- Actors: Peter Sellers, Dany Robin, Margaret Leighton, John Fraser, Cyril Cusack
- Directors: John Guillermin
- Writers: Jean Anouilh, Lucienne Hill, Wolf Mankowitz
- Producers: Julian Wintle, Leslie Parkyn, Peter De Sarigny
- Classification: 15
- Studio: Cinema Club
- VHS Release Date: 7 Oct 2002
- Run Time: 105 minutes
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- ASIN: B00005AWEH
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 20,380 in Video (See Top 100 in Video)
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
Product details |
Tag this product(What's this?)Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organise and find favourite items. |
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful
Format:VHS Tape
A decidedly minor and rather oddball addition to the Sellers filmography, dating from the pre-Pink Panther era when Sellers was still more of a comic actor rather than merely a clown. Even so, it was a strange vehicle for him. Originally a stage farce by Jean Anouilh, the script's style suffers from being re-located to England. Called "The Amorous General" on its American release, Sellers plays an old lecher in uniform with an eye for servant girls and a French would-be mistress who has been waiting eighteen years to consumate their affair. Except for a few bits of clumsy slapstick, Sellers gives a refreshingly restrained performance and is assisted by a solid and note-perfect supporting cast that includes Cyril Cusack as a wistful yet rascally doctor, Margaret Leighton as the general's shrewish wife, John Fraser as an upright yet sexually curious young officer, and an amazingly young Prunella Scales as one of the general's precocious daughters. As the mistress, Dany Robin is suitably French and gorgeous but also has a delightful comic touch. So it is a shame that these performers should be let down by such a shapeless script and uncertain direction. Perhaps the film should have been made in black and white to allow the viewer to concentrate more on the characters without being distracted by pretty costumes and lush landscapes. Or maybe the film simply should have been made by the French. Peter Sellers was a considerable comic talent, especially in his earlier films, but he was no farceur. His hero, Alec Guinness, might have got away with playing this role. But Waltz of the Toreadors, in this form, remains the same disappointment it was nearly forty years ago.
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:DVD
this film will appeal to any goon show fan for the fact that peter sellers is basically bringing to life his character major bloodnok but with out the terrible explosive asides. As a farce it does not work, but as a pleasing film with hints of sellers considerable talent, especially evident in the general,s painfull love hate discussions with his wife, i would say sit back turn off all allusions and enjoy a film for the sake of itself.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3 reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
One of the best movies ever made
13 July 2001
Format:DVD
In my humble opinion this is one of the best movies ever made.
Of course it is a funny movie - Peter Sellers is a genius, but this picture is art, and literature as well. The story, the casting, all excellent.
Waltz of the Toreadors is a brilliant metaphor for this story - man without God, stuck in a dizzying dance of his own passions and fears. Life can be wonderful, and yet troubling and depressing. This movie explores the great question - what is the meaning of life? Is it "the urge - because life without the urge is unthinkable." Can the soul be satisfied? This is a serious movie, yet wholly entertaining and funny. The theme is for adults, although the movie is clean with regard to language.
I recommend this movie to you.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
A very satisfying film
3 Sep 2000
Format:DVD
A very enjoyable film. It's both a comedy and a drama. Peter Sellers gives a wonderful performance which binds the film together. It was adapted from a play by Jean Anouilh (remember Becket?), and it's a very enjoyable film. But I have a single caveat - there are some early parts of the film where you may be disappointed by the dramatic nature of the plot, but if you just keep watching, you'll find a film that's both funny and moving - and there aren't many of those! I think the ending must be the most touching of any of Sellers' films.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Sufficient wit at the expense of imagination.
22 Feb 2005
Format:DVD
Based quite loosely upon a play of the same name by Jean Anouilh, this film has been designed not merely as a showcase for the oversize comedic talent of Peter Sellers, but also, due to excessive producer interference, as a sex farce where character predominates over language, after the manner of a well-wrought and linear work of theatre. A droll script by Wolf Mankowitz transposes the action from post World War II France to early 20th century Sussex, arranging the characters in the story-propelled manner of the playwright, whose intensive exploration of the spirit becomes increasingly prominent as the work runs its course, greatly assisted by sensitive performances from Sellers, as the libidinous General Leo Fitzjohn, and by Margaret Leighton as Emily, his suffering wife. The plot spirals about the freshly retired General Fitzjohn and his longwhile Gallic inamorata, Ghislaine (Dany Robin) who have, as seen in a series of flashbacks, never been able to complete their love, but who are apparently finally going to be able to do so; that is, if a series of latter-day obstacles might be overcome. The picture is directed smoothly by John Guillermin, and there are excellent performances from Cyril Cusack as Dr. Grogan, the General's best friend, and John Fraser as a naive subaltern assigned to Fitzjohn, while a magnificent score is contributed by Richard Addinsell, one of his best for the screen, notable for its unreserved use of a minor key to accompany romantic and comic events. Unlike his Absurdist contemporaries, Anouilh never abandoned a sense of existential despair throughout his dramas, and this production succeeds in creating tension between Fitzjohn's sense of loss of place and his ability to forge forward after his natural urges, as evidenced by the delicious ending.
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
