible by Tennessee Williams to Eugene O'Neill's play "The Iceman Cometh" (then again, I have heard the same argument made, more forcefully to be sure, regarding Edward Albee's "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?"). O'Neill's classic play deals with the human need for illusion and hope as necessary weapons against despair. If you are teaching American drama in the 20th century, then using these plays in any combination you might like could be quite provocative for your students.

Personal aside: I was in New Orleans once and actually saw the bus named "Desire," which had replaced the city streetcars. There was certainly an odd little moment.

Most significant line: It does not seem right to talk about romantic lines with any of these characters, but there is a line that is one of the greatest character epitaphs ever. Of course, this is at the end where Blanches says to the doctor, "Whoever you are, I have always depended upon the kindness of strangers." I have usually found that at some point in a play there is a line that defines the character so well it could serve as their epitaph. This line is as clear an example of what I am talking about as you could ever hope to find.

If you like "A Streetcar Named Desire," then check out these other films on the AFI's list of 100 Greatest Love Stories: #48 "Last Tango in Paris" and #89 "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Why? The former give you Brando in another sick love relationship and the latter is the other great American drama on this list.

some of the best the screen has ever seen
Vivien Leigh, well-known for her portrayal of Scarlett O'Hara in 1939's "Gone With the Wind", plays Blanche, a Southern belle as fragile as Scarlett is strong. In a way, Blanche is what Scarlett would have become if she had watched her mother die. "Death is very pretty compared to dying," she tells her sister Stella, who only came home for the funeral.

Stella is pregnant and married to Stanley (the inimitable Brando) who both abhors and is fascinated by his sister-in-law Blanche (and not just in a platonic manner.) Blanche in turn is interested in meeting new gentleman callers, as her great love once killed himself (as she tells us in one of the most riveting scenes in movie history.) Interesting note: the delivery boy she flirts with is Mickey Kuhn, who once played Leigh's nephew Beau in GWTW.

Blanche is so fragile that she has no choice but to break. Unfortunately, others hurry her down that path. Perhaps the worst thing one can do, it seems, is depend on the kindness of strangers.

Brando at his finest
With obvious rekindled interest because of the recent death of Marlon Brando, this "one of a kind" film is making a deserved comback. Always thought to be a classic, the comparisons to Brando's acting then, and what we get now from most stars makes this film even more intense. Vivien Leigh digs deep for her emotional performance, and she's miles ahead of anything she did in Gone With the Wind. The rest of the cast is superb also.

Intense and Sexy
This is a perfect date movie. It is intense, sexy, and packed with intellectual and emotional whallop. The actors are interesting and beautiful to look at, and the subject matter is mature and provoacative. It is the perfect setup for getting to know someone better, and a great warm-up for intimate activities to follow, or for super-intense action like you get when you put into practice the teachings of the "New Sex Now" dvd.

God bless you Marlon, you were a true subtle hunk! ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Sinatra - The Actor
Firstly I'll presume your a Sinatra fan or you would'nt be looking at this Dvd.

Secondly I will further presume you hav'nt heard much about this film, maybe never even heard of it before, am I right.

.....Well relax and get this film, its one of those rare films in which Sinatra showed all the disbelievers he could act. A gritty drama, probably better because it was shot in black and white and O.K, its not as good a quality print as some of todays films would be but this genuinely adds to the feel of the movie.

As anyone who has seen the laserdisc will testify this is a very good watch and a must for all real Frank Sinatra fans.

"Suddenly" is a great Sinatra Film!
This 1954 film is one of my favorite films. It is a Film Noir and it stars Frank Sinatra! What a great combination. Sinatra plays the bad guy and he does agood job at it, too! His acting is authentic and very smooth. "Suddenly" is about an assassination attempt on the President. A picture is worth a thousand words, so watch the picture, you won't regret it. At least I didn't!

