Reviews (3)

An often immitated story line.
Boris is a quack prestidigitator whose premonitions suddenly begin to come true. One of the first of these kinds of stories possibly, but often immitated since. Reminicent of a One Step Beyond story. Worth a look though.

Karloff in excellent form!
Not too long ago, the classic early-sixties horror/suspense/crime series "Thriller" ended a highly-edited run on The Sci-Fi Channel, where it was tucked into the wee hours of the morning. To its credit, Sci-Fi showed all of the series' episodes, horror and non-horror, and in their original order, which made this episode all the more significant, as it was the first truly supernatural installment in the series, and an excellent one. The story is conventional but very cleverly done and wonderfully atmospheric, paving the way for such great entries as Robert Bloch's "The Hungry Glass" and Robert Arthur's "Pigeons from Hell." Karloff, who had a tendency to ham up such roles, is excellent here as the magician/seer who suddenly finds himself cursed with terrible powers. The ending, while unsurprising, is memorably tragic. One of the best!

Good Episode of a Sublime, Though Sadly Forgotten, TV Show
True fans of Horror who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s love this show. Even Stephen King, in his book DANSE MACABRE (p. 216 of the oversized paperback), calls this "the best horror series ever put on TV."

The show's host, Boris Karloff, obviously no stranger to the horror genre, stars in this particular episode, "The Prediction." It is a story about a second-rate magician (Karloff) whose "stage" predictions about the future suddenly start to come true. But when the old prognosticator warns that a secretly planned elopement will result in death, his assistant and her fiance think it's all a smoke-and-mirrors attempt to end their relationship. Though the ending to this story is a bit predictable (excuse the pun), the strong performance by Karloff makes it definitely worth watching. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Adult Thriller episode~
This episode is not as much fun or nearly as creepy as other Thrillers,but the acting is superb.This was more of an adult presentation~~no thunder & lightening & old,dark mansions in this one!Worth owning,tho'!

One of the better "Thriller" episodes.
"The Terror in Teakwood" is a typical horror installment of "Thriller" in every regard. The horrific and supernatural elements are presented in a matter-of-fact, Jacques-Tourneur fashion, with the primary emphasis placed on telling a good story. Such an approach renders the frightening moments all the more frightening. Whatever happened to this approach?

The story is an imaginative variation on "The Hands of Orlac," with a dangerously obsessed pianist stealing the hands of his dead rival from the graveyard. The pianist is played by none other than Guy Rolfe of William Castle's 1961 "Mr. Sardonicus." Not the scariest "Thriller" episode, by any means, but scary enough.

Creepy Episode of a Sublime, Though Sadly Forgotten, TV Show
True fans of Horror who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s love this show. Even Stephen King, in his book DANSE MACABRE (p. 216 of the oversized paperback), calls this "the best horror series ever put on TV." The show's host, Boris Karloff, was obviously no stranger to the genre, and he even starred in several notable episodes.

This episode, "The Terror in Teakwood," tells the story of a pianist and composer who is obsessed with proving to the public that he can best his late rival. He is eventually able to perform his rival's most difficult pieces, but only when wearing the severed hands of the deceased rival like a pair of gloves. Of course, such gruesome acts ultimately lead to the jealous pianist's demise....

This is a particularly eerie and morbid episode, so fans of the genre should definitly find here those chills they seek. Also worth noting is that the episode was directed by Paul Henreid, who is well known to fans of classic cinema as the actor who played Victor Laszlo in 1942's CASABLANCA. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Olivia was wonderful in this movie!
I loved this movie. Olivia was transformed from a teenage girl to an lonely aged woman. Her acting abilities were breath taking! I loved the ending and how the son walk over to her and asked "may I have this dance"? "mother"! I cried for 10 minutes just thinking about how much she loved him and never thought that he would ever accept her as his mother. Corrine(whatever her name was, the one who lost her baby and raised him, made me sick, because she knew the truth and would not let that woman have her son! I have a journel full of Classic movies that I watched as a child and this has a big star next to it. One of my favorites, but there are sooo many of these movies that I love, I could go on for days.

Superlative story of mother love
"To Each His Own" would have to be one of the greatest of the 1940's tearjerkers and quite rightfully won Olivia de Havilland the 1946 Academy Award for Best Actress. Never has she been in better form and she delivers a many layered performance filled with love, sorrow, regret , frustration and ultimate fulfillment.

Olivia plays Jo Norris a young girl who falls in love with a young flyer in World War One and has his baby only by a cruel twist of fate to be deprived of the joy of raising him herself. She goes through the little boy's childhood being seen as his "aunt" as he is being raised by her former beau played by Phillip Terry. If ever there was a heartfelt performance given it was this one by Olivia and later in time as she becomes a successful business woman and tries to get her son back she realises that she has possibly lost him forever. By a strange coincidence she again meets him as an adult during the war in London and with the help of Lord Dasham (wonderfully played by character actor Roland Culver), her fire watching companion, she is finally reunited with her boy Grigsy" and is able to let him know the truth about his parentage while seeing him marry his girlfriend.

The whole story is guaranteed to bring tears to your eyes and I know it never fails to move me. The beautiful scene at the conclusion when Olivia's son finally realises who Miss Norris actually is, is the emotional climax of the film and is one of the finest pieces of acting from a 40's melodrama I have experienced.

John Lund in his film debut plays both Olivia's flyer beau in the first world war and also her son in the later part of the story. He carries off this quite difficult challenge admirably and he makes the two characters just that little bit different while retaining some similiarities so that his two roles both have a realism about them. His is a wonderful performance overraul and his presence really aids the film in general.

Without a doubt though it is Olivia de Havilland's film all the way and never have I liked her more than in this role. It is said it is her own favourite performance and considering some of her other sterling work in films such as "The Snake Pit' "The Heiress" and of course "Gone With The Wind" that is a tall order to fill indeed.

The film is also another truimph for talented director Mitchell Leisen who has produced some of my favourite films. His guiding hand of such a sensitive story can be clearly seen and I feel he is never given the true recognition as the great director that he was.

Enjoy "To Each His Own" as I always do and make sure you have plenty of hankerchiefs at the ready, this film classic is a guaranteed weepie of the first order. Enjoy

Olivia is great
I love classic movies and this one is no exception. Wonderful story. I give this one a million stars.

Oscar winning performance by Olivia de Havilland
One of the best performances by Olivia de Havilland, along with her roles in Gone with the Wind, the Snake Pit, My Cousin Rachel, and the Heiress. She was also wonderful playing opposite Errol Flynn, especially in her role as Maid Marion in the Adventures of Robin Hood.

This film is an excellent one about mother love. For most of her life, Josephine, nicknamed Jody wants to be reunited with her son who she gave up, in a cruel twist of fate. She falls in love in one day with a World War I pilot played by John Lund and spends the night with him, resulting in a pregnancy. The writers are careful to make sure the audience does not think it only a one night stand, especially on the part of the pilot. The love letter that Jody reads confirms that he is also in love with her and is anxious to be reunited with her after his tour of duty.

