Reviews (54)

DESERT RATS GET ACTUALIZED!
Filmed not too far from here in the town of Baghdad in the Mojave Desert, Percy Adlon's BAGHDAD CAFE has charmed just about everyone who has stumbled across this literally off-the-beaten track 1987 gem that's now available for the first time in a bare-bones widescreen DVD transfer.

The story is deceptively simple. Marianne Sägebrecht is a German tourist who leaves -- and is subsequently abandoned by -- her husband(?) in the California desert. In the middle of nowhere, she makes her way to the run-down, failing, Baghadad Cafe and Motel run by C.C.H. Pounder (ER's Dr. Hicks). The rotund Sägebrecht quickly becomes a part of the eccentric family under Pounders tough-talking rule. Not only that, her presence is the catalyst that transforms the forgotten roadside stop into a bustling business and a life-altering experience for all present. Jack Palance is extraordinary as an ex-Hollywood set designer and artist who sees Sägebrecht's true beauty and becomes obsessed about capturing it on canvas. What he sees Sägebrecht becomes and in the process impacts those she touches. This wonderful film is about loving and accepting and believing and discovering and being. The original music by Bob Telson includes the haunting "Calling You" sung by Javetta Steele. This is one for the digital library. Highest recommendation.

Can't expain the attraction ' just see it
I found Bagdad Cafe on DVD three days ago and have watched it twice since, each time with a big smile on my face. It's difficult to explain why this movie is so haunting; if you try to tell a friend "You've got to see this movie because...", you'd be stuck for a definable reason. It's a very gentle character study of two women, different as can be, who come to understand and even like each other. They are both frustrated with their current positions in life. Jasmin (Marianne Sagebrecht), the stranded German tourist, is willing to start repairing her life, even in this bleak desert setting. Brenda (CCH Pounder) has led such a hard-knocks life that she can't understand or accept anyone trying to help her. There's a wonderful supporting cast surrounding them, but the heart of this movie is the way the two women learn to be friends. You're either going to love this movie or be totally bewildered by what I (and other reviewers) see in it.

This movie was shot in Newberry Springs, near Barstow; the restaurant is still there (originally called Sidewinder Cafe, now renamed the Bagdad Cafe, of course). This is the favorite movie of one of my sister's friend who lives in Brazil. When this friend's daughter Paula visited recently, we stopped by the Bagdad Cafe on the way to Vegas; Paula's mom shed tears of delight when she saw pictures of her daugher making a pilgrimage to this high desert Mecca.

My favorite movie of all time
This movie is just perfect. It deserves all the oscars in the world. After watching this movie, you feel good about life....

Different Worlds Harmonize -- Quiet Gem of a Film
When a middle aged Bavarian Tourist lands in a remote, scarcely populated California desert town, she creates not only a stir with the locals, but eventually brightens the spirits of her host family as well as all the "regulars" who pass through the "Bagdad Cafe". What started out as a "big mistake" soon looks like divine providence.

"Miss Jasmin" (the German lady with a matching accent) and "Miss Brenda" (the rough-talking owner of a greasy-spoon restaurant who employs Jasmin and gives her a home) become close friends. An aging "showbusiness man" (brilliantly played by pre-City-Slickers Jack Palance) views Miss Jasmin as his "muse" and is inspired to paint her portrait. When word gets out that her tourist visa had expired, the local Sheriff forces Jasmin to return to Germany. Sadness canvases the place where Jasmin had been embraced as a welcome change of schedule. The life she had brought with her seemed drained away with her departure.

There isn't much plot to stretch the running time (the original German cut runs nearly 2 hours), however there are many bittersweet moments in this simple, but beautiful film. The last few scenes deliver the inevidible (thus predictable) conclusion. A little on the "artsy" side and clearly without a multi-million dollar budget, but still a palatable final product.****

Yawn.
I'd heard nothing but good things about this movie from critics and family members. Clearly, a lot of folks like this movie. It didn't do a lot for me, though. It had its moments. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

"Town Without Pity" Memorable movie
I saw "Town Without Pity" as a child. It made a very strong impression on me. So strong that I bought my own copy over thirty years later. It is a moving story.

If you appreciate an intelligent film...
Firstly, regarding April 23 2003, it is CHRISTINE, not KRISTINA.

Secondly, if you look at the rear panel of the DVD, you would notice that it states: STANDARD - THEATRICAL RELEASE FORMAT - usually, this indicates a 1:33:1 aspect ratio that IS fullscreen on a 4:3 NON-16x9 enhanced TV - but, you are viewing it in the aspect ratio that you would see in a theatre presentation.