THIS IS THE WAY "SUDDENLY" WAS MEANT TO BE SEEN!!!
Unknown, strange companies crawling out of the woodwork have been, up till now, foisting ill-wind versions of Frand Sinatra in his early surprise hit, SUDDENLY!, a film packed with excitement but the sole purveyors of this excellently high-quality master created from the original 35mm master and, with the quality so high, all one has to do is pay attention and by the second reel--you're hooked. It's short, taught, and guaranteed to impress the riff-raff. Even the old Groaner would love this one. And this is the ORIGINAL version which means great visual field and, most imnportantly---NO "LETTERBOXED" VERSIONS!! This film was shot in a flat, square format, and there it shall stay. Buy the Hal Roach Studios version and avoid the phoney letterbox but receive the best possible show for your trouble. And, that's a promise!! Remember, it was Hal Roach Studios that Colorized "Suddenly" which could only be done from really fine underlying black and white materials and that's what's being offerted here, so enjoy. And, unlike the first try at the color version, "Old Brown Eyes is NOT back"--we made them change them to blue!! Highly recommended

An early psychodrama, but not very convincing
*Suddenly* is an intriguing little film about a plot to assassinate the POTUS (President of the United States). The premise is groundbreaking, considering the period it was made in, the "I Like Ike" years.

Frank Sinatra is pretty good as the wack job hired by some unknown plotters for the job of whacking the Prez. There's some decent acting from a few of the supporting players, especially the one who plays the old retired Secret Service agent. Sterling Hayden, whom I really like in *Asphalt Jungle* and *The Godfather*, doesn't shine for me in this one. I'll bet he was bored.

The trouble with *Suddenly* is that it's a low-budget thriller that set its sights too high. You simply can't believe that a big-buck-backed assassination plot could really transpire like this. It's just too hokey. At the same time I give the film credit for making the old college try. 'Cause that's what *Suddenly* feels like--a film-college noir, strong on bold concepts but weak in the pocketbook and experience. Having a gang of desperados headed by a maniac impersonate a team of FBI agents so as to knock off the president was a brilliant idea for a film of '54, but this idea, great as it was, is stillborn in *Suddenly.* If it had been about a train heist or a small town bank robbery, it could have worked a lot better.

I'm a personal friend of Alan Wexler, son of the late Paul Wexler who played the deputy sherrif, Slim. He gets shot (but not killed) when trying to arrest one of the gang. Al has a lot of cool stories about growing up in Hollywood during the '50's and 60's. He was just a little runt when *Suddenly* was made so he doesn't remember much about that one. Still, it's a part of his life, and as his good buddy, it's a part of mine too. Get *Suddenly* and get nostalgic.

The Gambler
Just two years before he made Suddenly, Frank Sinatra thought he was finished. His vocal cords hemorrhaged, and 'The Voice' almost fell silent. Movie producers lost interest in making musical comedies starring the Kid from Hoboken, and no one took him seriously as a dramatic actor, a field where he had no track record. And he could feel the love of his life, Ava Gardner, slipping out of his grasp. (Although Sinatra and Gardner had just married in 1951, following his divorce from first wife, Nancy, the affair had been going on for years, and the wedding was anti-climactic.)

Well, Sinatra got his vocal chords fixed. And after a manic lobbying campaign, he got the role of a lifetime, as the heroic but ill-fated, "Pvt. Angelo Maggio," in 1953's From Here to Eternity. With Sinatra's help, the movie won eight Oscars, including his own, richly deserved one for best supporting actor.

For the next 12 or so years (through Von Ryan's Express), until one of the longest midlife crises in world history took over, Frank Sinatra was among the world's greatest movie actors. Unfortunately, the third part of his life could not be saved. By 1955, he and Ava Gardner had split up, though as she wrote in her autobiography, Ava, they would have occasional 'reunions' in hotels around the world, over the next 30-odd years, until her death in 1990.

Going for the role of Maggio was a huge gamble for a man who had no history of straight dramatic acting. But then, Sinatra was nothing, if not a gambler. Existentialism was then a popular philosophy, but unlike pretentious types in French cafes, who knew only the words, he knew the music. From his thirties through his mid-forties, Sinatra lived a life of continual high drama, subsisting off tempestuous passions and guile, with little room left for prudence. (But unlike professional existentialists, Sinatra was no nihilist.)

And so in 1954, he starred in the kind of insane movie that could have ended his fledgling, dramatic movie career. Suddenly (what a lousy title!) is the name of a California hamlet, where the President of the United States will happen to pass through, for about the time it takes to smoke a cigarette. Only the Secret Service knows this ' and a small group of assassins posing as Secret Service agents, led by 'Johnny Baron' (Sinatra).

Johnny is a homicidal sociopath who has no qualms about doing what was then 'the unthinkable.' 'Sure, I like choppin'' (shooting). He has a $500,000 contract to kill the President, and so kill him, he will.

