Customer Reviews:
Fantastic - but not as good as the previous box set!.......2007-10-09
This is a brilliant collection of great Woody Allen films. Unlike the other volumes in the series, this set doesn't contain a single bad or poor film. The only downside is that a previous, identical boxset was released but with the addition of Manhattan. This set therefore feels like it's missing something. I think the most likely reason for removing Manhattan and placing it in the Vol 2 boxset is that the rest of these films are pure comedies, whereas Manhattan is a much broodier film. Still, if you can't get hold of the older boxset, then you really should buy this one. Annie Hall is an absolute classic (Allen's best film?), and the other are highly enjoyable. Love and Death in particular took me surprise - it's fantastic. Well worth the asking price!
Customer Reviews:
A very bad print.......2007-08-22
This comedy is a delectable satire by Wilder of the newspapers' world (that he knew very well, having worked for newspapers at the beginning of his career in Germany). The copy sold here is nonetheless of a very bad quality, strongly noticeable on a large screen. The cellophane wrap bears the words "printed in Mexico". An inquiry regarding the reasons of such mention would be useful.
Customer Reviews:
Wilder's Parisian souffle.......2004-07-19
With two of Hollywood's most glamorous stars, and (despite the silly plot) a sharp and witty script, this film is an evergreen, and one I never tire of watching.
Audrey Hepburn is enchanting as the spunky "Thin Girl", a cello student who falls in love with a millionaire playboy bachelor, played with grace and charm (and quite a bit of humor) by Gary Cooper. Hepburn was 28 at the time, and looked younger, Cooper was 56, and looked perhaps older, but despite the age difference, their chemistry together sparkles and sizzles.
The romantic cat and mouse game played by Hepburn to intrigue and win Cooper's heart is all very innocent and sweet, and I always shed a few tears at the magical ending.
Maurice Chevalier as Hepburn's father, a private detective specializing in matters of love and deception is fabulous, and gets most of the funny lines, and John McGiver, as one of Chevalier's jealous husband clients, is also very amusing.
The b & w cinematography by William Mellor is exceptional, and how the camera loves Audrey, looking exquisite in an array of beautiful gowns. There is also a quartet called "The Gypsies", who serenade the lovers throughout the film with some terrific czardas, and the melodic song "Fascination".
Light, frothy, and thoroughly enjoyable, this is one of Billy Wilder's most delightful films, and it's a treasure for Hepburn and Cooper fans.
Total running time is 130 minutes.
A Genuine Classic.......2004-07-01
I must admit I have not seen the DVD version of this film, but having just seen it in the 'Action Ecole' in Paris I feel it deserves someone to speak up for it.
This is a wonderful and understated romantic comedy from a director (Billy Wilder) who actually knew how to make such films. A lost art I fear. Audrey Hepburn shines as Ariane (the French issue title) while Gary Cooper and Marice Chavalier are both excellent as her co stars.
Essentially a love story between the innocent Hepburn and the serial womaniser Cooper, with Hepburn's private detective father in the background, the film is very funny; and yet it has a darker and more interesting side in its exploration relationships and moral positions.
In all it is a wonderful piece of cinema, and a must for any Hepburn fan. Buy it!!!
Amazon.co.uk Review
A collection of vignettes, loosely based on the book by Dr. David Rueben, written and directed by Woody Allen, Everything contains some very funny moments. It's easy to forget that the cerebral Allen excelled at the type of broad, Catskill, dirty jokes and visual gags that run amok here. It's also remarkable how dirty this 1972 movie really was--bestiality, exposure, perversion and S&M get their moments to shine. The Woody Allen here, who appears in many of the sketches, is a portent of the seedy old Allen of Deconstructing Harry. Although the final bit, which takes place inside a man's body during a very hot date, is hilarious, most of Everything feels like the screen adaptation of a 70's bathroom joke book. Still, a must for Allen fans. --Keith Simanton
Customer Reviews:
Woody playing for laughs.......2001-02-27
And succeeds ! This early example of Woody Allen's genius has been somewhat superceded by his later efforts but still remains fresh and frequently hilarious. The jokes come thick and fast, some verging a little on the puerile side but the bestiality sketch and the sperms are products of sheer brilliance. An enjoyable, if not great, Allen film and a worthy addition to any collector's stockpile.
simply Woody!.......2001-01-04
The movie is a summary of Woody Allen's ironic way of dealing with hot and delicate matters. He once more proves to be a great genius, sharp and funny, but not rude or "bad-tasted"... simply Woody!
