Sextette
|
Our Price: $17.99 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $7.54 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of Sextette
Movie Review: SEXTETTE: Don't Let This Happen To You!
Summary: 5 Stars
That Greta Garbo retired from films in her mid thirties did more to keep her memory and "the mystique" alive than anything else she could have done. That Mae West decided to film "Sextette" in the late Seventies, when she was in her mid eighties, is the flip side of Garbo: the Baby-Jane-Norma-Desmond syndrome descended upon a new world with new values. And to pair West with the young Timothy Dalton and expect the audience to take the romance seriously further complicates this already messy film. Part musical, part comedy, part Grand Guignol, this film should be seen for the five-star lesson it presents: know when to gracefully retire, leaving only the fondest of memories, Garbo-like, captured on film forever.Movie Review: Classic Favorite Looks Just As Good On DVD As On VHS
Summary: 5 Stars
Being an old geezer of 54 I saw this movie when it first was shown. As soon as I could I had purchased it on VHS. A friend borrowed it 5 years ago and to this day keeps promising to return it but it never finds its way back. I finally got tired of not being able to see it and ordered it on the DVD version - especially after my last VHS Player died. It made my day to be able to see this Classic one more time. It's too bad the days of "campy fun" seem to be over - what fun it would be to revive it.
Movie Review: Mae West at her Best!
Summary: 5 Stars
Great Musical so bad its perfect great companion piece to The First Nudie Musical. Love the songs sung by the West! Every Gay Man's Dream of the Musical so Bad its good!Movie Review: A fun romp
Summary: 4 Stars
Now, this is a real anomaly: Mae West starring in a film based on a successful play she wrote back in 1926. So theoretically, this film could have been made into a silent movie, and here it is, turning up over 50 years later in 1978. And even in these more enlightened times, they didn't use the original title of Sex, calling it Sextette instead (although the opening credits put the first three letters into slight relief for those who might otherwise have missed it).
I'm a big fan of Mae West, and I finally let my curiosity get the better of me about her final film, which I have been warned against many times. Happily, I thought it was a delight from beginning to end.
Mae West is unique in the history of sex stars in the movies because she was able somehow to both play the role of a sex goddess and simultaneously parody that same role. So while other sex queens could not have gotten away with doing such a role as this one at the age of 85, Mae does much more than "get away with it," and even at this age it's not all parody all the time.
Allowances do have to be made for a very few things. Her wig is one of them, her slightly bizarre makeup that makes her eyes seem way too far apart is another, and her slow movements from time to time is the final one. Still, she has obviously taken very good care of herself over the years, and gets to show herself off at one point in a series of beautiful gowns (with Keith Moon over the top as her dress designer) as she supposedly prepares herself for a screen test.
She is clearly having a lot of fun. The film is set up so that she can consistently deliver the one-liners that made her famous. And these one-liners still work for her, some 45 years after she used this technique in her first film. (And the line about being "the girl who works for Paramount all day and . . . " is probably the funniest of any of her one-liners.) I sat there with a huge smile on my face anytime Mae was onscreen. I would consider her an inspiration to those who feel that after they reach a certain age, it's time to give up. Mae West is just as effervescent and zestful here as she was in her 1930s films.
Her co-stars are quite good, with Dom DeLuise leading the pack, followed closely by (in no particular order) Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr, George Hamilton, and Alice Cooper. I hope I can be forgiven for thinking that Timothy Dalton, who makes up the final member of the Sextette of the title is not quite in their league (and by the way, "sex" is Latin for "six" and I suspect that the original title is more about this than it is about "the act"). Then again Dalton is playing the straight man to all these buffoons, and so his part is a little less showy than theirs. Also, his singing voice is decent although he could stand some lessons on phrasing (not breaking the musical line partway through the phrase).
And speaking of singing, Mae does three numbers through the course of the film. She makes winners out of all three both through her singing voice (remember she even creditably sang opera in 1935's Goin' to Town) and through the force of her personality. Now, this is something we would have missed out if Sextette had been made as a silent.
There are a number of star cameo turns. It's fun to see Regis Philbin way back when (I didn't realize he was that well known in 1978), it's a trip down memory lane to see the once-ubiquitous Rona Barrett, and a bit bizarre to see one Ed Beheler playing Jimmy Carter, something he apparently made a minor career out of (even in some GOP campaign ads). Probably the most touching cameo is that of George Raft, who played the lead in Mae's first film, Night After Night, from 1932.
And of course Mae loved to surround herself with bodybuilders, and she gets a scene with a number of them here. And these are not just guys they picked up off the street; they all have athletic credentials or hold titles such as Mr. America, as is indicated in the closing credits.
Okay, so Gone with the Wind it's not (hence 4 stars instead of 5). It's still a lot of fun, and it's great to see Mae West go out in such grand style.
Movie Review: SHOULD BE CALLED "OCTOGENETTE"
Summary: 4 Stars
Don't get me wrong, this is a d-r-r-r-eadful movie, but for once the phrase "So bad that it's good" is actually true. This was Ms. West's last movie before her death and she appears to be semi-mummified and barely conscious in all her scenes. (After all she was nearly eighty years old.) Still she trots out all the lines for which she's famous - "Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?" "Come up and see me", etc. - standing or lying stiff as a board, however the crew happens to have propped her up I guess. Several well-known actors disgraced their resumés with this picture - Tony Curtis, Ringo Starr and George Hamilton play former husbands, Timothy Dalton plays her current one, Dom Deluise is her manager, the likes of Regis Philbin and Rona Barrett play themselves in cameos, and Alice Cooper plays a singing waiter. (I don't think anyone has heard of him since.) Yes, it is a musical. When Ms. West (in her role of Marlo Manners, famous movie star) enters the lobby of the British hotel where she is spending her honeymoon, the hotel staff begins to dance in a circle around her, singing "Hooray for Hollywood". Ms. West is given such numbers as the Lennon/McCartney crooner "Honey Pie", a disco rendition of "Baby Face" delivered to the members of an international summit meeting, and a Sedaka song about someone turning twenty-one sung to a roomful of nearly-naked bodybuilders. Absolutely not to be missed, however, is Timothy Dalton singing "Love Will Keep Us Together" to his newlywed bride. As if the Captain and Tennille version wasn't bad enough.
This isn't one of those DVD's that presents a lovingly-frame-by-frame restoration of a film. There are no extras whatsoever; it's not widescreen. It looks crappy, but then, it IS crappy.