(Sinatra would go on, in 1962, to co-star in yet another movie about a plot to assassinate the president, The Manchurian Candidate. Directed by the late John Frankenheimer from Richard Condon's classic political thriller, in Candidate, Sinatra gave a now hilarious, now moving performance as insomniac Capt. Bennett Marco. But the following year, his friend, President John F. Kennedy, would be assassinated, and so for the next 30 years, Sinatra would get Suddenly and The Manchurian Candidate pulled out of distribution.)

The era of the anti-hero had just begun, with Marlon Brando's 1953 performance as motorcycle gang leader Johnny Strabler, in The Wild One. But not even the young Brando had guts like Sinatra. No one had shot a president since William 'Big Bill' McKinley in '01, and no one made movies about assassins.

But Sinatra did. Working almost entirely on one set, on a shoestring budget, and squaring off against dramatic (and physical) heavyweight Sterling Hayden (as 'Sheriff Tod Shaw'), he gave a towering performance.

Johnny and his accomplices take the Benson family hostage; their home has a clear shot at the spot where the President will get off his train. 'Pop Benson' (James Gleason) is a retired Secret Service agent, whose widowed, pacifist daughter-in-law, 'Ellen' (Nancy Gates) has been rebuffing Tod Shaw's attempts at courtship. Ellen Benson holds all who wield weapons equally in contempt.

Johnny likes to talk, and he has a captive audience. Literally. The set-piece around which the picture revolves, is the spellbinding soliloquy Johnny delivers, on his failed life as a civilian prior to World War II, as a lost soul, wandering about an anonymous, non-descript, unnamed metropolis.

'Before, I drifted and drifted and ran, always lost in a great, big crowd. I hated that crowd, used to dream about the crowd, once in a while. I used to see all those faces, scratchin' and shovin' and bitin.' And then the mist would clear, and somehow all the faces would be me. All me, and nothin.'

This is not the spirit of America on the eve of World War II, but of a different time and place altogether. It is the spirit of Hitler's Vienna on the eve of World War I, the spirit of fascism.

Now, I realize that logically, this doesn't jibe. After all, Johnny doesn't work in a collective, the way the fascists and Nazis, or the anti-Semitic socialists of pre-WWI Vienna did; he's more of a freelancer. And spoken abstractly, overlaying a 1910s, European mentality doesn't work for a story set in America in the mid-1950s. And yet, it does work, gloriously.

Here's the background: During and after the war, with the help of Soviet communist propaganda ' to paper over the Soviets' 1939 alliance with Nazi Germany -- many leftwing artists, academics, and journalists mindlessly pushed the notion that "fascism" was merely political gangsterism. This attitude was perpetuated most dramatically by communist playwright Bertolt Brecht's entertaining play, written in 1941 in Finnish exile, The Resistable Rise of Arturo Ui.

But Suddenly doesn't owe its power to the propaganda of Bert Brecht, or of leftwing academics or journalists. Give credit, instead, to screenwriter Richard Sale, director Lewis Allen, and to ' The Gambler.

A Different Drummer, February 6, 2004. ... Read more

Reviews (26)

Lonely are the Brave
In today's movie world of slick technology and violent themes, it is refreshing to watch a movie with heart-felt emotion. Edward Abbey's novel of a cowboy lost in a modern world comes to life with Kirk Douglas playing one of his best roles (he has often said this was his favorite movie). The film goes far beyond the common western to convey a melancholy sadness of the passing of the freedom and spirit that was once the west. Lonely are the Brave reveals that not only is this spirit gone from the west, but also from the hearts of its modern day inhabitants.

If you like being dazzled by mindless, techno-junk movies don't bother with this little gem.

Filmed in black and white in 1962 (When the West still had vague similarities to the past), it has a great supporting cast with Walter Mattthau, George Kennedy, and Gena Rowlands.

not everybody serve to operate a computer
This cowboy is yet born in the era of jet planes, but with no doubt he's from an older time. Old times were ever better? Frankly I think not, but this is the great merit of this superb movie because masterpieces don't need to be "based in true facts". They can or they cannot, you only need a good moviemaker and excellent actors to achieve a jewel of cinema. The fight of the human cowboy, capable to risk his life for a horse against the inhumane times of machines, the sheriff being unable to recognize him finally because he has done his work professionally but doesn't know really who or how is his prey because never has seen Kirk Douglas so near. Well, this can sound even vulgar, but the film is extraordinary and I suppose made with no much money but lots of real wisdom. This was truly a brave, lonely cowboy, don't put him behind a business desk because I'm sure such men ever will be indispensable for all mankind.