Customer Reviews:
A rare misfire for Wilder, but not an uninteresting one.......2007-12-06
Kiss Me, Stupid is an interesting misfire, but despite a promising and outrageous setup - Ray Walston's would be songwriter tries to keep Dean Martin's promiscuous crooner in the small town he breaks down in long enough to buy his songs by using his wife as bait: but, being insanely jealous, he hires Kim Novack to pretend to be his wife only to still find himself becoming jealous - it never really delivers the laughs. Walston, replacing Peter Sellers after he dropped out because of a heart attack, is too broad and Novak's Marilyn-with-a-cold impression too artificial, while Dean Martin's gleeful self-parody as a drunken lecherous and very superficial crooner called Dino sometimes seems a little too sidelined. Only Cliff Osmond really comes up with the goods with a performance that's often as theatrical as the patently phoney soundstage sets. Some nice moments, but this time Wilder and Diamond seem too enamoured of the censor-baiting premise to make it really work.
No extras at all on the UK DVD, but a decent 2.35:1 widescreen transfer.
A politically incorrect movie, but an excellent screwball comedy.......2007-10-31
Director Billy Wilder is not a novice in making highly successful comedies. Movies such as: Some Like it Hot (1959), Apartment (1960), and Irma La Douce (1963), made Wilder a very successful writer and director in Hollywood. Kiss Me, Stupid, starring Dean Martin and Kim Novak made in 1964 was received less warmly; conservatives still in control of American life were upset by the controversial story. The lead actor is actually Ray Walston who plays Orville Jeremiah Spooner, an organist at the local church and a piano teacher is jealous of his beautiful wife Zelda (Felicia Farr; wife of Jack Lemmon in real life). He is paranoid that she could attract another man and soon he may lose her. While coping with this fear, Orville also writes songs in his spare time with his buddy, local gas station owner, Barney (Cliff Osmond). As the luck would have it that Singing Dino of Las Vegas (Dean Martin) on his way from Vegas to Los Angeles makes a stop at Barney's gas station in Climax, Nevada. Orville and Barney quickly realize that they have the golden opportunity to use Dino to promote their songs. To keep Dino in Climax long enough, they concoct a story that his car needs a spare part which requires two days to arrive, and until then he could stay with Spooner. Initially excited about the idea but quickly turns into fear as Orville realizes that Dino is a drunkard, a seducer and the fact Zelda is his biggest fan, losing her to Dino was more closer than ever. So he hatches a plan to send his wife away to her parents, and hires Polly the Pistol (Kim Novak), a cocktail waitress at the local bar, Belly Button, to pretend to be his wife while he entertains Dino during his stay. The viewers get to see the "real life" of Dean Martin who pretty much plays as himself as a heavy drinker, and a womanizer who tries to seduce Polly (pretending as Zelda) in her own home in the presence of her "husband." Later he is thrown out of the house and ends up in Belly Button and later to the Trailer home of Polly located next to the bar. Circumstances would have placed Zelda already in the same Trailer when she moves from her parent's home to Belly Button to the Trailer home. It is a little shocking to the viewer, since director Wilder went a little far to show that both Dino and Zelda; and Orville and Polly, have sex, Dino pays for her service!!! The pair shrugs it off as an adventure, and Orville and Zelda get back together. In the climate of political correctness of today; director Wilder and the studio have portrayed the story honestly as what would be the most obvious under circumstances. But in 1964, political correctness was not appreciated and in fact the term did not exist. The film upset the Catholic Church and the Vatican's Legion of Decency banned the film. The film's opening scenes were shot during a live performance at the now defunct Sands Casino in Las Vegas. The customized Italian Ghia sports car driven by Martin in the film was also his own automobile. Originally Peter Sellers was slated to play the role Orville Spooner but due to his personal circumstances the role went to Walston. The movie is a little boring in the beginning but later becomes very interesting. Kim Novak appears in the movie after a third of the movie is completed, but her role as a girl under difficult circumstances in an unfortunate job, begins to like the life of Spooner, and dislikes the glitzy life of Dino; it is touching. Kim Novak is spectacular in her performance as Polly: Highly recommended to all her fans.
an interesting failure.......2007-07-30
I am American, and I do not think of myself as puritanical. But maybe I am, a bit. "Kiss Me, Stupid" is well worth watching, but it leaves a bad taste in the mouth.
