Heartbeat

Customer Reviews:

Tender Tale.......2007-07-14

Most people will not be familiar with this movie in Ginger's career. However, she brings her usual professionalism and vitality to the role and make you want to cry at the happy ending.

Did I get the only bad copy ever made?.......2007-01-14

This may be a good movie; I couldn't tell because the picture/sound-quality was so bad.

View it again in a Heartbeat (recommended).......2006-07-08

In this 1946 comedic role, 18-year-old Arlette Lafon (35-year old Ginger Rogers) has a Doris-Day-mixed-with-Nancy-Drew screen presence. She is lively, funny, and virtuous. Her morality makes her an obvious misfit for what will take place. Leaving reform school, Arlette joins a French pickpocket class headed by a very animated Professor Aristide (Basil Rathbone of Sherlock Holmes fame) to have room and board. With natural acting ability, she becomes a star pupil despite her desire to be honest. Unhappy with the thought of stealing, she contemplates returning to reform school. A befriended pickpocket classmate convinces her that entering a "white marriage" of convenience would prevent her from that unpleasant destiny. All she needs is money to pay for the arrangement. With such a noble goal in mind, she sets out for the French public with her newly learned craft.

The temporary success of her first heist leads to a guilty conscious and indebted service to an ambassador at a fancy ball where she meets young French diplomat Pierre La Roche (Jean Pierre Aumont) under false pretenses. After confessing her sins and goals to him, she expects him to marry her. Arlette and Pierre are obviously attracted to each other. However, he decides to sponsor a deadbeat to fill the husbandly role so as not to sully his diplomatic reputation. As she plays along with his stubbornness, Pierre's feelings grow even stronger. She even belts out a love song in a swimsuit to allure Pierre's affection. Whoever gets Arlette in the end is truly the winner.

The funny HEARTBEAT story and invigorated acting compensate for the poor B+W image quality of the DVD and the unconvincing 18-year-old claim. There are no extras but for the low price (especially when purchased used), it's an entertaining way to spend 100 minutes multiple times.

Movie quote: "Steal to stay honest? For that, I'll do it."

one of Ginger Rogers' most lovely screwball comedies.......2005-12-07

HEARTBEAT is a delightful film from RKO, which stars Ginger Rogers. She plays an escaped reform-school girl called Arlette Lafon, who becomes a pupil in Professor Aristide's (Basil Rathbone) school for petty crime. Arlette is a reluctant pupil but soon shows much promise in the art of pocket-picking. One day whilst trying to steal the tie-pin of an ambassador (Adolphe Menjou), she is thrown into a scheme to unmask a debonair young politician called Pierre la Roche (Jean-Pierre Aumont). Complications arise when Arlette and Pierre begin to fall in love, but what will happen when he discovers her criminal associations?

Ginger Rogers is the angel on top of the Christmas-tree in this delightful screwball comedy. True, perhaps the film might have been enhanced by having a European actress playing Arlette (Danielle Darrieux and Simone Simon come to mind), but Rogers is so lovely here it's hard to imagine the film being better without her. Jean-Pierre Aumont is a capable partner; Menjou and Rathbone are wonderful as the metaphorical puppeteers manipulating Rogers.

Alpha's DVD has a watchable print. For the most part, the picture is sharp and well-defined, with varying degrees of dirt and debris throughout the film. A pleasant treat for Ginger Rogers fans.

Sweet & romantic classic.......2003-02-25

Set in France, this romantic non-musical stars Ginger Rogers as Arlette, a young pick-pocket who falls in love with a handsome diplomat (Jean Pierre Aumont). Fresh out of pick pocket school, Arlette gets caught on her first professional attempt and ends up at an embassy ball where she is blackmailed into stealing a watch from a young diplomat.
To her surprise, she not only succeeds in stealing his watch but also in stealing his heart as he easily falls for her beauty and charm. Enchanted by him herself, Arlette tries to hide the truth from him but can't do it for very long.
Watch Basil Rathbone in a brief but funny performance as the professor of the pick pocket school, and enjoy the great on-screen chemistry between Rogers and Aumont.