Thirdly, you will NOT be disappointed by this film. It is NOT dated in ANY WAY - all the performances are TOP NOTCH - the black&white cinematography is stunning - the dialog does NOT flinch from the seriousness of the subject matter - the direction is crisp and the camera angles are pure enjoyment.

You appreciate good films? Check out - The Bad And The Beautiful - Seven Days In May - Anatomy Of A Murder - Sweet Smell Of Success - The Train - Brute Force - Naked City - DOA - The Blue Gardenia - Quicksand - The Big Combo - Down By Law - Mystery Train - Dead Man - Ghost Dog (Way of the Samuari) - Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas - Vertigo - Man With The Golden Arm - The Killers - Last Year At Marienbad - That Obscure Object Of Desire - Seven Samuari - Yojimbo - Sanjuro - Rashomon - High And Low - Hidden Fortress - Secretary - The Killing - Killers Kiss etc...

Kristina Kaufman fan
This was a great film that I was thrilled to find available on DVD but my excitement was dashed when I realized it was not transferred in widescreen. Why do the studios keep goofing it up? I want to see the complete scope of the picture as it was shown in the theaters. I pass on this purchase!

Powerful and haunting drama
One of the best legal dramas, in my opinion, and still a powerful and haunting film after 40 years. Memorable performances from Kirk Douglas as the defense attorney, Christine Kaufman as the teenage rape victim, and Robert Blake and Frank Sutton among the defendants. It's unfortunate that the only extra is the original theatrical trailer.

When those little minds tear you in two...
In order to understand this movie, you have to have some familiarity with German stage-classics, notably Wedekind's "Spring Awakening". Although it is listed as an American movie, it resembles nothing in American cinema, and is basically a German production. The director credits us with enough intelligence to listen to both languages; the Americans speak English, the Germans speak German, and a bit of voice-over narration explains things when absolutely necessary.

Once you understand the style of this movie, you can easily see it as the greatest of all the teen-angst movies that flourished around then; it makes "Rebel without a Cause" look like a Sunday picnic. The theme song became a smash hit in 1961; I often marvelled at the complexity of its music, then I found out that it was written by a real composer - Dimitri Tiomkin. Tiomkin actually wrote a lot of sentimental c**p, but I forgive him if he could turn out something this beautiful.

As to the story, I don't want to spoil things for viewers, and they can find it out from other reviews if they must. I just want to comment on the subtlety and craftsmanship that have gone into it, similar to the 1963 The Haunting. The black-and-white photography works beautifully; colour would look out of place. The heroine's final fate is not shown directly, only mentioned in a snatch of dialogue; it's much more devastating that way.

I challenge anyone to nname a courtrooom drama as effective as this one. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

DISGRACEFUL DVD release of a classic film. AVOID!!
As a big fan of the Sword'n'Sandal genre I had really been looking forward to owning this movie, as I had seen it rated by many people as being THE best movie of this type.

Well first of all, I was extremely upset to find that this is yet another case of a lush, beautiful late 50s/early 60s period piece super-duper deluxe WIDE SCREEN movie being released in an el-cheapo panned and scanned FULL SCREEN version. In this movie's case, the vista must have been extra-wide, because it seems that at least 1/2 of the picture is missing at all times. Thus I found it IMPOSSIBLE to enjoy a viewing of this DVD. Not only that, but the print of the movie used is in extremely faded and poor condition.

This DVD boasts that as a bonus it also contains the full 1913 silent version. The print of the 1913 movie is in equally abysmal shape.

As for the movie itself, although it is very highly rated by many people, I personally did not enjoy it as much as Reeves' other flicks. The story centres around some oh so goody two-shoes Christians in Pompeii who are being persecuted by the oh so evil, underhanded and two-timing head priest of the local heathen-god worshipping temple and his equally heathen and Godless henchmen. I guess if you're a hard-core Christian you may enjoy it, but I found myself gritting my teeth at times at the utterly preachy plot.

It should be mentioned that this story was also made into a TV mini-series in 1984, and although it shared the same stilted plot with this movie, I found that it was still much more entertaining, enjoyable and watchable than this rather plodding and dated version. If the 1984 mini-series were to come out on DVD (hint, hint, DVD making people out there) --remastered and the FULL uncut mini-series that is--, I would be interested in owning it, what with its high production values and good actors.

As for this movie, if you're a Steve Reeves fan or a fan of 50s/60s Italian Sword'n'Sandal flicks you will probably still like it, but I would recommend waiting till a better DVD version is made. The lazy people who put out this present horrible version do not deserve to get another penny of anyone else's money. ... Read more

Reviews (6)

BOO!
The worst movie ever made, EVER! It is SO boring and stupid and it has no point or plot. Its picture is terrible and so are the actors! BAD MOViE!