PLEASE Universal, can we all have a DVD of this gem soon?
A forgotten gem of the 60's that is now only just being reappraised. Kirk Douglas is justified in regarding this as his best flick. Filled with wonderful character actors, a great multilayered script with genuinely funny moments, it also features beautiful, shimmering WIDESCREEN photography that can only be appreciated in digital format. A true anti-hero movie. Universal, we are waiting patiently for a dvd!

One of Kirk's very best
A Kirk Douglas film that has somehow been overlooked. The story of a rebellious cowboy, one not ready to accept the changes to the new west, is filled with drama. It had the looks of an academy award winner. Why this is not on DVD is beyond me. A movie with western overtones, based on character development, and the slow dramatic pace undoubtably cost this film commercial success. As a DVD only collector, I've made an exception here. This is a movie I will watch again, even on a VCR. The ending alone is worth the price of admission.

A great adaptation of Edward Abbey's novel
I decided to watch this movie after reading the book "The Brave Cowboy." I had heard that it was a good adaptation, but what I was not prepared for was the emotionally-charged way in which Kirk Douglas acted the part of Jack Burns. Douglas has repeatedly called this his favorite movie, and in fact it was one which the studio was not going to produce, but which a clause in Douglas's contract allowed him to make. In watching the film, you can definitely see Douglas's love for the part.

Jack Burns is a man from a dying era. Caught in a world of highways, steel-barred prisons, and barbed-wire fences, Burns is unable to adapt himself to modern life, and pays for his failure to compromise his cowboy ideals. Burns is a true cowboy--tough, uncompromising, and good-hearted--but this movie shows that there isn't always a place for such people in today's society. In the ultimate showdown between horse and horsepower, there is little question of which will win.

This movie is splendidly done. The directing and acting is great, and the scenery is absolutely breathtaking. Seeing all that rugged terrain really brings Abbey's novel to life. This is not only one of the few movies that remains true to the book on which it is based, it is also one of the great underrated classics in film. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Fine WWII suspense/espionage/thriller
The treacherous villainous woman in this thriller is really excellent around which the film twists. She will surprise you guaranteed and for the gents, she's quite a looker too.
Great supporting cast, high suspense espionage and just what your looking for. Based on documentary intelligence records and really excellent first of the realism photoed movies shot on actual locations. First of the post WWII noir-based genres. Good curling-up entertainment with Lloyd Nolan also who is good.

Saving Atom Bomb Secrets
This 1945 film showed how the FBI prevented the secret of the atomic bomb from falling into enemy hands. Aside from the main characters, all of the background persons were members of the FBI. The opening scenes show J.Edgar Hoover and an associate. The "house on 92nd Street" in Manhattan was the local safe house for the Nazi spy ring and Gestapo. It tells how a double agent was able to infiltrate their ranks and gather details on all the spies. (It did not explain how they knew who would be recruited.) This was done by forging a typewritten microfilmed document. About 20 minutes from the start Lloyd Nolan asks that this document be changed to require contact with all the spies; it is done quickly. A few years later in the Hiss Trial they claimed it was impossible to forge typewritten documents! Yet it was known and done circa 1936 by British Intelligence in South America. Read "The Quiet Canadian" for more details on this, and other activities in the US. I wonder what can be done nowadays with ink jet and laser printers?

