Scarlet Pimpernel: Literary Masterpieces (1982) Review

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(More customer reviews)My sister has raved about this film for as long as I can remember. When I failed to find it in our local video store, she told me not to worry, as she had recently bought it and would lend it to me. Well, having now seen the film, I can understand why she raved about it. It is a vastly entertaining film, filled with a smattering of history, swashbuckling action, political intrigue, romance, and droll humor. Couple all this with some very good acting and direction, and one has a must-see period piece. It is historical fiction brought to life.
Based loosely upon the novels of Baroness Orczy, the Scarlet Pimpernel is the hero of beleaguered eighteenth century French aristocrats. The Scarlet Pimpernel dedicates himself to rescuing aristocrats that, in the Republic of the post-revolution era, are destined to lose their heads in the feeding frenzy engendered by the minions of Robespierre. Just who the Scarlet Pimpernel is, the French have not a clue, other than he is believed to be an Englishman. The viewer, however, is on the secret of his identity from the very beginning.
Anthony Andrews plays the extremely foppish dandy, Sir Percy Blakeney, who is about as blue blooded as one can be and live. He is also the wealthiest man in all of England. Given to amusing his fellow aristocrats with bons mots, he also devises entertaining rhyming couplets about the Scarlet Pimpernel. Speaking in a highly affected voice and sporting the latest in fashionable attire, Sir Percy is a seemingly unlikely action hero. Yet, it is he who rescues those who are destined to lose their heads to the dreaded guillotine. It is he who is the Scarlet Pimpernel.
Since the Scarlet Pimpernel is putting a crimp into the post-revolution blood bath, the feared Chauvelin (Ian McKellen), an ardent revolutionist and hatchet man for Robespierre, seeks to capture him. Chauvelin has a soft side, however, as he is profoundly in love with Marguerite St. Just (Jane Seymour), the premier actress of France and one of its most celebrated beauties. Unfortunately for him, however, Sir Percy has just met Marguerite and been smitten. When Sir Percy romantically woos and wins the heart of Marguerite, she consents to marry him, not knowing that he is the Scarlet Pimpernel. When she marries Sir Percy, Chauvelin stops at nothing to exact his revenge, and his actions eventually cause a rift in the marriage.
What happens to Sir Percy, Marguerite, and Chauvelin is well worth seeing. Anthony Andrews is utterly charming, romantic, and drolly funny in his dual role as the dandified fop/dashing action hero who is in love with the prettiest girl in town. Jane Seymour is perfect as the beautiful thespian who captures the heart of a wealthy aristocrat, only to find, in the end, that she has married a romantic hero. Ian McKellen is effective as the angst ridden Chauvelin, who has had his heart pierced by Cupid's arrow.
This is a wonderful film. Now, having seen it on video, I am eagerly awaiting its release on DVD, so as to add it to my personal collection. It is a film that one can enjoy watching again and again.

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Theater of Blood (1973) Review

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(More customer reviews)As incredibly good as this movie is, one must give pause before attempting to review it; after all, Vincent Price plays an actor who murders the critics who panned his performances and cost him the acting award he felt he deserved. I find it something of a relief to have nothing at all negative to say about this unusual, almost brilliant movie. This is essentially a slasher film, but it differs markedly from its modern counterparts by injecting the story with intelligence, culture, and actual feeling. Vincent Price plays Edward Lionheart, a Shakespearean actor who deigns to perform no dramas not penned by the Bard. There is no better actor, he truly believes, than himself, and thus he is slowly crushed by the stream of bad reviews the local critics hurl down upon his performance in one play after another. After facing humiliation at an annual awards banquet, he takes his own life-or at least so everyone thought at the time, despite the fact that his body was never found. Two years later, a literary critic dies mysteriously on the ides of March of multiple stab wounds. Then a second critic is killed and his body dragged through the streets behind a horse. As more critics die, it begins to become clear, even to the rather ineffectual police, that the murders are all patterned on the death scenes of Shakespearean dramas. After the fourth murder, where the culprit deviates from the script of The Merchant of Venice by literally taking a pound of flesh from the victim, the de facto leader of the critics knows that Lionheart is the murderer because "only he would have the temerity to rewrite Shakespeare." The deaths here range from the somewhat comical to the ludicrously horrid to the deliciously gruesome, with a few nice touches of 1973-style blood thrown in for good measure. Each murder is of course accentuated by a vainglorious dramatic performance by Lionheart. This imbues the movie with both maudlin comedy as well as academic pretentiousness. At the very end, even more unexpected emotions bubble up in the viewer, a phenomenon manifesting itself through a combination of Price's perfectly over-the-top acting and a wonderfully evocative soundtrack.
One actually gets something of a lesson in Shakespeare in this film. Lionheart doesn't base his revenge killings on Shakespeare's most famous plays-instead, he draws on several that I and probably many others are not intimately familiar with-yet the magic he breathes into each scene makes one anxious to delve into the Bard's original plays themselves. In total, the following Shakespearean plays serve as the basis of the murders: Julius Caesar, Troilus and Cressida, Cymbeline, The Merchant of Venice, Richard the Third, Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Henry the Sixth, part 1, Titus Andronicus, and King Lear. A little Hamlet is also thrown in for good measure. I must say that the cast is a great complement to the storyline, although even the lovely Diana Rigg of Avengers fame pales in the shadow of Price's mesmerizing aura as he brings to life a character seemingly written especially for him. Who else could have played such a convincing Shakespearean actor and ingeniously mad killer simultaneously? I must admit it is somewhat strange to watch Rigg play the role of Lionheart's fiercely loyal daughter, though, and I daresay that many Rigg devotees such as myself may not even recognize her when she first appears.
Theater of Blood is truly one of Vincent Price's most memorable performances. His ability to morph into and truly become different Shakespearean characters is superb, and the range of emotions he is able to express is pretty powerful, especially in the closing moments of the film. A couple of the killings are somewhat farcical, but most of them are rather ingenious and fascinating. Just wait until you see Price playing the role of a bushy-headed hairdresser. The best killing, without a doubt, involves a surgical gown, a scalpel, and a handsaw-I'll let you figure out what Lionheart does with these items. The idea for this movie may not be wholly original, but Theater of Blood works magnificently, and the combined talents of Price and Rigg make this a classic that really should find a home in the collection of all horror movie buffs.

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Magnavox DV225MG9 Tunerless DVD Player and 4 Head Hi-Fi Stereo VCR Review

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(More customer reviews)This is a great DVD/VCR and works very well. I knew that it did not have a TV tuner, which I figured was no problem, since I have satellite and would have to go through the box anyway. However, since there is no tuner, there isn't a coaxial connector on the back, only RCA. So, if you have an old TV that only has a Coaxial connector, don't buy this unless you also buy a RF Modulator.

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DVD player and Viideo tape recorder without tuner

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