I couldn't shake the feeling that Billy Wilder was in full dirty-old-man mode, wanting to take advantage of the sexual freedom of the 1960s, but without a sure feel of how to do it.
It's interesting to contrast "Kiss Me, Stupid" with "The Apartment," which is a wonderful movie. "Kiss Me, Stupid" is about lust and promiscuity v. domesticity and a tidy, small-town life. But both are portrayed as extremes: Dino is repellent in his carnality, while Orville's wife is too good to be true, and their town too wholesome and tranquil (the Belly Button to one side).
In "The Apartment" Wilder portrays sex alongside power, status, cant, privilege, hypocrisy -- as it often exists in real life. And his good characters aren't all good, which makes one sympathize with them.
It also means the difference between wit and smarminess.
Still, Peter Sellers might have been able to make this movie fly. It needed to be pulled in the direction of farce.
Kiss Me brilliant!.......2007-01-03
Based on the Italian stage comedy L'Oro della Fantasia (trans: The Hour
Of Fantasy), Billy Wilder's Kiss Me, Stupid appeared after a long run
of successes by the director, which culminated with a hat trick on The
Apartment for which he won Oscars for producer, director and
co-screenwriter, respectively. In the years that followed, however,
Wilder's reputation took a battering; he helmed several films then less
favourably received.
Many of these later films have found critical rehabilitation. Kiss Me,
Stupid has found too an increasing number of defenders, a new
generation of viewers discovering its unique tone with delight during
late night TV revivals. In an age when the double entendre can be king,
Wilder's film, stuffed full of visual and verbal sexual innuendo, and
with its ironic irreverence towards traditional values and mores, has
acquired a relevance that it never had before. Times have moved on a
little since the stuffed shirt brigade were shocked by what was seen
then as the leering immorality of Wilder's film, its supposed
vulgarity, with its jaundiced view of fidelity. These days the cynicism
so characteristic of the director and here drawn out the nth degree
appears entertainingly modern, while Dean Martin's central,
self-parodic portrayal of satyriasis ("It's a habit with me. If I skip
one night a week I get such a headache") can be seen as one of his most
memorable performances - probably because it runs closer to home in
contemporary eyes than some of his other, more safely packaged
appearances do now.
Originally Peter Sellers was cast as Orville Spooner, the eternally
jealous and ever-optimistic singer-songwriter, 62 duds in, from the
feverishly named Climax, Nevada. It was one of the great what-if
casting choices, and went as far as shooting some evidently well played
scenes before, for various reasons, the star pulled out. The decision
left the plum role to Ray Walston, thereby allowing that actor his
finest hour on screen.
With hindsight, Wilder's film is an ideal vehicle for postmodernists.
Not only does it start with a clue that it is packed full of signifying
elements (a gigantic, erect crane arm is the first thing the camera
sights after the LAS VEGAS SIGN CO wording), but the films also works
hard to deconstruct celebrities, family life and the value of marriage.