The Cold War Begins Here
The House on 92nd Street was one of the first Hollywood films to incorporate a semi-documentary edge to the noir/crime genre. The film's technical accuracy is authenticated by actual FBI archive footage of Nazi subversives and location shooting at FBI headquaters in Washington. For the first time ever, J. Edgar Hoover's dictatorial organization is depicted as an organized, structured, and efficient government institution whose existence and purpose is to preserve and protect national security. Hoover allowed director Henry Hathaway unprecendented access to film FBI secret equipment such as: two-way mirrors, video surveillance cameras, wire tapping lines, and a demonstration of the immense fingerprinting tracking system. Hoover gave his stamp of approval since the film justified the Bureau's stand and actions against possible covert foreign operations infiltrating America's military, political, economic, and educational systems. The film was released in 1945, weeks after the atomic bombing of Japan and the plot revolves around Nazi spies and their quest for information about ultra-secret plans dubbed Project 97. Project 97 obviously refered to the Manhattan Project which was the actual government code name given for the construction of the atomic bomb. Dark European mannerisms flood the film, as evidenced by Hathaway's judicious choice in casting. Swedish actress Signe Hasso is nefariously convincing as the Nazi spy ring's mastermind. With the exception of Leo G. Carroll, the remaining subversives are undertaken by unknown players. Their anonymity to the average American film buff heightens their deviousness and subterfuge. Lydia St. Clair is absolutely chilling in her small but malevolent role as a Nazi loyalist. The cast is rounded out by newcomer William Eythe and the dependable Lloyd Nolan who is perfectly cast once again as the paternal figure for American justice. The disappointment is Eythe whose lines are delivered blandly. The film's cinematography is true noir. Shadows seem to move between every contrast of black and white. This is a must see for all classic noir lovers. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Ok Movie.
This movie is deffinately not one of Doris Day's Best. Doris Day plays a sweet and innocent lady who wants to have a baby but they keep trying and can't have one so they contact the Rock-A-Bye Adoption Agency. Well the Investigator comes to the house at a bad time. Doris's husband Richard Widmark is chasing a mouse. And the playboy next Door. Gig Young is over and starts making advances towards her. Well in a few minnutes she is starting to leave when Doris and Gig Youngs wife come in and they see what is happening. Well Doris talks to Richard but she can't find out anything and the adoption agency says she must be going. Then Gig convinces Richard to lay back a little bit and gives him some tranquilizers. The next thing we know Richard is riding in his car with the Adoption agency. Then he falls asleep and she drives him to a hotel. The next morning he finds himself in a hotel. Well he hides the fact from his wife. Then they get a call from Rock-A-Bye and they say they have a baby for them. Well when Doris sees it she thinks it looks to much like Richard. Well everybody thinks that and one day Doris sends Richards mother a letter and Richards mother sends her a pic of Richard when he was a baby. And she shows it to Richard and he says when did you have that pic of the baby taken. And she says Ha I knew it this is a picture of you when you were little. Well the movie ends well.

Doris wants to be a parent, but her husband...
Married couple, Doris Day and Richard Widmark want to adopt a baby and of course they have been trying the natural way too. They have wonderful neighbors Gig Young and, who have children of their own currently in camp and one expected. The lady from the Rock-A-Bye Foundation comes around the neighborhood to investigate the parents-to-be. She must ask the neighbors their references of Doris and Richard. Now Richard goes to the front door, not knowing that the investigator is at the front door. he is in his underwear and chasing a mouse with a liquor bottle in his hand. Not a very good impression to start with. What else could happen to mortify Doris Day who is being so naturally proper and decent and yet her husband is not...plenty can happen. Cute film! Directed by dancer/actor/singer Gene Kelly. Nice realistic sets.

Could Have Been Better...
I like Richard Widmark, and absolutely love his movies. I have yet to see a "bad" one, or one I did not like. However, the part in this movie was far too lightweight for him. He's much too good of an actor to be in such of a role. He's best in tough-guy parts. He always fits those like a glove. This film, which is about a couple's desire to have children, doesn't do him justice. He was miscast in this part. Doris Day is sweet and lovely, as usual, while Gig Young is totally annoying. His part could have been deleted completely. The story itself is pretty good, but as I said before, it could have been better.

HAS ONE OF THE BEST COMEDY PLOTS-GREAT!
This is one of the best movie comedies. Has a great plot and good acting by everyone, including Gig Young. Doris seldom makes a bad movie--and this is NOT A BAD ONE.

"TUNNEL" DIGS FOR AND MINES A FEW LAUGHS!
"The Tunnel of Love" was Doris Day's third film for MGM and probably ranks as her least memorable.

Shot in a matter of weeks, it clearly betrays its theatrical roots, being based on a popular Broadway hit which later became a staple for summer stock productions for many years.

Despite it's tight budget and shooting schedule, it surprisingly lost money. Miss Day was nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actress and received the coveted Laurel Award from Motion Picture Exhibitor Magazine for being the most popular female star in films, the first of eight consecutive awards as most Popular Actress by this publication. None of this, however, saved "Tunnel of Love", which does provide some amusing moments despite a slightly overlong running time which allows interest to sometimes wane.

Gene Kelly directed the talented cast in his final film at MGM after more than 15 years under contract. Had original plans worked out a decade later, he'd have again directed Miss Day in "Hello Dolly" which Richard Zanuck initially wanted as a vehicle for the gifted blonde.

Doris Day and Richard Widmark play a Connecticut couple who want to have a baby. The film's plot evolves around those efforts as well as a lot of misunderstandings which are better seen than described.