He is killed and Jody resolves to keep the baby. But a twist of fate prevents this and Jody is separated from the baby (Gregory) for many years. She does spend some time with the baby, until jealousy of Corinne over Jody and her husband prevents her from seeing the baby. The movie goes through various plot twists until the tearjerker ending, when Jody and her now adult son are reunited (the son is also played by Lund).

The acting of the supporting cast is uniformly good. I would have wished for a more subtle Corinne: Mary Anderson gave a somewhat over the top performance playing this unsympathetic character--in two scenes she shrieks "never, never, never." She has been better in other movies. Ronald Culver is great as Lord Desham and I found myself hoping that Jody and Desham would get married after the reunion between Jody and her son. I kept thinking if only she had met Desham before she met that pilot.

One quibble: Olivia de Havilland's makeup as the older Jody. The younger Jody was quite attractive and the older Jody was supposedly only in her forties. She was made up to look in her late fifties. If this movie were remade, Jody would look more youthful in her "middle age."

This is a wonderful film, especially for fans of Olivia de Havilland.

Sorry folks, I found this film to be really corny!
I watched this the other night and did not shed one tear or need any tissues. This movie was so silly and unrealistic, at times I was about laughing, and half way through, I was ready for it to be over. I like Olivia de Havilland in other things...she was superb in Gone With the Wind and The Heiress. In this, I felt she was just very strange and not very good. The whole story was too unrealistic. Her father's reaction to her pregnancy was not at all believable. The guy she fell in love with had about as much charm and charisma as a mannequin. He was doofy and what Olivia's character saw in him, I will never know.

I think this had possibilities to be a better story. If it was written by someone with more skill, who could be a little more subtle in some areas, and if the actors were chosen better, I may have liked it. The woman who ended up with her baby as her son, well, she was just a bad actress. So was her husband. The scene on the stairway, where it all comes out that he still loves Jodie after all these years, well, it is all so stilted and put on. The scenes later where she finally meets her son as a grown man, well, how unrealistic, and how handy that he just happens to see the scrapbook, and later put it all together, and realize she is really his mother with so much nonchalance, well it was just corny.

I love classic film, and after watching this, I was reminded again that there is good classic film and there is bad classic film. This is one of the "bad" classic films that I will not waste my time watching again. I was so glad when the whole silly story was finally over! ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Archaic but amusing.
This comedy/musical extravaganza, set mostly aboard an ultra-modern luxury liner, does not hold up as well as most of W.C. Fields' films. It is overlong and rather dull in spots, but several funny scenes (with Fields, of course) almost compensate. Surpringly, the best scene is that in which Bob Hope sings, for the first time, the song that has become indelibly associated with him for the past 63 years, "Thanks For the Memory". It is a duet with Shirley Ross, and it is done not as a funny novelty song, but as a poignant one. Worth seeing.

Ship race through icebergs, W.C. Fields at the wheel
This movie has it's good points. It was made with some special effects that may seem primitive by todays standards, but they work reasonably well and are not overdone. There is an animated splash of water that refuses to go back into the ocean and instead dances to the music. If it were in color it would be considered a good video for MTV. W.C Fields is good as two brothers. Bob Hope is adequate. Both have much better films. The best part of watching this is to see how our styles and standards have changed. When Bob Hope was singing "Thanks for the Memory," I found myself looking at the silly hat the girl who sang with him was wearing. Another funny hat was worn by the lady opera singer. She even carried a spear while she warbled. Imagine 60 years from now when somebody reviews Garth Brooks latest video and finds themselves laughing at his crazy hat and that microphone growing out of the side of his head. Styles change, but this is an okay movie with Fields in a flying motor scooter and Ben Blue doing a mean Charleston. If you like dance numbers, Martha Raye does a fun and energetic workout with some gymnastic style tosses. Bob is better in "Paleface," "Son of Paleface," "Fancy Pants," "Seven Little Foys," "Beau James" and any of the "Road" pictures. W.C. Fields was better in "The Bank Dick" and "My Little Chickadee." Tom Willett

This movie is well acted and has wonderful songs
The Big Boadcast is with no doubt the best of the four broadcasts. It is splendidly acted with an all star cast. Buzz Fielding (Bob Hope) is a broadcaster on a ship trying to escape from his three ex-wives, with his finacee Dorothy Windham(Dorothy Lamour) Thanks for the Memory was first sung here, and it is Bob Hope's first movie. Shirley Ross is a splendid Cleo Fielding, and Martha Raye does a marvelous job as Martha Bellows the daughter of S.B. Bellows (W.C. Fields) Great dance numbers and songs, I fully recomend it. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Great TV, lots of fun.
I recently ordered three of these tapes from Amazon.com and I'm not disappointed. This one has great atmosphere, Boris steals the show of course. Dick York is great too. Nice shock ending. The subject matter was very uncommon for early 60s television, a rare living dead story. Ooops, don't want to give away the ending! Classic TV horror, one of the best. Pleasant screams!

The first horror story I ever saw; it scarred me for life
I cannot believe I found this, because "The Incredible Doktor Markesan" was the first horror story I can remember seeing. More to the point, I remember the ending, which freaked me out so much that I could not stand to watch "Bewitched" because all I could think of is what happened to Dick York and Carolyn Kearney at the end of this story. This was an episode of "Thriller," the suspense anthology that aired on NBC from 1960-1962 and was hosted by Boris Karloff, who also plays the title character in this 1962 story directed by Robert Florey ("Murders in the Rue Morgue").

My memory of the end of this show was so intense that all I remembered about the rest of the episode was that the young married couple were told not to go exploring in the house and they did not listen (my parents could not have possibly known their five year old was watching "Thriller"; watching Karloff would have meant nothing to me). It turns out the good Doktor has invented a serum that wakes the dead by turning them into zombies. When his nephew and his bride come to live with Markesan, their curiosity gets the better of them with horrible results.

I do not claim to be objective about this story because it literally scarred me for life. Watching the ending again, for the second time ever, totally creeped me out and it has been forty years. Eventually I got up enough nerve to actually watch the parts of "The Wizard of Oz" with the wicked witch, but I have needed the intervening decades to screw up enough courage to watch "The Incredible Doktor Markesan" again. This is probably the only episode of "Thriller" I ever watched, which makes perfect sense to me. I just cannot believe I found this (shiver).

