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Guys and Dolls

Guys and Dolls

List Price: $14.95
Your Price: $11.96
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: I love this movie
Review: I have seen this many, many times. One of my favorites! I simply love it. I, too, think that Brando do a fine job here. I am not really a fan of his, but gee this guy just oozes sex appeal and bad-boy charm. Sinatra...what else can you say? He is his sexy, charming, cool self. Jean Simmons is good, beautiful...etc. But contrary to another reviewer...she doesn't do her own singing...ironic that this reviewer's other favorite musical is Singin' in the Rain!! (Where the protagonist is a voice for another..if you haven't seen it.) Great flick. I have heard some critical remarks that it is too stage-like and does't lead the viewer to think that it is really happening...only a movie of a stage play...but I think that it is just charming....stagey as it is. I also love How To Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. (Not with that guy from Seinfeld... the one with Robert Morse & Michele Lee) Another great musical for you to see (even though is skips a few numbers. Still waiting for Sweeny Todd (with Len Cariou/Angela Lansbury) to be released....saw it on Broadway..it was on PBS once. Now THAT is a musical!

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Cool Cast but not enough overall feel
Review: this is the kind of cast you'd dream of.Brando&Sinatra the Names alone would sell anything but this Film as a Musical never holds a Steady Groove to me.Some Cool Exchanges&Vibes going around but as a Musical it doesn't come Close to some of the truly Greats ones.but still worth peeping out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: BRANDO SINGS!
Review: What can you say? Brando sings, Sinatra at his most charming versatility, and a show stopper song from Stubby Kaye. GUYS AND DOLLS is a classic musical all the way. No need for analyzing because it's just pure entertainment fun. The musical has great songs and dance numbers, great characters and a unique use of some Broadway/Stage-type backdrops for the New York City locations from the streets to the gambler's sewers. Great supporting cast with Jean Simmons (no..not Gene Simmons from KISS) and Vivian Blaine. And again...Brando sings!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Guys & Dolls is a TRUE masterpiece of a musical!
Review: All I can say is... WOW. I think this has to be probably my second favorite movie musical (and one of my FAVORITE musicals) of all times... tying with "Singin' In The Rain", being preceeded only by "Damn Yankees" and followed by "Sweet Charity." So what makes Guys & Dolls so great? Michael Kidd's choreography for one thing... the guy is a genius!!!! He's introduced some of the best dancing stars to the stage (ie, Gwen Verdon in "Can-Can") and this showcases his talents as a choreographer. Another thing are the wonderful tunes. Can you imagine a world without tunes like "Adelaide's Lament" and "I'll Know"? I sure can't. Of course, the actors have a lot to do with it.
Case in point number 1... Marlon Brando. Okay, so Marlon Brando's NOT a singer... big deal. But it's not like he's absolutely so horrendous you want to THROW things at the screen. In fact, I found him marvelous! He's VERY talented. He and Jean Simmons have such charisma together! Case in point 2, Jean Simmons! Who better to play adorable little mission doll Sarah Brown than this lovely lady? And her singing pipes aren't terrible either. Her acting skills are most exquisite! Case in point 3... Frank Sinatra. GORGEOUS MAN. GORGEOUS VOICE. And whatta actor! He is so loveable as Nathan Detroit... and he and Vivian Blaine have SUCH A GREAT CHEMISTRY!!!! Which brings me to case in point 4... VIVIAN BLAINE. I adore her. I don't think there will ever be another Adelaide who comes even CLOSE to her (except for, perhaps, the wonderful Miss Faith Prince...). I mean, Vivian just OWNS this part! That voice... that electricity... to me, she just steals the show! So in short, if you love 50s movie musicals, or you're just a fan of the Broadway show... buy it! (But there are a few songs cut... such as "A Bushel and a Peck" and "Marry The Man Today"... but don't let that discourage you!)