As always, Miss Day is a delight. Her comedic talent is second to none and she makes the most of the sometimes tepid situations, giving it the benefit of her personality and skill at making you believe everything she says. Fabled Hollywood Hairstylist Sydney Guilaroff who worked on this film as well as several others with Miss Day told me personally that "...Doris was the most professional actress I have ever encountered. She always knew her lines, never kept people waiting and treated the crew with the same dignity and kindness that she treated her co-stars...." A highlight is Miss Day's exuberant rendition of "Runaway Skiddadle Skidoo", a peppy little song that even allows co-star Richard Widmark to sing a bit of."

Widmark surprises with a very charming and easygoing comic performance. He and Miss Day work well together and it's too bad they didn't have better material to serve them.

Gig Young is in his usual fine form in this the third of four on-screen performances opposite Miss Day. Elisabeth Fraser in the second of four roles opposite Miss Day displays her usual polish. Gia Scala adds window dressing and the viewer will come away not feeling they'd wasted their time but with the talent involved probably wishing for a sweeter aftertaste. Perhaps color would have brightened the proceedings in more ways than one. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A Campy Western Classic!!!
The beautiful Yvonne DeCarlo rules as the notorious"Lola Montez" who was the mistress of the King of Prussia and caused a revolution when he gave her the crown jewels.She then escaped to the American West to the Arizona town of "Salome" where she danced.This is a nice campy western classic!!! ... Read more

Reviews (10)

A Dark One For Lucy
This often over-looked film noir is a near classic and although it dosn't quite make it to greatness, it does hold up very well against many other better known films in this fasinating genre.

The story centers around a down and out gumshoe (Mark Stevens) who after serving time for a crime that he had been framed for, finds himself being setup for murder by someone who seems bent on destroying his life. Along the way he is stalked by the menacing "White Suit" (William Bendix) and helped by his true blue secretary (Lucille Ball) who is the only one who believes his innocence.

Mark Stevens is excellent as the put-up-on detective who can't understand what is happening to him, and Lucille Ball is very much at home in her role as the love interest.

The "The Dark Corner" is by far one Lucille Ball's best films, it along with "Lured" are a rare look at the mostly untapped dramatic acting ability of an actress who sadly was over-looked as a major film star during Hollywood's golden age.

The production values in this movie are very good the sets, dialog, and lighting are all top-notch although I found the music a little heavy handed.

My first Film noir!
This is the first film noir movie I ever watched and it hooked me on to the genre. It is a superb movie with it's assortment of characters that often populate the film noir genre. Lucille Ball was excellent as the trusting secretary! Another movie to see of Miss Ball's that displays her acting ability is the Big Street with Henry Fonda. Mark Stevens was an actor I had not heard of before. He was suprisingly very good in his role of Brad. Many people think this is the only film-noir done by William Bendix. It is not. He is also in The Big Steal with Robert Mitchum. Clifton Webb is always delightful and his presence in this movie makes you compare this and his other noir classic Laura. He plays the same kind of character - obbessed with a much younger woman when he himself is an aging prudish man. The plot itself is good with some good dialouge and all the actors are in top form! I am sixteen years old and am a BIG classic movie fan and really enjoyed this movie. I reccomend it to any age group.

The Best dramatic performance by Lucy
This is a really good film with a young and beautiful Lucille Ball giving, probably, her best dramatic performance. For those of you who only know Lucy from TV this movie will come as a big surprise. It is taut and gripping and a fine example of film noir, with an excellent supporting performance by Clifton Webb. I highly recommend this film.

Young Lucy Deserved Better than This Movie!
According to Lucille Ball's autobiography, "Love, Lucy," Lucy had a mild nervous breakdown during the filming of this movie, due to outside personal problems. That explains a lot about the way she LOOKS in this film. I am the biggest Lucy fan on earth, and she handles her lines very well, but there is an empty-eyed, haunting sadness and apathy about her in this movie that just doesn't seem like her at all. Also, the plot is a little weak, but over-all, it isn't that bad. I saw it on AMC, and enjoyed it, but I don't think I would buy it, when there are so many other great old movies out there.