Classic Episode From A Classic TV Show.
I was overjoyed when Universal issued this along with 5 other episodes of THRILLER a few years ago as this was one of my favorite shows from the early days of TV. It lasted only 2 years on NBC but not before many fine segments were aired featuring a number of well known actors, writers and directors. I had taped several episodes when a local station ran them late night many years ago. It's always a pleasant surprise when something is as good as you remember it. Unfortunately the copies I taped were not in the best of shape so it was especially disappointing when Universal chose not to release any more in the series. Many fine stories were not included such as THE HUNGRY GLASS with William Shatner, PIGEONS FROM HELL based on a story by Robert E. Howard of CONAN fame, and LA STREGA a tale of witchcraft with a young Ursula Andress. The ones that were chosen seem to be based on contemporary recognition factors of the stories and performers which is understandable but unfortunate. Perhaps someday TV LAND or one of the cable channels will make the series available. It's too good to waste. Of the ones released this episode is, in my opinion, the best of the lot and one of the best from the entire series. It is based on a story by H.P. Lovecraft disciple August Derleth and directed by veteran Robert Florey (MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE, THE BEAST WITH 5 FINGERS). Boris Karloff is unforgettable as the title character while Dick York is fun to see outside of BEWITCHED. It's the details such as camera angles, lighting and acting that add up in this old-fashioned approach to horror and while the story may be predictable the results are highly effective. For those of you who want to be chilled as opposed to grossed out then check this out along with the other 5 in the series. Perhaps someone could persuade Stephen King (who loved this show as a kid) to use his considerable clout to persuade Universal to release more episodes. I'm sure they would listen to him.

The best TV Horror circa 1960
I first saw this in the early 70s when a local station was thoughtfully running the series every night of the week right at bedtime. This episode is on my short list of the best of the best of this series. (Others that spring to mind: Guillotine; Kill My Love; The Remarkable Mrs. Hawk; Masquerade)

The other reviewers here mention the predictability of the ending, and for certain, the producers do all they can to annihilate the surprise factor. They show the last few seconds of this particular episode in a 2 minute teaser that precedes the feature on this video, just throwing away the one hour buildup that is to follow for the sake of a glitzy montage. (Idiots!) Beware!! --Fast forward without looking, if you can, to the beginning proper of the tape.

I think the ending is predictable the way the ending of a trailblazing movie like, say, Psycho is now. It doesn't take a prophet to see the past with 20-20 vision. In it's day, however, the convention that a protagonist must make it to the closing credits of a popular entertainment was only beginning to be challenged by movies like Psycho, and on TV, by The Twilight Zone, and Thriller. Just those two. I recall clearly my dismay, indeed my horror, the first time I saw this episode, with no hint of what was to come. So maybe the failure here is the failure of the other writers to adequately "work with" the episode, as they would have to the original Nosferatu, Frankenstein or Metropolis.

I give it a very solid 5 stars.

Superb crawler of flesh!
Others may give this episode a "so~so" review,but I liken it to being trapped in a nightmare while wanting to run for help!The atmosphere is dank & musty,the acting is sharp,Karloff is simply magnificent & the black & white photography only enhances the story.DON'T MISS THIS ONE! ... Read more

Amazon.com

Decades before Brad Pitt starred in Meet Joe Black, the story of a vacationing Grim Reaper was adapted for the screen from a popular play. Frederick March, playing Death, disguises himself as a European prince and spends three days with an amenable duke at his palatial estate. Women are instantly attracted to the Lord of the Underworld, but back off when they sense his true nature--that is, all women except for the beautiful young innocent (Evelyn Venable), who is destined to marry the duke's son.

Filmed in 1934, this is more sensual than the Pitt remake, though the acting style is more mannered than some audiences may enjoy. But at only 78 minutes, the emotional content, as well as the ending, feels more real than the lengthy '90s version. --Rochelle O'Gorman ... Read more

Reviews (20)

Saw orginal, and both remakes,Original Best
I was a young lady when I saw Fredic March in Death Takes A Holiday, I was a young mother when I saw the remake with Monte Markham and now as a grandmother I saw Meet Joe Black. Which one is the best in my mind? Mr. Pitt and Mr. Markham Can't hold a candle to the style of Mr. March.The ending is still as touching and chilling as it was the first time I saw it. I have seen it many times since and it still has the same effect on me. It's a wonderful movie, a bit dark but consider the era in which it was made just adds to the effect the movie wants to parlay to it's audience.It's a timeless treasure, not to be missed. You've seen the rest now see the best!!!!!

Poor. Whereas "Meet Joe Black" is long & boring,
"Death Takes a Holiday" is merely boring. This is not a knock on Fredric March or Brad Pitt, both fine actors. It is simply creepy yet too one dimensional to be taken seriously. A play that did not transfer well. As for Death, aparently he likes to vacation with the stupid, idle, rich rather than real people. Ironically, these stiffs are already half dead. They have nothing to say yet prattle on endlessly about it. Death isn't much better. I fell asleep & had to rewind a bit. It didn't matter. Such excellent suject matter squandered twice 64 years apart. I really do like the old movie classics. This one... disappointing.

Meet Prince Sirki
Sixty-four years before we met death disguised as "Joe Black"(Brad Pitt), Prince Sirki amused himself among the living for a three day holiday. Although not quite the lavish production of it's remake "Meet Joe Black", "Death Takes a Holiday" is a wonderful romantic fantasy from 1934, and is shot beautifully in black and white cinematogrpahy.

A wealthy and aristocratic family, and their houseguests, are visited by the 'grim reaper'...'the old man'...DEATH! Only the head of the household knows who Prince Sirki really is, and why he is there. They strike a deal, and the Prince has 3 days to learn why he is so feared by the human race. For those three days, he lives among them, experiencing and taking in all he can of human ways, and what's more..NO ONE dies while Death is on holiday. Weapons of war malfunction, accident victims walk away without a scratch, people can't even commit suicide when they try! But here's the catch..Sirki falls for the beautiful and deeply pensive Grazia. Will he take her with him to that other world when his time has expired? Does the power of love win out in the end?

The great Fredric March gives an exquiste performance as "Death" trying to adjust to life.It is so beautifully filmed and the performances were so brillant at bringing the marvelous characters to life, that it was like watching a play. Although a serious subject, there are many moments that will make you smile, and in the end, you may view the subject of death a little differently.

If you love the classic films of the thirties, this is a must see. It is also nice to have as a companion to "Meet Joe Black". If you are looking for this on DVD, it is included in the 2 disc "Ultimate Edition" of Joe Black. That way you can have "death" come to you in the form of Fredric March OR Brad Pitt!...What a way to go!...Enjoy....Laurie

Mysterious,very interesting, magnetizing
A very rare presentation of a story, even more rare a captivating mind boggling series of events. A story that can frighten you while holding a deep interest. Should be a movie that will be a classic for all time. Anyone interested in parapsychology, the "other Side", or even interests of and about death would surely appreciate this movie. The story presents "Death" who may spare or take. "Death" who comes for a visit to feel as a "Man", who came, to leave with an experience for himself(Death). A powerful moving story that can "educate" the viewer and possibly change their view of life and "Death". A "Must See" movie that one would remember for a long time. Possibly the movie may affect one forever , all while waiting, Yes, to meet and finally see "Death" again.

