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List Price: $14.98 | | Label: MGM (Video & DVD)
Salesrank: 75021
Released: December 4, 2007 |
| Our Price: $5.95 |
| Used Price: $4.99 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Hollywood legends Marlon Brando, Frank Sinatra, Jean Simmons and Vivian Blain (from the original Broadway cast) are dazzling in this Frank Loesser (How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying) masterpiece, unleashing a "spectacular, song-and-dance show that's loaded with entertainment" (New York Journal-American). Featuring hits like "Luck Be a Lady" and "A Woman in Love," this smash film version of one of Broadway's most popular musicals is guaranteed, rip-roaring "four-starentertainment" (New York Daily News). The slickest big-time New York City gamblers,Sky Masterson (Brando) and Nathan Detroit (Sinatra), can't resist making or taking a bet on anything. So when a pretty missionary (Simmons) sets up shop in the neighborhood, Nathan stakes a grand that Sky can't seduce her. But all bets are off when Sky falls madly in love in this romantic musical spectacular that sets the Big Apple afire with excitement!
Description of Guys and Dolls (Decades Collection with CD):
Joseph Mankiewicz's brightly stylized film of Frank Loesser's classic musical (based on the stories of Damon Runyon) casts the criminal underworld as a harmless fantasy in this whimsical vision of the Big Apple. Nonsingers Marlon Brando and Jean Simmons acquit themselves fine in the lead roles as high-rolling gambler Sky Masterson and Salvation Army missionary Sarah Brown. It's odd casting, to say the least. Frank Sinatra, who plays the good old reliable Nathan Detroit (who runs "the oldest established permanent floating crap game in New York") is left with novelty tunes while husky Brando delivers the love songs and hits, including "Luck Be a Lady." But in the context of the colorful dialogue and comically affected speech patterns (a giddy gangster-speak straight out of Runyon's breezy stories) the song performances aren't the least out of place. Stubby Kaye, reprising his role as Nicely Nicely from the Broadway run, practically steals the show in his few scenes and his show-stopping solo "Sit Down, You're Rocking the Boat." The film is overlong at two and a half hours and somewhat stagily confined in the stylized, studio-bound sets--perhaps the mark of a director who had never helmed a musical before--but a terrific cast of eccentrics and Michael Kidd's high-energy choreography gives the film a memorable and enchanting character. --Sean Axmaker
Guys and Dolls (Decades Collection with CD) Reviews:
Guys & Dolls video 
2009-12-28 - absolutely one of the best musicals ever. cast, songs and production numbers are first rate.
Brando sings. 
2009-11-13 - When this film was originally released, the tagline on the advertisements said "Brando Sings". And sing he does, although alongside Frank Sinatra, his singing voice leaves much to be desired. And yet he pulls it off somehow, his Sky Masterson being a roguish, handsome bad boy determined to win the heart of the Salvation Army maiden.
Since this is a Sam Goldwyn production, the requisite "Goldwyn Girls" make several appearances, adding some old-fashioned Broadway glitz to this "Fable of Broadway". Vivian Blaine often steals the show as Adelaide, while Sinatra never quite lets us forget that he is Sinatra, his Nathan Detroit more a version of himself rather than an original character. His song written for the film ("Adelaide") really feels out of place, belonging more to the Sinatra Vegas act of the time.
With the deletion of several songs from the original stage show (Marry the Man Today, My Time of Day), the film doesn't quite deliver the entire show, and yet it stands on its own as an entertaining musical film, capturing some of the innocence of old-time gangster films and the spirit of the original Damon Runyan stories.
Passably entertaining
2009-08-11 - The Bottom Line:
Guys and Dolls is not a great movie musical and it feels a little long at 150 minutes, but Brando and Sinatra are fun to watch and if you can get past the intentionally-exaggerated New Yawk accents you'll probably enjoy the film; don't expect a classic but rent it if you like the actors or the genre.
3/4
Topless Entertainment
2009-07-31 - Contrary to some other reviewers, the numbers in the Kit Kat Club are precisely what Broadway was all about ..... big, brassy and slightly raunchy musical numbers inserted into the storyline and usually completely dispensable to the plot. They are a delight in this film and explode right off the screen when they appear. Then, there is the moonlit night in old Havana. Has there EVER been a more romantic scene in a musical? Just look at Jean Simmons' eyes as she gazes at Brando! And that song, "A Woman in Love", composed just for the film .... it will get right into your head and stay there for weeks. I just love this film in spite of Brando's weak attempt at "Luck Be a Lady..." Oh, yeah .... the title of my review. I am not referring to the Kit Kat Club numbers but rather the insane cropping that lops off the tops of heads in a few scenes (Anamorphic Deluxe Edition). Otherwise it would have been a "Five Star"!
Don't buy this if you have a wide screen tv!!!! 
2009-03-30 - The ratio seems to be right for widescreen (about 16:9) but it is surrounded by large black bands so the film only takes up about half of the the actual screen, maybe even less. Which makes for a very unpleasant viewing experience to say the least.