Great detective film noir
I've seen this classic a dozen times now and I won't say I never tire of it at times, but this is a great example of 40's film noir. Who would have thought that an unknown like Mark Stevens, paired with LUCY, of all people, would turn out a thrilling drama like this! William Bendix plays the perfect heavy, and Clifton Webb is here too! Don't miss this one. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Junkle Craptive
I'm sorry. I hate to say it, because I am a Universal Monsters junkie. But this is the nadir of Universal's horror output. It is much more like a PRC cheapie than one from Universal.
A budget *slightly* bigger than PRC might have employed is evident, but hardly anything monster-related happens until the last five minutes. And then it's a predictable 'so-what?'. Jungle Captive is something of a police procedural, when it doesn't just consist of IOWA (Idiots Out Wandering Around).
The cast includes no one of note, which also hurts a great deal. Rondo Hatton as a movie's marquee draw is not the stuff of which Hollywood classics are made. So we are left with the pulchritude of Vicki Lane (prettier even than Acquanetta but without even her acting abilities), and she is covered in black fur sometimes (but not often, and not until late). Jungle Captive's molasses-like narrative is beyond the capacity of her finely-formed features to save.
There were problems with each of the first two movies in the Ape Woman trilogy (Captive Wild Woman's stock footage and Jungle Woman's leaps in logic and inability to better copy Lewton's formula), but they retain a great deal of silly charm all the same. This one is just plain dull.
Horror was for all intents and purposes dead and buried, until the nuclear age spawned new terrors for damsels to be carried off by. (Woo-hoo!! Giant spiders!!!)
(Did I use enough parentheses in this review?)
P.S. I'm really very sorry. Please don't revoke my Universal Monsters Club Card.

Attack of the "B" People.
This is the final entry in the "Ape-Woman" trilogy from Universal's fright factory. To nobody's surprise, this isn't cinematic art. As a thriller with a modest budget, it serves the purpose. The dark-eyed Acquanetta is gone, and Vicky Lane replaces her as Paula Dupree, the woman with the simian alter-ego. (As if anyone knows Vicky Lane). In a smart move, one of our favorite "B" people, Rondo Hatton, is present as Moloch, Stendahl's assistant. Hatton suffered from a disfiguring bone disease, and he played horror roles without makeup. He is the brute killer with a yen for the attractive young woman the insane Stendahl (Otto Kruger) uses as a captive blood donor to pump the inert Ape-Woman full of human blood. The Ape-Woman is revived and dreadful death ensues amid typical '40s cliches. The spooky fright makeup appears in several scenes. The hirsute she-beast is truly a shambling nightmare. Classic horror fans will have fun with the quasi-werewolf story combined with Frankenstein elements. Serious collectors of classic horror need this one. Don't think about it, just enjoy the nonsense. ;-)

Low grade horror film
This is a low grade horror film so bad it's entertaining. Last of the Paula the ape woman trilogy it's not as dull as "Jungle Woman" and not as mechanical or loaded with stock shots as is "Captive Wild Woman" One of my guilty pleasures. ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Big Assist From Manton Moreland
THE SCARLET CLUE is an above average entry in the Chan series helped by a fast-paced script and the antics of Manton Moreland as Birmingham Brown.

Charlie is acting as a federal agent trying to solve a murder and at the same time prevent the theft of top secret radar plans. The title refers to a bloody footprint.

Sidney Toler has the role of Charlie and Benson Fong is back as Tommie Chan.

The Scarlet Clue
the scarlet clue was a pretty enjoyable movie for the monogram charlie chan series. clever jokes, interesting clues, trap floors in elevators, and charlie chan himself, all added up to an enjoyable 65-minute movie experience (so much so i'm ordering more charlie chan tapes today).

Serial-style Chan mystery offers some fun for B-movie fans.
One of budget-brand Monogram Pictures' entries in the Charlie Chan series, this picture has a busy, tricky screenplay which resembles a serial story. The villain is masked and cloaked in the best cliffhanger tradition, and every few minutes there is some new deadly device introduced (an elevator with a trap door, a weather tunnel with dangerous extremes of heat and cold, etc.). The radio-station setting is novel, and there is some outstanding comedy relief by Mantan Moreland and Ben Carter doing their "incomplete sentence" nightclub act. The direction and photography are routine, but the filmmakers apparently were concentrating on the ambitious technical gimmicks in the script. Par for Monogram, and a pleasant hour for B-movie fans.