Death lives!
Rather archaic, and a bit difficult to sit through, this is still a fascinating film. On re-screening it recently, I found that some scenes had lingered in my memory for 43 years. Death takes human form temporarily to satisfy his curiosity about why we humans fear him so much. During his "holiday", no one dies. The idea that a moratorium on death for a few days would not become immediately obvious and would not cause screaming headlines worldwide cannot be taken seriously, nor can the entire film. (Check out the climactic announcement, "He is -- Death!!" Very melodramatic.) This is a film that requires a huge suspension of disbelief, but if you do so, you will enjoy it. Fredric March was an unusual choice to portray Death, but he does his typically fine job. Science fiction writer Fred Pohl has said that seeing this film in his early teens caused him to not fear death. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Of all the screenplays Preston Sturges wrote for Paramount before becoming the greatest comic director of his generation, 1937's Easy Living seems the most like something he would have filmed himself--a satirical fable about chance, class, and the absurdity of the American dream. Jean Arthur is a New York secretary riding to work atop a double-decker bus when a fur coat miraculously descends from the sky and settles on her shoulders. The fur, however, has not dropped from Olympus but from the hand of a millionaire (Edward Arnold) who has just tossed it from a nearby roof to punish his wife. But as if it were a magic fleece (the mythical reference is almost certainly intended by the erudite Sturges), it makes its wearer invincible, conferring an aura of prosperity, celebrity, and power on the previously average working girl. No folk tale is complete without a prince: Sturges's is the millionaire's son, Ray Milland, who is trying to pass as an apprentice stockbroker. Directed with a light, elegant touch by Mitchell Leisen, the film lacks the crazy energy it would have had under Sturges's own hand, but this remains one of the great screwball comedies (in a year that also saw The Awful Truth and Nothing Sacred). --Dave Kehr ... Read more

Reviews (3)

A RARE COMEDY DELIGHT.
In retrospect, this little 1937 flick holds up as one of the funniest screwball comedies of the thirties. Loud millionaire J.B. Ball tells his extravagantly aggressive wife (Mary Nash) that she cannot keep her $58,000 Sable coat. Ball throws it out of the upper window of their mansion where it happens to fall right on top of bewildered Mary Smith (Arthur), who's travelling on an open-air bus. Mary's a poor gal who works for a magazine similar to BOY'S LIFE. Arnold is seen buying Mary a new hat by pussy-cat faced gossip Franklin Pangborn and soon she gets more than just a hat: practically all of New York is at her feet. The scene where she and Milland wreak havoc at the now-obsolete automat is truly inspired and hilarious, as is Luis Alberni - as Louis Louis - when he shows Mary her new "quarters" -- i.e. "And make it snappa...Thaank Yewww". The rather offbeat cast works wonders with the great Preston Sturges script: Milland and Nash make a weird son and wife to the always good (and always loud) Edward Arnold, but somehow it makes for better screwball; the whacko cast helps push the one-joke material through to a happy finish, and the movie helped establish Jean Arthur as a comedienne of the first rank. P.S. While listening to Arthur's wonderfully off-beat voice, I realised it reminded me a little of Julie Harris (!).

a movie for today
Day-traders alert. Cut yourself on every line of this witty, fast-paced and knowing movie that glories in the talents of Jean Arthur, et al. As tight as a fist, construction-wise, it traverses ostentation, banking (and ostentation), stock market manipulation (and ostentation) and that thing called real-honest-to-goodness, in-the-belly hunger. Arnold, Milland and the (forgive me) unnamed actor who plays the hotel proprietor (should have stayed cook) to hilarious effect are all wonderful. But Jean Arthur demonstrates yet again what an underrated talent she was: energy, sweet timing and mercurial delights - poured into the camera.

A fine, early screenplay by Preston Sturges!
Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, a baby Ray Milland, and the beginnings of what became known as the Sturges Players combine for a tight little screwball comedy. This was not available on video until just recently, but if you enjoy the old madcap comedies, ala MY MAN GODFREY, NOTHING SACRED, and Preston Sturges romps like PALM BEACH STORY, THE LADY EVE, etc, I'm confident in recommending EASY LIVING. I didn't notice Sturges wrote it until the final credits, but that didn't alter my feelings. This is an under-appreciated jewel! ... Read more

Reviews (5)

SCARIEST MOVIE EVER
I saw this movie once in my life....in 1965. I had nightmares about it for twenty years. Absolutely the most spine-tingling movie of all time. Not bloody type of scary, DEMON kind of scary.

A Thriller worth seeing
When I fisrt rented this video, I thought it would be hum-drum and boring. But I found it to be suspenseful, interesting, entertaining and definitely worth seeing. It's about a young man(William Shatner) who goes to visit his aunt who just recently married a man much younger than herself, he comes to warn her of an 'evil' painting that brings certain death to all who posses it. But the painting does not strike without warning, before the unlucky party is to die, the scythe in the painting bears blood, and its meaning is certain death. The ending was the best. Just when you think you've figured the plot, a surprise twist occurs. Starring William Shatner and hosted by the great Boris Karloff, and written by Robert Bloch, the author of Psycho, this is a thriller worth dying for.

Surprisingly better than average- even thrilling
When I fisrt rented this video, I thought it would be hum-drum and boring. But I found it to be suspenseful, interesting, entertaining and definitely worth seeing. It's about a young man(William Shatner) who goes to visit his aunt who just recently married a man much younger than herself, he comes to warn her of an 'evil' painting that brings certain death to all who posses it. But the painting does not strike without warning, before the unlucky party is to die, the scythe in the painting bears blood, and its meaning is certain death. The ending was the best. Just when you think you've figured the plot, a surprise twist occurs. Starring William Shatner and hosted by the great Boris Karloff, and written by Robert Bloch, the author of Psycho, this is a thriller worth dying for.

Good Episode of a Sublime, Though Sadly Forgotten, TV Show
True fans of Horror who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s love this show. Even Stephen King, in his book DANSE MACABRE (p. 216 of the oversized paperback), calls this "the best horror series ever put on TV." The show's host, Boris Karloff, was obviously no stranger to the genre, and he even starred in several notable episodes.

This particular episode, "The Grim Reaper," is a pretty good one. The story centers a wealthy writer of horror fiction and her visiting nephew. The nephew's plan is to "bump off" his old aunt, using the legend of a cursed painting of the Grim Reaper--a painting the aunt has recently purchased--as his cover. But, of course, there is more to the "legend" behind the painting than the nephew realizes....

As with all the good and great episodes of THRILLER, this one does chill the bones. Also notable are a pre-STAR TREK performance by William Shatner, as the nephew, and a pre-GILLIGAN'S ISLAND performance by Natalie Schafer as the wealthy aunt. Definitely one of the THRILLER episodes that fans of the genre, especially fans of classic horror, won't want to miss.

best move to with the grim reaper so far
a cursed painting of the grim reaper comes to life ... Read more

Reviews (6)

mesmerizing marlene
If anyone else but Marlene Dietrich had played the lead in this film, the film would have been awful! Dietrich triumphs in a role no-one would have predicted. mysterious, mesmerizing, seductive, funny, and finally moving as the loyal gypsy(!) Lyddia, Dietrich makes you overlook the films flaws. At times the film drags by, some supporting players seem to have cotton in their mouths as they speak, and some of the dialogue is inane. Through it all, Dietrich is the soul of this movie, holding it all together in spite of the flaws, to make the whole thing work. Worth watching as a romantic piece of Hollywood escapism, and for seeing Dietrich as the fine actress she is.