One of the more elaborate Italian epics
I ran this film (which was called CONSTANTINE THE GREAT here in the UK)in May, 1963, when I was a cinema projectionist. At the time, Italian historical spectaculars were very much the in thing, just as spaghetti Westerns would be a few years later. At the time, I thought it was quite good and a more elaborate example of the genre and particularly liked Mario Nascimbene's score. Looked at today, however, over forty years later, I have to agree with the sentiments expressed by the above reviewer. Despite amazon.com saying the film is in black and white, it's actually in Eastmancolor and TotalScope, an Italian form of CinemaScope. Unfortunately, this video transfer is one of the worst I have ever seen of a Scope film and whoever at VCI Home Video is responsible for it should be sacked. The ratio is all wrong and the anamorphic film has been transferred to video semi-squeezed, so that all the characters look tall and thin. It hurts your eyes after a while. The 35mm copy it was transferred to video from is a badly worn original exhibition print and full of splices, especially at the beginning and end of each reel, with scratched in queu marks jumping about all over the place. Presentation is everything with a film like this. It badly needs remastering properly from a brand new print and the picture correctly stretched out to its intended ratio of 2.35:1, so that there is no more image distortion. Conversely, the sound quality is excellent.

Bad History And Even Worse Filmaking
I stopped expecting Hollywood epics to be historically correct. This is supposed to be entertainment, not history. Unfortunately, it fails on both accounts. This film is one of those cheaply made epics that truly inspires laughter. Whomever wrote the dialogue for this film should have been hung! I have never seen Cornell Wilde in a worse role. If the real Constantine had given lame pre battle speeches like the ones in this film, we would all still be worshipping Zeus. The only redeeming value of this film is that it is so poorly acted that it does provide some great laughs.

Worth seeing for fans of antiquity
The vast majority of this movie that centers on Constantine's personal life is pure fiction. However, that is not so bad; "Gladiator" re-wrote history, too, but was nonetheless a great movie. And this movie does not fabricate history just to fabricate, but rather it does so with the objective of tying Constantine and Christianity together.

One of the more notable scenes in which historical fact comes together with a fudging of Constantine's life is the arena scene. In this segment, Constantine jumps down into a pit where Christians are maliciously being slaughtered. Historically, the feeding-the-Christians-to-the-lions motif is right on. Under the emperor Galerius (ruled 305-311 A.D., shortly before Constantine ascended to the throne), Christian persecution was at its height. While it is untrue that Constantine slew lions to save Christians, the arena scene nevertheless serves as an excellent depiction of incidents which really happened.

The really notable quality of this movie lies in its portrayal of major historical happenings. As a previous reviewer noted, Diocletian and Maximian really did abdicate the throne in 308. It is also true that his mother, Helena, was a Christian (although the details re: his relationship w/her in the movie are fictional). He did marry Fausta (although he had her and his eldest son Crispus put to death for treason in 326 - long after the time period covered in this movie). The inclusion of Constantine's "divine vision" before his battle with Maxentius is essential; perhaps one of the defining moments in the entire history of Christianity. The actual battle itself is also given accurate treatment as Maxentius' cavalry was ambushed and trapped by Constantine's forces, just as the film claims.

Now, for the bad news. I found the acting of the females in this movie quite well done, but the male actors were stilted, overly-dramatic & pretty much downright awful. The quality of the film itself also leaves quite a bit to be desired. All of the scratches and skips are amplified by the DVD picture.

All in all, this film is most definitely not for everyone. However, it is well worth the time for anyone who is interested in Roman history, world history or the history of Christianity.

One of the better sword and sandal films
Now joining the crowded field of budget DVD makers is Diamond Entertainment Corp. And like some of their ilk, the results are mixed. Which is better than most of their ilk, who are just plain lousy.

I first saw Constantine and The Cross three years ago on an EP recorded videotape released by DEC. Now with the DVD, I've noticed a few changes. First, the main titles and prologue were rife with print damage: tears, scratches, etc. It looks like they've gone back and cleaned it up by running still images of each title card over the original music. The prologue text following it looks video generated, evidenced by the black dropshadow that wasn't there in the original text. Otherwise, the DVD is about the same as the tape, with the faded color and print damage mentioned by the first reviewer. Also worth mentioning is how the movie(both DVD and VHS) is letterboxed at a ratio significantly less than the 2.35 to 1 ratio of its Totalscope process. 2 to 1 at best, and everyone is a little on the thin side, suggesting then that the anamorphic print was not fully "unsqueezed".

The technical issues aside, I must say that Constantine and The Cross is a good movie that separates itself from other Italian spectacles with an intelligent script and capable actors. The production values seem higher than most of that era, though it does suffers from lethargic and poorly staged battles like other peplum. ... Read more