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Wonderful Adaptation of A Wonderful Musical
Review: Vivian Blaine reprises her role as Adelaide, joined by Frank Sinatra, Marlon Brando, Jean Simmons, Stubby Kaye, who all are wonderful in the tale of gambling guys and mission dolls. Wonderful music by Frank Loesser, a great opening number, choreographed but not danced. One of the most enjoyable movie musicals I've ever seen.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Enjoyable
Review: This film was not as great as expected, particularly bacause of some corny lines in the script and the song "A Bushel and a Peck."...Overall, it is deservedly a classic.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Damon Runyon would have loved this
Review: With the willingness to indulge in a little creative suspension of disbelief, the single most difficult aspect (by my lights) of critical viewing, each of the principal characters is a masterstroke of hollywood casting. (luck of process notwithstanding) Singing gamblers, dancing mission dolls? Brando's seamless, even understated confidence as Sky in perfect counterpoint to Sinatra as impressively hapless Nathan Detroit. Was Jean Simmons born to be a mission doll? This isn't Broadway. Any pair of eyes can relax and see musical sevens and elevens every time. My Favorite? You bet.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Fun, but disappointing
Review: The movie is a bit of a disappointment if you're familiar with Frank Loesser's brilliant stage show. Some of the songs are axed altogether, and their replacements (with the exception of 'A Woman in Love', perhaps, which is fairly hummable) are pretty mediocre. Having said that, the cast do a fine job (although Brando and Simmon's voices aren't quite up to scratch) and it is still quite fun. They couldn't really go wrong sticking more or less word-for-word to Abe Burrows and Jo Swerling's original Broadway script, so the witty Runyanesque dialogue is still intact.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: I HATE GUYS AND DOLLS
Review: Maybe it is not some much the film, but it just the whole show. I cannot begin to describe how much I hate the music from this show. It is awful! If you could only see how bad it really is from a critical standpoint. Marlon Brando is AWFUL...Dredful to watch! Frank Sinatra is not Nathan Lane...I think Nathan Lane gave a pleasant Broadway performance. As for Jean Simmons...she was okay...not much else I could say. Vivian Blaine was pretty good. Considering is like...THE ORIGINAL ADELAIDE. But this show just falls short of being a completely crapy movie. DON'T BUY IT!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: No Little and Quite Some
Review: Was this really 1955? That soon after the Broadway run? It seemed so unconnected to the stage version at the time. Sure Sam Levine and Robert Alda, as Nathan and Sky, weren't going to translate to extra box office bucks. You knew they'd be scratched for the more bankable. But then, Vivian Blaine and Stubby Kaye weren't household names either. And it's their Broadway gloss and charm in this screen version that makes it so vivid. I recall there was mild interest at release in seeing what Brando could do, a sort of breath-holding waiting for him to fail. That he didn't wasn't enough to distinguish this as one of the great screen musicals of the '50s.

But times are different now. My 8-year-old is in love with Brando in this video version. And all evidence to the contrary, thinks his singing is wonderful. Her 5 year old sister thinks Jean Simmons' Sergeant Sarah Brown is beautiful-and therefore also wonderful-and they both love the music and Michael Kidd's muscular and strenuous choreography (the similarities to "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" are so obvious even they pointed it out!). It's a much better film than I remember.

Brando is Brando. You can't take your eyes off him. But he doesn't convince. His voice, well, he's on key and with electronic augmentation that thin voice sounds like he's belting them out. His dancing in the Cuba sequence and in "Luck Be a Lady" is athletic and, for that period, not awkwardly masked by dancing chorus. Looks to me that Simmons was synched in the tough numbers but did her own singing for "I'll Know When My Love Comes Along," but hey, she's Jean Simmons and that enough. Knowing today what we didn't know then of Sinatra's hangout buddies, his Nathan is more than a little soft-edged. My daughters kept recalling "Chip,"(or as they put it, "an older Chip") his lovable innocent in "On the Town," an odd sort of connection to make with a Broadway gambler.

Almost 50 years later, the real triumph is how Abe Burrows book and Frank Loesser's music still strike home. And the Damon Runyon characters are still fresh and funny. It's all so sprightly, so memorable! Even with Mankiewicz practicing the interfering and irrelevant direction he would perfect a decade later in "Cleopatra". And the question still persists: why in the world was "Bushel and a Peck" excised from the film?

Even so, a great movie for kids, and a great way to remember a time when families laughed at the same thing.


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