A very beautiful tale
Marlene Dietrich and Ray Milland star in GOLDEN EARRINGS, a story of gypsies and theives, set against the backdrop of Germany in WW2.

Ray Milland stars as Ralph Denistoun, a British spy in Germany, who is arranging to meet a fellow spy in Stuttgart to steal Hitler's formula for poison gas.

Lost in the Black Forest, he meets a bedraggled gypsy woman, whom he dubbs Lydia (Marlene Dietrich). Lydia's knowledge of the Black Forest, and her quick-acting ways are things that will help Ralph on his mission. He decides to disguise himself as a gypsy and travel to Stuttgart with Lydia under the ruse.

Based on the novel by Yolanda Foldes, GOLDEN EARRINGS is an immensely entertaining and very romantic film.

Available seperately or in a box set with SEVEN SINNERS and PITTSBURGH.

Golden Earrings is a golden oldie of a Movie!
Miss Dietrich is a wonderful, colorful gyspy in this film... you can tell she had fun playing this role. Mr. Milland is good as the officer trying not to fall in love with Miss Dietrich. This is Miss Dietrich film all the way... her character will put a magic spell on you. Sit back and enjoy this film!

What a hilarious gypsy!
For starters, this movie took me ages to find. I had to order it. Second, I had decided by the time it came in that I didn't want it anymore. Silly me. This movie is wonderful. Romance, adventure, suspense, and even comedy. The comedic moments were fantastic. Some of them weren't intended to be comic, it appears. The moment where Ray Milland first meets Marlene Dietrich is great. He points a gun at her, and she is calm as always. Then, she decides that he is HER man. The water spirits sent him. Well, they're going to eat fish stew. Seeing as Marlene has given Ray the spoon, she uses her hands. She sticks them right in that nasty stew and crams it in her mouth. Ray looks a wee bit sick. When Marlene wants to get romantic (and almost succeeds), Ray says, "What is that ghastly smell?" Marlene grunts (I guess it's a grunt) and tells him it's her hair, which he smells. Jasmine, violet, and cod liver oil (or something) are what she has put in her hair. Yeccchhh. That is one of the funniest scenes in the film. Romance abounds too, but to start with, it's all one-sided. Marlene rubs Ray with her hands so much, he asks her if she has considered sitting on them. They kiss eventually. Marlene sings (I wouldn't call it singing, it's more of a deep moaning) the title song in Hungarian while playing a zither. Talent abounds in this movie, doesn't it? This is one of the greatest movies I've seen, and I recommend it to everyone.

A wonderful escapism movie
This charming movie is one that I take off my shelf and watch from time to time. This movie is definitely an escapism World War II movie, yet even today it's great for that purpose. It's a movie that keeps one interested from start to finish. It's well made and black and white adds even more to the fantasy. The plot is good and the love story is great. Although Marlene Dietrich is portrayed as a semi-dirty gypsy, she still appears glamorous. Ray Milland is very handsome as the leading man. It's a movie that just makes you feel good. They just don't make 'em like they used to. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Nice twist on Poe.
This is the E. A. Poe story with a twist. I liked it alot, had me guessing what would happen next. Clever pop-open coffin setup. The specter's face was very effective. Well done twist to a classic Poe story.

Good Episode of a Sublime, Though Sadly Forgotten, TV Show
True fans of Horror who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s love this show. Even Stephen King, in his book DANSE MACABRE (p. 216 of the oversized paperback), calls this "the best horror series ever put on TV." The show's host, Boris Karloff, is obviously no stranger to the horror genre, and he co-stars in this particular episode, "The Premature Burial."

With only a vague resemblance to the Poe story of the same name, this story concerns a man who suffers from catalepsy and consequently becomes obsessed with ensuring that he is never buried alive during a seizure. But unbenknownst to him, his cuckolding young wife has other plans. Karloff appears as a medical doctor who is good friends with the cataleptic gentleman and who eventually uncovers the truth about the wife's sinister doings. All in all, it's an entertaining little horror story with an interesting and suspenseful climax. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

Horrifyingly Amusing "Thriller" Episode!
This 1961 installment of the Boris Karloff-hosted hour-long TV anthology series, "Thriller", is one of the best of the lot. Starring Elizabeth Montgomery and Tom Poston (along with a creepy John Carradine), "Masquerade" is delightfully "tongue-in-cheek" from start to finish. With a great, great twist ending too!

Liz and Tom are stranded in a severe rain storm, and stop by the nearest residence for shelter. Too bad -- for them that is. Because this "residence" is occupied by some rather odd inhabitants (Carradine and family).

This plot has a very familiar ring. It's the same storyline that exists in the feature film "The Old Dark House", the outstanding 1932 horror classic. But in "Masquerade", the "horror" is heavily tinged with humor (mostly humor in fact -- but still a little scary around the edges at times). A nice blend of scary images and humor make this episode quite fun to see.

The very first thing you'll notice as this episode begins is something that is distinctly familiar to nearly all horror movie fans -- that being the house that was used as the location for this "Thriller" program. It's none other than Norman Bates' homestead from the film "Psycho" (which was released just 16 months prior to the airing of this TV episode)! It *does* seem rather strange (IMO) for this by-now highly-recognizable "Psycho" house to be shown in a TV episode.

With lightning illuminating the house and thunder crashing during the heavy rainstorm, the producers of this "Thriller" episode did an excellent job of photographing this famous old house, and creating an eerie setting at the beginning of the program. The famous dwelling looks even spookier in this "Thriller" episode (if that's possible) than it did in Mr. Hitchcock's movie.

"Masquerade" first aired on network TV on October 30, 1961 -- the 43rd episode of the "Thriller" series, which ran for just two seasons (67 total episodes).

This VHS video comes via "MCA/Universal Home Video" and runs approx. 50 minutes in Full-Frame (1.33:1) format. The audio is Hi-Fi Mono. The video opens with a short "Trailer" ad for the six MCA/Universal VHS videos in this "Thriller" series. Each video contains one (approx. 50-minute) episode from the short-lived 1960s Boris Karloff series. They're all pretty darn good too. Getting them all wouldn't be that bad of an idea. A much better idea than spending a stormy night in the "Psycho" house, at any rate. LOL! :)

Vampire comedy thriller
Film legend Boris Karloff hosts this horror television series. In this episode he invites us to update our image of vampires.

Stars Elizabeth Montgomery (Bewitched) and Tom Poston (Bob Newhart Show) as a couple of young smart and cynical honeymooners who take refuge in a forbidding old house (the Psycho set) which is occupied by a strange family. The story keeps you guessing whether the honeymoon couple or the somewhat mocking hosts including John Carradine (Hillbillies in a Haunted House) are the ones who've made a grave mistake.