Average customer rating:

TOO MANY TWISTS CAN SPOIL THE PRETZEL
It's GOOD!
Twisted
Re-Release of "Victim of Love"
Steamy, Hot Movie

Victim of Love
Starring: Pierce Brosnan , JoBeth Williams , Virginia Madsen , Georgia Brown , and Murphy Cross
Director: Jerry London
Manufacturer: Studio / Sterling
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: 6305232687
Release Date: 1998-12-01

Amazon.com

It gradually dawns on therapist Tess Parker (JoBeth Williams) that the shocking claims her patient Carla (Virginia Madsen) makes about a former lover dovetail to a startling degree with facts she learns about Paul Tomlinson (Pierce Brosnan), the smooth English professor she's currently wacky over. Is Paul merely a feckless womanizer, or are there darker secrets lurking about his former wife's demise? You won't care if you're a Pierce Brosnan fan (and if you aren't, you still won't find out), because this made-for-TV erotic thriller is basically a vehicle for his talents. There is a solid performance by Brosnan, who cleverly uses deficiencies in the dialogue to suggest his character's duplicity. The lovely and nervous Virginia Madsen is always in search of an emotional memory not hinted at in the script. JoBeth Williams looks like she'd rather be saying, "Don't go into the light!" Jagged Edge meets Spellbound, then gets bored and has 9½ Weeks over for the weekend; they get drunk late at night and try to pretend they're variously North by Northwest and Suspicion. Plunders the most unmistakable of Hitchcock set pieces to string together numerous erotic interludes, surprisingly to no ill effect. --Jim Gay

Customer Reviews:

TOO MANY TWISTS CAN SPOIL THE PRETZEL.......2005-03-23

Is dashing Pierce Brosnan a wife murderer?
Is he a manipulative cad? Is he telling the truth or is Virginia Madsen? And why is an average looking Jobeth Williams such a desired commodity for Brosnan?
These and many other questions are left unanswered in this made for TV dud. The script tries to be Hitchcockian in its many twists, but Hitch knew how to make those twists convincing, whereas the writers of RAW HEAT merely hoped for any similarities. Williams as a shrink does a real no-no in revealing something a client told her in confidence; she also vacillates back and forth in trying to assess Brosnan's duplicity, and the end is so uh-oh, what have I done, it makes no sense. And who really killed Brosnan's wife?
Brosnan is an automaton, capitalizing on his suave looks, and Madsen shows some of the talent that would eventually lead to her Oscar nominated performance in SIDEWAYS. But RAW HEAT is DEAD COLD in my book.

It's GOOD!.......2005-03-23

The cheesy late 80's-early 90's saxophone aside, it's pretty good, for something of this genre. THe first love screen between the two main characters is red-hot, as are the rest of them. There's a lot of twists and turns that leave you wondering if Paul (Brosnan's character) is bad or good, but ultimately, you realize it's Pierce Brosnan, who cares, I just want him. :)
Solid work from everyone and a decent way to waste a weekend or weekday afternoon.

Twisted.......2004-01-29

I thought it had great apeal. Very twisted turn of events that keep you hanging and guessing.

Re-Release of "Victim of Love".......2003-01-01

A word to the wise: I purchased this for my wife's Pierce Brosnan collection only to discover that it is a re-titled re-release of "Victim of Love", which we already owned on DVD. Buyer beware: two versions of the same DVD are being listed for sale simultaneously under different titles and packaging without any disclosure of the duplicate content.

Steamy, Hot Movie.......2001-07-18

I was not expecting a good movie, but I was pleasantly surprised. I highly recommend this movie. Pierce Bronson is sexy and so is Jo Beth Williams. A real thriller-under-rated.

Average customer rating:

Baby Snatcher
Starring: Rober Bearde , David Duchovny , Penny Fuller , Gretchen Grant , and Veronica Hamel
Director: Joyce Chopra
Manufacturer: Allumination
ProductGroup: DVD
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Product Features:

scene access
interactive menus
biographies
filmography

ASIN: B000HY3TPW
Release Date: 2006-11-16

Product Description

One woman's passion becomes her greatest torment when having nothing to lose becomes everything in this true story. Bionica Hudson longs for children and is overjoyed when she discovers that she is pregnant. But her happiness turns to desperation when she loses the child early in pregnancy and fears that without a child she may lose her husband too. The lives of 2 women collide when Bioica, desperate to replace the child she lost fakes her pregnancy and abducts Sophie to pass on as her own.

Average customer rating:

Poe meets Jules Verne (sort of...)
War Gods, what are they good for? Absolutely nothing, uh huh
SO BAD IT'S, WELL, BAD
Enjoyable and Visually Appealling Film
IT SINKS!!