"By way of Warm Springs, Paradise Valley" Climax is a place of
conventional morality, where Spooner just happens to be married to the
prettiest girl in town: Zelda (Felicia Farr, incidentally another
Wilder regular, Jack Lemmon's wife). As designed by Alexander Trauner,
who also worked on such atmospheric films as Jour de Lève, and Othello
(1952) it's a small town where the only real excitement is playing the
piano or watching colour TV in shop windows, unless one heads out to
The Belly Button where apparently, at least as Spooner is assured by a
visiting citizen's committee, "love is for sale." Wilder opposes the
sexual opportunism and the commercial value placed upon relationships,
as epitomised by Dino's predatory libido and Polly's trailer with its
conspicuous 'bang bang!' TV, with the ostensible stability and moral
compacts of home life. But whereas the Spooner household is full of
laughably intense jealousies on the part of the husband, Dino's life is
one of easy come, easy go sex. The rub is, of course, that in Kiss Me,
Stupid the two worlds interact and mix: commercialism enters the home,
while the exploited eventually make a nest for themselves on the
proceeds. One of the ironies is that Spooner and Milsap's song writing
team provide the soundtrack for Martin's debaucheries, just as his song
albums have given Zelda her own romantic fantasies (she was once
president of Dino's fan club) and the married woman melts promptly into
his arms as soon as he serenades her. While there is some sorting out
at the end, with some token disapproval by the wife, it is clear that
the message of the film is not warning about the corruption brought by
show business types, or even the disgraceful willingness of some
ordinary folk to be swayed by the glamour. The greatness and maturity
of Wilder's film is that it shows how both sides can make acceptable
accommodation and get along, and without ever compromising
self-respect. Of course the idea that the ideal thing is to live one's
"live-long day and the long, long night" just as needed, and then to
forgive the inevitable, was something hard to find acceptance in early
1960s' America - let alone the thought that relationships could be put
on hold to improve them.
In the light of this one can see how fortuitous it is that Peter
Sellers did not eventually get to play Orville Spooner. While the
comedian would have had a field day with Spooner's psychopathic
jealousy, as well his various quirks, his real life celebrity would
have obscured the film's focus. Walston is enough of an unknown on
screen to suggest the moral confusion of a non-entity desperate for
success, for an audience, contrasting against the heavyweight allure of
Martin. As 'Dino', a few years out from his other best film (Rio
Bravo), the singer is so much at home in his role that one has to pinch
oneself to be reminded that he was actually playing a part. As Polly
the Pistol, "fastest draw in the west," Kim Novak was an inspired
choice. Showing the depth that Hitchcock saw in the actress when he
cast her in Vertigo a few years before, her performance convincingly
portrays the necessary mixture of wistfulness, self-possession and
deprecation that the tart with a heart role here requires.
Lensed in well composed widescreen black and white, and with an
excellent cheap edition available, albeit without extras worth the name
(the region one edition allegedly contains a couple of deleted scenes),
Kiss Me, Stupid is a film made by artists at the peak of their form,
without a dull scene throughout, and I recommended it unreservedly.
Wonderful 60's comedy !.......2006-12-16
Director Billy Wilder had already put his name on classic comedies like "Some Like it Hot" and " The Seven year itch" when he directed the great Dean Martin in one of his best roles. "Kiss me Stupid" is like the aformentioned films a sex farse, a comment on midle america's hipocrisy and a perfect show case for talents. Dean Martin is trully a great comedian and so it is Ray Walston( who substituted Peter Sellers after the brithish actor sufered a stroke)Kim Novack does fine has the rest of the cast...a classic film to be rediscovered! The dvd edition as a clean and sharp B/W picture with mono sound, and no extras.
Amazon.co.uk Review
In 1963, Billy Wilder's Irma La Douce was one of the biggest box-office hits of the year, grossing twice as much as The Great Escape and The Birds. Yet this popular film has been almost completely forgotten by film history, even to fans of Wilder or stars Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine (the same trio had made a masterpiece, The Apartment, three years earlier). It doesn't represent the best work of those legends, but Irma La Douce provides tart entertainment. At least some of the film's popularity can be chalked up to its subject, which was pretty risqué for the time: Lemmon plays a Paris policeman who falls in love with a prostitute (MacLaine). The script was adapted from a stage musical, but Wilder decided to cut the songs, instead developing the humour and romance into his own blend of bittersweet perversity; this Technicolor-fantasy Paris is kind of a dark cousin to Gigi. Lemmon is in his prime period of hand-wringing self-doubt, and MacLaine is perfectly in tune with his rhythms, especially in scenes that add tenderness to the sometimes-queasy mix of moods. Ironically--given the nixing of the songs--the film won its only Oscar for André Previn's adaptation of the stage-play's music into a wordless orchestral score. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
Don't think this is "Irma La Douce" the musical,because it isn't!........2007-07-30
Billy Wilder had the wonderful idea of transferring "Irma La Douce" the musical, to the screen.The only problem was,that when he started to make it, he thought(rather oddly)that the songs slowed down the action!