If you can suspend disbelief this is a nerve-racking nail-biting story, if you can't it's just nerve-racking.

Excellent creepfest with laughs & bats,too!
I very much enjoyed this lighthearted "THILLER" episode & I must admit~~I didn't see the twist ending coming!Great performances by all!Highly Recommended!!!

can't touch this
Now to really view a horror sitcomof the 1960's and enjoy the thrillof it...What a shame these are not duplicated anymore. Horror todayis loaded with blood, violence,sex and same thing same thing. With Thriller the old fashionthrill is there. REMEMBER THEFIRST ROLLER-COASTER RIDE. Thissame experience will be felt withthis video of yesterdays gone by.

Great Episode of a Sublime, Though Sadly Forgotten, TV Show
True fans of Horror who grew up in the 1960s and 1970s love this show. Even Stephen King, in his book DANSE MACABRE (p. 216 of the oversized paperback), calls this "the best horror series ever put on TV." The show's host, Boris Karloff, was obviously no stranger to the genre, and he even starred in several notable episodes.

This particular episode, "Masquerade," is one of the tamer episodes horror-wise, but it still sets the creepy mood that was the trademark of the series. Also notable are pre-fame performances by Tom Poston and Elizabeth Montgomery, as well as a nice little turn by John Carradine. Unlike the majority of THRILLER episodes, it does contain humor and has a humorous twist ending that, by today's standards, probably seems a bit cliche. Nontheless, it is a very entertaining episode and well worth a watch. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

"The Worst of Shirley Temple"
This video contains practically nothing! I personally own this video (I received it as a birthday present) and personally hate it. The back cover is very dishonest because it says clips and inside features from Shirley Temple's first wedding-the clips are only 40 seconds. The video also contains "Pardon my Pups" and "Kid in Africa"-I have these films or shorts on tons of other Shirley videos. Don't waste your money!

You'll have to see it to believe it.
I don't quite know how to explain this video. It has three featurettes, two Baby Burlesks and a glimpse of Shirley Temple Black's wedding. The Baby Burlesks are--well, to a person who doesn't know what they're in for, it can be pretty harsh. I mean, it's cute, but strange that they would let toddlers do these things. They're take-offs of movies of the 1930s. I guess you would have to be from that time to really understand everything and get the jokes, but I guess it's kinda scary because I read that the Baby Burlesks producers didn't pay the children as much as they had promised and were cruel to them and had many dangerous scenes which the parents couldn't know about! I don't know this is true, but if it is, I don't really enjoy watching these shorts. I rates it only 1 star. The stories, I'm sorry to say after all the negative things I've said that the stories aren't very good. So if you want to buy this movie, you'd better be ready and armed.

In this movie there are a lot of cute scenes .
The main actress is in this movie is really cute and their are a lot of funny and cute scenes. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Unusual Yes, Good No
This strange, uneven little mix of musical and murder mystery is famous mainly for it's musical number "Sweet Marijuana" in which Gertrude Michael sings of getting stoned so her lover, if only in fantasy, will come "back to me", backed by showgirls apparently gowned as marijuana plants!! The song was cut from the TV print for decades and resurfaced in prints for college film theaters in the 1970's mainly as a selling point for the picture!! The number actually is not very good (frankly none of the numbers are with the exception of the Duke Ellington number which has an ugly, violent "comic" ending) but Ms. Michael is the best thing in the picture as a bitchy spurned lover who threatens revenge when old flame Carl Brisson becomes engaged to Kitty Carlisle. Best known as the catty socialite who loses Cary Grant to Mae West in I'M NO ANGEL, Michaels had a dissapointingly short career in major film roles (though she would act in pictures for decades) but here shows herself a fine nasty second-lead "other woman" in the mold that Gail Patrick would become famous for a few years later (ironically Ms. Patrick has a small but key part in this film.) Jack Oakie is essentially the lead in the film but his hammy comedy is much better served in second leads himself. This was a rare film appearance for Swedish singer Carl Brisson (he was well into middle age at the time) cast opposite Kitty Carlisle as the young lovers. Ms. Carlisle, quite glamorous but not especially beautiful, makes a rare screen appearance as well in a part that allows her to sing several numbers but does not allow her to display her warm comic sensibility that made her a popular stage star and later a TV personality. This movie is basically a Paramount knockoff on Warner Brothers' Bubsy Berkley musicals (the showgirls are even scantier clad here, often in faux nude outfits!) complete with Berkley's most famous chorine, Toby Wing, with a running bit part. The movie has a rather strange attitude with it's sympathy at times as well as several characters obstructing justice. The talented director Mitchell Leisen would later make several notable films but this early effort is not particularly memorable and without that reefer ode would have been long forgotten.

COCKTAILS FOR TWO...
And whacky tobaccy!! A bizarre, thoroughly fascinating excursion into 1934. This uniquely obscure and eccentric film isn't exactly a classic: but it probably merits cult status! Made just after the repeal of Prohibition (December 5, 1933) it legitimately sings the praises of being able to drink like "civilized ladies and men" in the standard by Sam Coslow entitled COCKTAILS FOR TWO. This movie also has an eclectic cast: Victor McLaglen, Jack Oakie, Gail Patrick, Kitty Carlisle, Jessie Ralph, Dorothy Stickney and that beautiful, elusive starlet - Toby Wing (one remembers her scene where she giggles, somehow). Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra provide the musical numbers which also includes SWEET MARIHAUNA, LULL ME TO SLEEP (!). Based upon the play by Earl Carroll and Rufus King, the plotline is obvious: just sit back and become mesmorized watching this high camp done in inimitable style!

murder at the vanities
Murder at the Vanities is an interesting and enjoyable musical mystery. The music runs the gamut from the familiar "Cocktails for Two" to the wierd "Sweet Marijuana" (this IS 1934!) to Duke Ellington jazzing up Lizst. Jack Oakie ends up with the cute Toby Wing at the end. The only downer is the European male star Carl Brisson seems miscast. Overall, this is a lot of fun. ... Read more

Reviews (13)

HEART-WARMING COMEDY-DRAMA WITH FRED AND BARBARA
Stanwyck is very appealing here as Lee Leander, the shoplifting gal who goes to stay with DA MacMurray and his family during the Christmas holidays. You'd have to be a grump not to like this sentimental blend of pathos, drama and zaniness which borders on Capra-corn yet never goes over the edge. Realistic are the scenes where Stanwyck experiences a warm, close-knit family (something she had never known) and the scene where she confronts her cold mother (Georgia Caine) is truly moving. Both Elizabeth Patterson and Beulah Bondi give superb performances which are honest and not heavy-laden. This "holiday-type" is great viewing for any time of the year! A superior Leisen directorial effort coupled with a terrific Sturges script make this nifty little 1940 flick a keeper!

Remember The Night
Well, what can I say?? It's an old movie and not
very interesting. I watched it once and probably
won't watch it again. This movie cannot compare
to some of the classics.