War Gods of the Deep
Starring: Vincent Price , Tab Hunter , David Tomlinson , Susan Hart , and John Le Mesurier
Director: Jacques Tourneur
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B00005O075
Release Date: 2001-11-20

Amazon.com

Vincent Price and Tab Hunter star in this entertainingly silly adventure. Very, very loosely based on Edgar Allan Poe's "City in the Sea," War-Gods of the Deep starts off just right, with a stormy night and a huge old mansion by the sea. Before you know it, everyone is charging through secret passages and swimming around in enormous diving helmets. The plot zips along nicely, and the cast of pros knows just what to do with it. By this point in his career, Vincent Price could do tragic brooding menace with both hands tied behind his back, but he still puts his all into it like a champ. David Tomlinson also does a great job as half of a comic relief team--the other half being an uncredited chicken. This may not be a story for the ages, but it's not a bad way to spend an evening. -Ali Davis

Customer Reviews:

Poe meets Jules Verne (sort of...).......2006-07-28

For once, I found myself in agreement with every other reviewer here. Read 'em all, they know whereof they speak!

Having just polished off all 8 Roger Corman POE films (plus CASTLE OF BLOOD), I set my sights on this, hoping it might turn out better than I remembered. As it happens, it was EXACTLY as I remembered. Can't win 'em all. AIP refused to let their POE series end with Corman's departure, and plowed on. There does seem to be a lot of talent involved here... except, like the 3rd season of LOST IN SPACE, it feels like it was shot from a 1st-draft script that could have used a LOT of extra work.

The story, involving a seaside mansion, secret tunnels, underground caverns, and a secret "world" lorded over by a megalomaniacal madman will no doubt remind the viewer of several other films, most of which are better than this one. Using a POEM as a jumping-off point (they'd done it before with THE RAVEN) this seems to borrow ideas from such Jules Verne stories as JOURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH, THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, and perhaps others less well known. Price is classic as always, though his character shows virtually no admirable qualities. Tab Hunter seems to be walking thru the picture. Susan Hart is a DOLL, but gets VERY little to do. I like David Tomlinson, generally... just NOT HERE. He's annoying, and so is his chicken, oddly named Herbert (is that a reverse on "A Boy Named Sue"?). John Le Mesurier, who I've seen in many films & tv shows, actually gets a chance to exhibit more depth and emotion in his brief scenes as the long-kidnapped preacher than I've ever seen from him, and perhaps more than anyone else in the film!

I often get frustrated with characters like Price's "Captain" who simply CAN'T be reasoned with. He issues Tab Hunter an IMPOSSIBLE task and deadline, then quickly condemns him to a watery grave. (Was anyone surprised?) He kidnapped Susan Hart because she's a DEAD RINGER for his long-dead wife. While a staple of late-model DRACULA films (including those with Gary Oldman, Frank Langella AND William Marshall), I wonder where this idea really originated, as the earliest use of it seems to be the 1932 Karloff classic, THE MUMMY.

While the basic premise is interesting, the cast adequate, and the sets & props excellent, the writing drags it down unforgiveably, leaving no room for the director or the actors to go with it. I was also confused by the layout of the tunnels (considering how important they were to the plot, it's a point of confusion that should have been better handled). And of course, the climactic underwater action scenes are just impossible to follow. (This is no THUNDERBALL-- made the same year!) A shame... this makes THE PREMATURE BURIAL look like 5 stars by comparison!

War Gods, what are they good for? Absolutely nothing, uh huh.......2004-04-22

In an effort to determine what exactly went wrong with War Gods of the Deep (1965) aka City in the Sea, I looked at the individuals involved in bringing this film to life. The story is based on an Edgar Allen Poe poem, The City in the Sea, so it had good roots. The director, Jacques Tourneur, seems quite accomplished, at the very least prolific, directing scads of films and television shows from the 30's all the way into the 60's. Let's look at the writers...Charles Bennett, well, he appears to be a very capable writer, responsible for a few films I've really enjoyed like The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) and The 39 Steps (1935). Let's see, who is the other writer? Louis M. Heyward? The schlock producer/writer responsible for such films like Pajama Party (1964), Sergeant Dead Head (1965), and Ghost in the Invisible Bikini (1966)? Oh bruther...Oh wait, I also see he was a production executive for KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park (1978)...I think I've found the weak link in this production.