One of the best Monogram Chan entries.
If you have not sampled one of the Monogram Chan movies yet, The Scarlet Clue would be a good one to start with. It takes place in a radio and television studio with many sinister electronic devices. Birmingham has some very funny material, including finding his own face in a police mug book as he and Tommy Chan look for suspects. Near the end of the film, Chan makes an obvious error in judgement that the real Chan would never make. Can you tell what it is? Famous Chan line is "So many fish in fish market, even flower smell same." ... Read more

Amazon.com

Hollywood's excursions into Arabian Nights exotica don't come muchdaffier than Kismet, a 1955 MGM adaptation of the hit Broadway musical. The scoreincludes two standards, "Baubles, Bangles, and Beads" and "Stranger inParadise," but the blend of Broadway razzmatazz and Middle Eastern culture is,to say the least, awkward. (One comic number revolves around a man about to havehis hand chopped off for thievery.) There's plenty here for musical fans toenjoy, and a well-cast Howard Keel does his chesty best as an itinerant poet whofast-talks his way to riches; this was Keel's last starring role in an MGMmusical. Unfortunately, Vic Damone is a wet rag as the young prince, the garishEastman Color photography has not aged well, and director Vincente Minnelliseems not entranced by the material. Still, there is something fascinating aboutDolores Gray belting out "Baghdad, this irresistible town!" as though singingthe praises of Vegas or Monte Carlo. --Robert Horton ... Read more

Reviews (13)

Worth it only for Gray
This Vincente Minnelli has acquired a somewhat bewildering reputation almost solely because it was one of the few M-G-M musicals the fantastic Dolores Gray ever appeared in. She does have a wonderful number here in her iconic "Not Since Nineveh," where she really lets loose, but the rest of this film is so inferior you'll see almost immediately why M-G-M made so few major musicals after this disappointment. Almost everyone is miscast, even to Howard Keel who seems to be really enjoying himself immensely as Hajj even though he (and almost everyone else in the film) doesn't look in the slightest Middle Eastern. Nor does anyone else in the film, from the largely wasted here but still breathtakingly beautiful Ann Blyth to Sebastian Cabot harrumphing around as the Wazir. The only one who does is Vic Damone, who is about the worst actor ever (despite his lovely rendition of "The Night of My Life").

Worst of all, this edition from Turner Classics doesn't even bother to letterbox the Cinemascope compositions, so even despite the terribly distracting panning-and-scanning you can't see very easily who's talking to whom. This is best forgotten (unless you want to see the one number with Gray in all her oomphy glory).

great old musical
After their success in 1954's ROSE MARIE, Howard Keel and Ann Blyth were re-teamed for 1955's KISMET, a charming tale based on the Broadway hit with songs derived from musical movements by Borodin.

They are joined by Dolores Gray and Vic Damone, who add the sex and comedy to this tale of a vagabond con-man and his lovely daughter.

Blyth is charming in her "Baubles Bangles and Beads", and in duet with Damone in "Stranger In Paradise". Gray lends her considerable vocal talents to "Not Since Nineveh" and "Bored".

Expertly directed by Vincente Minnelli and featuring stunning costumes and sets, KISMET is a lavish feast for the ear and eye.

MGM's FInest!
Reviews...reviews....what's in a review ? My unprofessional opinion may not count as well as the super paid pros, but each knows what makes him/her FEEL GOOD ! And this MGM lavish musical does make the grade.

Howard Keel is as usual, his vibrant self and carries out some of the lesser known tunes quite appealingly. Both Ann Blyth - luscious and Delores Gray - superb. But my "right for casting" hit ( despite a few critics ) goes to Vic Damone. "Wet rag" ? ....I hardly think so. He portrays the sober young Caliph with more insight than most (including himself) give him credit. Bravo Damone! "This is My Beloved" and "Stranger in Paradise" rate MGM it's flair for film. But his "Night of My Nights" - bedazzling. You've won my Mesopotamian HEART!

Great feel good movie. Wish it was on DVD
I love this movie!
I grew up watching it repeatedly, with my mother (Ann Blyth look-a-like, and same hair style) singing these songs, while dancing around the room, sometimes joined by my father, so I can't say that I ever really paid any attention to how silly the movie itself was. :)
I love their versions of those classic songs better than any I've heard done by the correct kind of people, but I could have some bias.
Anyway, watching it still makes me laugh, dance alittle, and sing, but the VHS is rather awful in quality. I truely hope this film is transfered with better care to DVD format soon.

A Wretched Transfer
If you've ever seen the laser disc (which was a near perfect transfer) of this title, you'd be horrified at this VHS transfer. Pan and scan travesty. Awful color. Fair audio. I only bought it to have a complete version after a malfunctioning laser disc player scrated one side of my LVD version beyond recovery. Hopefully this title will be decently transferred to DVD some day. ... Read more