So what did he do?Tighten up the script,drop an odd song or two?NO,he just ditched ALL the sung lyrics,and used the remaining music as background.
So if you think this is the musical, you are going to be sadly disappointed.
As the reviewer above had said it's a great comedy,but NOT the musical that many people were(and are looking) for.
Delightful screwball comedy - no pun intended.......2002-01-30
A delicious treat for the lover of classic comedy, this movie abounds with quirky characters and witty dialogue. Lemmon and MacLaine are in top form, infusing their characters with charm and joie de vivre. Wilder's script is solid, the mis-en-scene is evocative of Toulouse Lautrec crossed with 'Guys and Dolls', and the comic pacing is as masterful as we've come to expect of Wilder's films. It is an all-around satisfying comedy experience.
Amazon.co.uk Review
A married man, left alone during a hot summer, fantasises madly about the impossibly gorgeous woman living in the upstairs apartment. When the woman is Marilyn Monroe, such fantasies are the stuff of epics, and The Seven Year Itch is a memorable laugh machine. Tom Ewell, repeating his role from George Axelrod's Broadway hit, plays the itchy protagonist, whose vivid imagination gets the better of him. When Monroe finally comes downstairs and becomes friends (confiding, among other things, that she keeps her undies in the icebox in this hot weather), imagination meets reality in a merciless attack on the male libido. Ewell's crack timing is matched by Monroe's zesty comic flair, and the scene in which her white dress is blown skyward by a passing subway train has entered the encyclopaedia of great movie images. Director Billy Wilder adapted the play with Axelrod; if the film is not one of Wilder's signature works (Some Like It Hot and The Apartment would soon follow), it is nevertheless a smoothly crafted comedy. --Robert Horton, Amazon.com
Customer Reviews:
Marilyn in another Classic Comedy? That's Just Elegant!.......2005-07-11
This is a decent comedy and I enjoyed it on the whole. I'll be honest and say and the only real reason and I took an interested in the film and watched it is Marilyn Monroe. I've been trying to watch as many as her films as possible lately, ever since a study of Photography at college found me researching the icon of the silver screen. The good news is for me is that there was plenty of Marilyn to enjoy in this classic comedy. I was pleased to find that she is supported by a good cast and a very funny script, and the film on the whole is a real winner. There were several laugh out loud moments for me, and considering my young age and the fact this is a film from the 1950's I would say that's something pretty impressive. For me, though, the reason the film was great has to be Ms. Monroe. She is just simply stunning and elegant in this movie (A word her character very much likes to use!). She really captures the audiences heart as "The Girl" and it's not hard to see why Tom Ewell's character fell for her obvious charms - she is just a sheer delight in the film.
A sequence which I found totally hilarious was that in which Ewell's character imagines a variety of heated liaisons with various women in his life - all of them supposedly throwing themselves at him. The way in which he and the "women" deliver the lines - in a classic dead-pan fashion had me almost crying with laughter. Really hilarious stuff. And that's not even mentioning the glorious skirt-over-subway scene. This is a film to watch and fall in love with. You'll really enjoy it if you like Marilyn, you want to laugh, you're looking for a warm movie to just relax to and you're interested in cinema history and classic Hollywood. A great film for so many people - buy and enjoy!
Marilyns skirt fkying eppic.......2004-07-09
This great billy wilder classic seee the fine comics talent between Marilyn monroe& Tom erwll in the hot summer in the city see tom erell try to fight his feelings for the young naghbor upstairs Marilyn Monroe. All in all all one of marilyns finest commerdy proformances and also her most rerembered skirt flying sene. A movie i'd recomened to all Marilyn fans or just great lovers of commerdy.
Based on a well-known fact.......2003-04-29
[Fact] if your name is Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) and your wife of seven years has gone to Florida for the summer, you will fall victim to the "The Seven Year Itch."
This film is based on a play by George Axelrod, who also wrote “Goodbye Charlie” and directed “Lord Love A Duck” .
The director Billy Wilder also directed “The Apartment” and “Sabrina” (1954).
As with Shakespeare, this movie is a classic, many scenes and lines have been immortalized and parodied. And I am not too sure that Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto was not used to remind us of "A Brief Encounter".