The film stars Vincent Price as The Captain, 50's teen heart throb (also known as 'the sigh guy') Tab Hunter as Ben Harris, Susan Hart (who was married at the time to James H. Nicholson, one of the founders of the AIP, the studio that released this film...big mystery as to how she got the part here...) as Jill Tregillis, English character actor David Tomlinson as the foppish Harold Tiffin-Jones, and Herbert, the chicken...yes, there is a chicken in this film, and it did get a screen credit at the end.

Okay, the film opens pretty well, with a dark and stormy night and a large, isolated manor house/hotel on a secluded Cornish coast, sitting on the edge of a high cliff before the raging sea. A body washes onto the shore, and some locals discover it's a lawyer who is assisting American Jill Tregillis manage the transition of an estate from a recently passed relative...I think...the finer points of the story got a little muddled, and continued to do so throughout the film. Ben Harris, and American geologist (I think) gets involved, for whatever reason, and goes to tell Jill that her lawyer (or barrister, as I think they are referred to in good old England) has bit the proverbial big one. No one seemed particularly put out by this fellow's demise, giving me the impression that the English feel the same about their legal professionals as we do in the states. Here we meet one of the residents of the house, an artist named Harold Tiffin-Jones, and his pet chicken named Herbert. Why does he have a pet chicken? Well, I didn't get the impression he was married, so draw your own conclusions. After Ben has a slight skirmish with a mysterious intruder, he finds that Jill is missing, so he, Harold, and Hubert investigate. They find a secret passage, one that leads to caves and such beneath the manor, and find a giant whirlpool, to which they promptly fall in...what a couple of goons...and awaken in the city underneath the sea...oh bruther...

Some stuff happens, barely, and the boys (and the chicken) meet The Captain. Seems many moons ago the city was a land based one, but fell into the sea, pulled there by an underwater volcano. The residents at the time, being very smart, fashioned machines and such to enable them to continue to live in their city, but weren't smart enough just to just leave the city as it was sinking...and now The Captain is the leader, king, whatever, of the now remnants of this once great city, and is desperately searching for a way to save the city from the increasingly active volcano that threatens their existence, sending fish men and such to the surface to steal books, kidnap people, whatever, all in a means to try and stave off disaster. Yes, there are fish men, who aid the humans in the city underneath the sea for some reason or other. Why? I haven't the slightest idea... Why don't the humans just leave the city, you ask? I wondered that myself... Well, living in the sea has been a sort of blessing as well as a curse, extended their lives to highly un-natural lengths, but has rendered them highly susceptible to the ultra-violet rays of the sun in that prolonged exposure would cause rapid aging followed by death. Why kidnap Jill? Because she bears an uncanny likeness to The Captain's deceased wife...oh bruther...

War Gods of the Deep actually has some pretty good-looking sets and gave a glimmer of hope that was soon extinguished as the plot unfolded. As far as the source material is involved, Price does have some voice-over with him reading passages from the Edgar Allen Poe poem, but that's about it...Vincent Price and David Tomlinson are fun to watch, but really can't help save this drecky mess. Tab Hunter and Susan Hart are obviously thrown in for eye candy, as neither seems entirely capable of pulling off their respective characters. This film seems to try to do for Edgar Allen Poe's poem what Journey to the Center of the Earth (1959) for Jules Verne's story, even borrowing elements from that much better film, replacing the goose from the film with a chicken. Too bad it didn't work. Oh, and I can't finish without mentioning the drawn-out underwater scenes that tried to create all kinds of suspense and tension, but due to the fact that movement is restricted and everyone moves, in effect, slow motion, these scenes had quite the opposite effect, and will probably prompt the viewer to be looking for the fast forward on the remote.

The wide screen print here looks okay, with a few blemishes, and there is a trailer, but that's it for special features, unless you count the availability of French and Spanish subtitles.

Cookieman108

SO BAD IT'S, WELL, BAD.......2002-04-19

With little fanfare, MGM has quietly transferred a handful of great B films to DVD that they not too arbitrarily categorize as "Midnight Movies." The nice looking digital prints are in their original theatrical format and appear as if they were taken from original material. The discs come with no substantial extras but care has been lavished on the box art, often reflecting the lurid lobby cards and posters of their initial release. Even acknowledging the B category, these are for the most part well-crafted and, well, adequately acted.

In "WAR GODS OF THE DEEP," the late and much-lamented Vincent Price co-stars with 50s pretty boy Tab Hunter in an adaptation of an Edgar Allan Poe story that pits he-men against gill-men with sexy Susan Hart caught in the middle.