How about Winona Ryder doing a remake of this one?
Seriously, she would be excellent in the Stanwyck role in a modern redo of this script. It could even be part of her community service sentence! And she might learn a valuable life lesson, while she's still young, that is, if the Hollywood of today doesn't change the ending and still makes the lady shoplifter accountable. Really appreciated Fred MacMurray looking so tall, dark and handsome in this one--even more so than in Double Indemnity. I could see George Clooney playing this Asst. D.A. part, if he darkens his hair like Fred to appear a bit younger, and possibly taking the defendant to his old-fashioned home down South (George really does hail from Kentucky) to his farm to meet his family, instead of to Indiana. Or, maybe Matthew McConnaghey could take lady crook home to his family's cabin in the mountains. The other actress I could see in this part is Sandra Bullock, possibly paired with Tom Hanks, a modern-day, all around good guy. What a great comedy team they would make, who also can turn dramatic.

Please, Hollywood, just don't pair Jennifer Lopez with Antonio Banderas, or Madonna with Richard Gere. And not Julia Roberts, with Hugh Grant, oh, no -- she's too over the top for this part, and Hugh would have to take lady crook home to Blimey, and that's not allowed when trial is pending!

Sentimental Christmas treat for all to enjoy
"Remember The Night" is a Christmas regular in my home but really it's story could be viewed anytime of the year combining as it does equal portions of humour, family sentiment, goodwill to all men and great acting performances all nicely laced up with an important message about looking for the basic good in all people we encounter in our lives.

Produced in 1940 by Paramount Studios it was the first of two Christmas themed films that Barbara Stanwyck made in the 1940's (the other being the immortal "Christmas In Connecticut" in 1945), that have become holiday season regulars over the decades and live on in people's affections. I know the Christmas season would not be complete without these two wonderful classics as part of our Christmas viewing. Directed by the gifted Mitchell Leisen, a director who is not remembered half as much as he deserves to be, and boasting a superb screenplay by the legendary Preston Sturges, "Remember The Night" tells the spirited story of Lee Leander a street wise, fast talking shop lifter who is up on a charge for stealing from a jewelry store as the Christmas season approaches. The case is held over till the New year and rather than spend it in jail she finds herself being "rostered on" with the prosecuting attorney (Fred MacMurray )charged with convicting her till court resumes. What she gets is an unexpected invitation to spend the holidays with his family upstate where Lee gets her first real taste of a warm family life where people are nice to each other with no ulterior motives. Lee easily warms to the way of living she finds at MacMurray's farm and finds herself falling in love for the first time.

Out of such a vintage theme comes a wonderful film filled with the holiday spirit. Barbara Stanwyck, by this time a seasoned performer was never better than when she played bad girls from the wrong side of the tracks. Her Lee Leander character is at once cynical and sharp and alert to the best deal for herself and it's a credit to Stanwyck's wonderful sense of characterisation and understanding of what the part needs that she is able to turn her convited shoplifter into a warm and sympathetic character. Rarely has Barbara Stanwyck delivered a finer performance than here. She always teamed well with frequent co-star Fred MacMurray and the two would reteam in 4 years time for a most different film in the classic "Double Indemnity". Her scenes also with the gifted character actress Beulah Bondi who plays MacMurray's mother in the farm scenes are also noteworthy and are filled with beautiful exchanges between the two women. Stanwyck really reveals what a wonderfully sensitive actress she could be here and working against a famed sentimental scene stealer like Bondi was no small task. The cast is rounded out by Elizabeth Patterson playing Fred's aunt in loving style and the always interesting gravel voiced Sterling Holloway as the farm hand who has become part of the family. A particulary powerful scene is where Stanwyck confronts her own mother(Georgia Caine in a cold as ice performance) and attempts a reconciliation on the journey up to MacMurray's farm and is told to leave and never come back. Her reception is a stark contrast to the warmth and caring spirit she encounters on the farm. That scene alone is guaranteed to bring a tear to your eye, so painful it is to watch even after repeated screenings.

As an uplifting and indeed sentimental treat for the holiday season "Remember The Night" is unsurpassed. It will alternately have you laughing in scenes such as when Stanwyck describes herself by profession as a "bubble dancer" when she and MacMurray are arrested for sleeping in a farmer's paddock, to scenes that will wrench your heart as in the before mentioned scene Lee has with her mother. In short ideal holiday fare back from the days when Hollywood really knew how to create a wholesome story filled with love and feeling for others. Highly recommended.

A Great Christmas Classic
This movie with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck is a great Christmas classic with a good message. The acting is superb! A shoplifter winds up going home for Christmas with the lawyer who is prosecuting her! This is a movie I wouldn't miss seeing at least once a year! You really forget that it is in Black & White because it is so interesting. ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

Although Hollywood's golden year of 1939 is best remembered for Gone with the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, it was also a banner year for sophisticated screen comedy, and Mitchell Leisen's Midnight is a deliciously prime example. Screenwriters Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett were in peak form when they concocted this smooth confection about Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert), an American showgirl in Paris who is out of work, money, and luck when a handsome cabbie (Don Ameche) offers to drive her around the City of Light to search for employment as a nightclub chanteuse. Nobody's hiring, but Eve has a better plan: posing as a Hungarian countess, she smuggles her way into Parisian high society and suddenly finds herself in the lap of luxury, commissioned by a wealthy aristocrat (John Barrymore) to seduce a French playboy (Francis Lederer) away from Barrymore's not-so-loyal wife (Mary Astor). While Eve is living it up at the Ritz Hotel and enjoying trips to Versailles, Ameche's on a mission to find her and declare his true love.

Class distinction, infidelity, false identity... these were daring ingredients for a 1939 comedy, and Midnight (a casebook display of Paramount's shimmering studio style of the '30s) is as fresh today as it was when first released. The silky perfection of the Wilder-Brackett screenplay is expertly served by Leisen (a director who deserves ranking with Ernst Lubitsch and Preston Sturges), and Colbert is merely the brightest star in a flawless cast of screwball veterans. Poking fun at the elite was a Wilder-Brackett specialty, and Barrymore is particularly savvy to the material, giving a performance that's simultaneously sly, desperate, and hilariously inspired. The plot is so elegantly executed that Midnight makes most comedies of later decades look pale in comparison. Gone are the days, it seems, when sophistication, wit, and good taste were an integral part of Hollywood comedy. Midnight offers all of those qualities in abundance, making it a perfect antidote to the crudeness that dominates mainstream comedy at the turn of the millennium. --Jeff Shannon ... Read more

Reviews (16)

Excellent Prime Vintage Comedy
This is one of the most sophisticated and funny comedies I've seen in my whole life, thanks to one of the wittiest screenplays ever (by Charles Brackett, Billy Wilder, et al), deft direction by Mitchell Leisen, expertly paced, with a top cast, the best costumes, very elegant sets, etc.