The basic story line is ever since the time of Native Americans, in the summertime wives and children go south for the summer to escape the excessive heat. This leaves a residual of working husbands and sprinkling of single women or to be more precise, Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe. Tom has a great imagination and we see many of the scenes through his imagination. As the two accidentally meet and start to converse, Richard Sherman's (Tom) imagination only gets more exotic.
I am not going to quote the movie lines or scenes as if you have previously viewed this movie, then you know them by hart. If you are new to this movie, you need to have the characters deliver them. I will say one of my favorites is when Mr. Kruhulik, the janitor, comes to clean the rugs; he gets an eyeful, and then makes a logical assumption.
The movie is quite fun aside from being a classic and you may see yourself in it as well.
Classy comedy !.......2001-03-03
As a relative newcomer to Marilyn Monroe's films I greatly enjoyed this video. The interplay between Monroe and Ewell is fantastic and the dialogue is superb throughout. The comedy has dated well with most of the jokes still being relevant/funny today. Certainly puts a lot of modern day comedy filmaking to shame. Picture quality isn't the best thing about this video...but hey the film was made in 1955 and it rather adds to the overall charm! I can't see anyone being disappointed when buying 'The Seven Year Itch'.
This is an itch you have to scratch!.......2000-09-13
The 1955 comedy, "The Seven Year Itch," directed by Billy Wilder, is one of the most amusing sex farces ever filmed. Starring Tom Ewell and Marilyn Monroe, and based on George Axelrod's play, the film takes a humorous look at the problems of a typical middle-aged married man. Tom Ewell, and unassuming leading man with a flair and talent for comedy, is perfectly cast in this movie. Ewell plays the part of Richard Sherman, an average middled-aged man of the 50's...office worker, city inhabitant, with a loving wife and one son. He is left alone in the city for the entire summer while his family vacations in Maine. All is well until Mr. Sherman meets the beautiful blonde who rents the apartment above his for the summer. They soon get to know each other and become friends over champagne, potato chips, and a Rachmaninoff record. Their friendship causes Mr. Sherman to worry that his wife will find out about his relationship with the blonde bombshell. With his overactive imagination, Mr. Sherman dreams up numerous situations concerning this young woman, as well as his wife. Although his imagination causes Mr. Sherman much worry, it provides many of the film's most memorable and enjoyable scenes. Of course, the film is famous for the scene of Monroe standing over the subway grate, which has always been a classic movie scene. Monroe, although unnamed in the film, gives one of her best screen performances, which is "just elegant," as she says throughout the movie. She displays a talent for comedy as well as beauty, which should not be overlooked. Ewell's portrayal of Richard Sherman is delightful, hilarious, and perfect. His facial expressions and comedic timing contribute to the film's enjoyability. Along with these stars, the supporting cast is excellent as well. It includes such character actors as Robert Strauss (Mr. Kruhulik, the janitor), and Donald MacBride (Mr. Brady, Richard Sherman's boss). "The Seven Year Itch" is one of the ultimate 50's pop culture films. And since it was filmed in Cinemascope, it would be perfect to see on the big screen. Any fan of Monroe, Wilder, old movies, or 50's culture would enjoy this movie; I strongly recommend it. The comedy, timing, acting, and direction are flawless...and they all help to make "The Seven Year Itch" "just elegant!"
Customer Reviews:
A very bad print.......2007-08-22
This comedy is a delectable satire by Wilder of the newspapers' world (that he knew very well, having worked for newspapers at the beginning of his career in Germany). The copy sold here is nonetheless of a very bad quality, strongly noticeable on a large screen. The cellophane wrap bears the words "printed in Mexico". An inquiry regarding the reasons of such mention would be useful.
DVD:
- Word of Mouth [1999] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- XXX Hardcore - Nymphs / College Sex Kittens / Cheerleader Nurses
- XXX Hardcore - Nymphs / College Sex Kittens / Cheerleader Nurses
- Young Girl and the Monsoon [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- A Bigger Splash [1974] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Amorous Artist, The / Special Friends [1997]
- An Erotic Vampire In Paris [2002]
- Banged Up [2002] (REGION 1) (NTSC)
- Belgian Blondes / Dungeon Slaves
- Bizarre and Strange Things Around the World
DVD List
DVD