See, Price is uberlord of a lost underwater city (apparently built by a low bid papier mache developer), and he's got gillgoons that kidnap landubbers. The second half is a showdown between brave humans and slimy fishmen with an angry, about to blow volcano towering over everything. ...

This gets 3 stars 'cause Vincent Price and Edgar Poe had a hand in it.

Enjoyable and Visually Appealling Film.......2002-01-04

Although the story-telling and pacing leave a lot to be desired, this is a nice addition to the very collectible MGM Midnite Movies series. Great sets, locations, and actors (Vincent Price, whom many would pay to hear him recite his laundry list) make this a very visually appealing film. I disagree with Maltin's comment about the "shoddy underwater city". For its time, the visual effects (with the notable exception of the gill-men ), sets, and props were impressive. Try it out and see for yourself.

IT SINKS!!.......2001-12-16

As a storm rages outside a creepy old mansion on a clifftop, lovely Susan Hart is kidnapped by a half-fish/half-man creature and taken to Vincent Price's undersea lair. Tab Hunter, David Tomlinson and Herbert The Chicken (who gets a special screen credit at the end) go to rescue her. I wont say any more about the plot in case you want to check this out for yourself. I thought the movie was not campy, outrageous nor exciting enough to be anything more than a pleasant Sunday-afternoon time-killer. Director Jacques Tourneur has done some great stuff in the past (like Curse Of The Demon)and I was hoping for more thrills....oh well! Vincent Price just walks through this one having nowhere near as much fun as he does in some of the other AIP Poe adaptations and in Dr Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine (also with Susan Hart). The DVD itself has great artwork, a nice letterbox print and good sound plus a trailer.

Average customer rating:

This is not a love song, nor a good film
This is not a love song
A drama/thriller with a great sense of dark humor and irony.

This Is Not a Love Song
Starring: Michael Colgan (IV) , Kenneth Glenaan , David Bradley (IV) , John Henshaw , and Chris Middleton (II)
Director: Billie Eltringham
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
ProductGroup: DVD
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Amazon.com

Shot on digital video, This Is Not a Love Song will make you think twice before hiking across the misty highlands of Scotland. This isn't a horror film, but as thrillers go it might just qualify, since it's about horrible people doing horrible things in a place that, under these particular circumstances, is also quite horrible. The trouble begins when an Irish "eejit" named Spike kills a farmer's daughter with a shotgun blast that might have been accidental. His buddy Heaton (Kenny Glenaan) is marginally smarter, but they're both pretty helpless in the boggy highland forests, as local vigilantes pursue their own course of justice. This gritty material marked a change of pace for writer Simon Beaufoy (The Full Monty), and it's been glibly called a hybrid of Trainspotting and Deliverance. Those are apt comparisons, but apart from embracing the no-budget "Dogme" aesthetic, this British feature barely holds interest through its use of atmospheric landscapes, subtitles to decipher impenetrable accents, and energetic lead performances. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

This is not a love song, nor a good film.......2004-04-21

This film is very very disappointing. In the UK they sold it as the 'British version of Deliverance'. It was shot for half a million pounds, and it makes you wonder where all that money went?

The film was shot on a digital camcorder (PD150) but I have seen other films shot on digital camcorders that are not only much better, but which have cost around 10 thousand pounds to make. If this film had been shot for 10 thousand I'd give it three stars and say it was a good effort. But for the money invested, this film really makes you feel cheated out of your money.

The acting is pretty poor, and the direction is average. You have to bare in mind that the director shot the whole thing in 2 weeks, so she was obviously not going to produce her best direction. The script was a bit shoddy, but then that was also written in 2 weeks, so again you take it into consideration. I thought the photography and shot composition overall was pretty good, but at the end of the day this is a film, and as such, the story and acting is what matters, and they fall flat on their face.

Overall, very disappointing.

This is not a love song.......2003-10-14

This film is well done: the storyline is gripping, dark and tragic; the acting is admirable; and the director clearly knew what he was doing. Still it's not a film for everybody as it is so morbid. You might like it just as well as you might not. I have mixed feeling about it but i have to admire it, regardless.

A drama/thriller with a great sense of dark humor and irony........2003-06-11

If youýre into the downward spiral phenomenon then you will enjoy this movie intensely. The best part about the way this film is structured is that you forced into developing an intense connection with these two deplorable guys and end up rooting for them while doom hangs over their heads and hunts them through the bogy countryside. The acting by Cologan and Glenaan make this film a thoroughly worthwile and enjoyable experience. By all means check this one out.

DVD:

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