Claudette Colbert is wisecracking chorus girl Eve Peabody (later Baroness Czerny), stranded in Paris, who is befriended by taxi driver Tibor Czerny (played by Don Ameche, in one of his best roles) and ends rubbing elbows with the "smart-set", with unexpected results. For those who have watched Anatole Litvak's "Tovarich" (1937) on TCM, starring Colbert and Charles Boyer, it has a similar premise, but the other way round, because in the latter Colbert, a Russian Grand Duchess who belongs to that country's Royal Family, pretends to be a maid.

The cast is full of excellent players: John Barrymore who impersonates with great skill, Monsieur Flammarion, a role somehow reminiscent of the one he played in "Twentieth Century" opposite Carole Lombard, but in a much "understated" manner. Mary Astor, as his unfaithful wife is rightly "stiff-upper-lip", high class and disdainful. Francis Lederer is very good as her lover, Jacques Picot, who falls under the spell of Colbert's charms. Rex O'Malley is Astor's wisecracking friend, Marcel Renard.

This movie has definitely the trademark "Paramount Look" and the great settings recreate Paris very well. There are many very funny scenes, especially those at the soirée offered by pretentious socialité Hedda Hopper and the party that takes place at the Flammarion Residence in Versailles, where all the guests dance "La Conga". Unforgettable.

One of the BEST of the thirties-or any age
Directed by Mitchell Leisen(unjustly forgotten helmer of many wonderful "golden age" films-and former designer for DeMille),written by Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett at their wittiest, and starring Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, Mary Astor and an incomparable John Barrymore-well, it's even better than it sounds. Beautifully polished and mounted production. Definitely a very adult "screwball" comedy with loads of innuendo, brilliantly played. I've seen this both on TV and in a theatre, and judging from audience reaction, every one of them loved it. This is one of those titles you can show to people who've usually little interest in "old" movies-and convert them!

Brilliant
Why isn't this movie better known? Why isn't it on DVD? It's a perfectly pitched romantic comedy, with a dream cast, witty script, terrific timing and one hilarious line or scene after another. It's got a sheen that holds up far better than many comedies of the same period, especially "It Happened One Night," which is very dated and almost lumpy in comparison. I can watch this again and again. It soars. It's movies like this that inspired me to write comic mysteries, though I know I'm no Billy Wilder.

Lev Raphael, author of the Nick Hoffman mysteries

A great romantic comedy - one of Ameche's finest moments!
Claudette Colbert and Don Ameche costar in this charming comedy... She's a down-and-out singer who's come to Paris by train, riding on her last dime; he's the irrepressibly flirtatious local cabbie who tries to charm his way into her life, and who searches all across the city she she gives him the slip. Colbert's as cute as ever, but this film is a real treat for folks who haven't seen much of Ameche: forget about those lame Sonia Henje films; this is Ameche at his best.

An unjustly neglected comic masterpiece
MIDNIGHT is the greatest classic Hollywood comedy that almost no one has seen. Why this isn't better known is a bit of a mystery. The film is well directed, well scripted, well acted, and well produced. The film is directed by Mitchell Leisen, who has been unjustly forgotten for the misfortune of having directed a series of extremely fine films based on screenplays by two writers who would later become famous directors in their own right: Billy Wilder and Preston Sturges. But Leisen put his own distinctive touch on the films he directed, and that is nowhere truer than this superb film. Nonetheless, the screenplay is superb, by one of the greatest writers of comedies in the history of cinema, Billy Wilder. Although he had been in Hollywood for a while, this was the first screenplay in which he truly hit his stride, the first in a series of stellar scripts (including NINOTCHKA for Lubitsch, ARISE MY LOVE and HOLD BACK THE DAWN for Leisen, and BALL OF FIRE for Howard Hawks) that led to his own shot at directing. Charles Brackett worked with Wilder as usual, Wilder functioning as the story originator and gagman, and Brackett cleaning up the Germanicisms cluttering Wilder's sentences. The cast is superb, with Claudette Colbert turning in one of her greatest performances as a young woman determined to capture a rich husband, but who instead inconveniently gets involved with a Parisian cab driver. Don Ameche was never better than in this film playing that Parisian cab driver. Mary Astor, who was extremely pregnant during filming, is her usual superb self, while the rest of the cast is littered with talented veteran character actors. The most bittersweet performance is the simultaneous hysterical and tragic performance by John Barrymore as a drunken dissipated nobleman. No question, the man turns in a funny, funny performance, but it is tragic because the appearance of drunkenness and dissipation was not the result of acting. Barrymore was suffering from advanced alcoholism during the filming, and was only a couple of years away from his premature death brought on by cirrhosis of the liver. The man once known as "The Great Profile" no longer was the extraordinarily handsome man he had been only five years earlier. He is funny, but it somehow seems unfitting that one of the great stage and screen actors of the 20th century should have ended his career as a bit of a buffoon.

The screenplay is if a kind that we no longer see, and was the result of a huge influx of European talent in the 1930s escaping the political situation in Europe. So many great films directed by Lubitsch and Wilder and others put an enormously European twist to love and romance, and in no film is this more true than this one: an adventurous woman trying to scale the social ladder by snaring a man, a gigolo seducing another man's wife, the husband scheming to reclaim his wife with the help of the would-be adventurous, and meanwhile a poor cabbie trying to find the woman he loves. Delicious stuff, and it is a credit to Leisen and the largely non-European cast that they pull the whole thing off so believably. In this film, at least, he manages a European elegance and sophistication that would have done Lubitsch proud. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Abysmal quality!!
I can only affirm what the reviewer from Germany said, to wit: avoid the cheap dubs of "Swing High..." at ALL costs - they really are unwatchable, much like the public domain version of "My Man Godfrey" - although that film looks pristine compared to this one. My particular video was distributed by Diamond Entertainment Corp. and says "Mastered from the Original Studio Print" on the box. Baloney!! Until this gets a proper release from Universal, which owns all these pre-1948 Paramount films, pass on "Swing High, Swing Low". Consider yourself forewarned, and save your money!!!!

good film,very bad copy
I suggest to everyone,who is interested in this movie,to buy it only if he has to.. the quality is very bad,almost unwatchable. But that goes for almost every video from MADACY ENTERTAINMENT,so please avoid it ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Abysmal quality!!
I can only affirm what the reviewer from Germany said, to wit: avoid the cheap dubs of "Swing High..." at ALL costs - they really are unwatchable, much like the public domain version of "My Man Godfrey" - although that film looks pristine compared to this one. My particular video was distributed by Diamond Entertainment Corp. and says "Mastered from the Original Studio Print" on the box. Baloney!! Until this gets a proper release from Universal, which owns all these pre-1948 Paramount films, pass on "Swing High, Swing Low". Consider yourself forewarned, and save your money!!!!

good film,very bad copy
I suggest to everyone,who is interested in this movie,to buy it only if he has to.. the quality is very bad,almost unwatchable. But that goes for almost every video from MADACY ENTERTAINMENT,so please avoid it ... Read more