Product Details

• Actors: Susan Hayward, John Gavin, Vera Miles, Charles Drake, Virginia Grey
• Directors: David Miller
• Writers: Eleanore Griffin, Fannie Hurst, William Ludwig
• Producers: Ross Hunter
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: February 3, 1993
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (50 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300183874
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #86,229 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

VHS Video approximately 1 hour 47 minutes**Stars Susan Hayward, John Gavin, Vera Miles, Charles Drake, Virginia Grey, Reginald Gardiner

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

57 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Tear-Jerker with a Knockout Performance, September 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Back Street [VHS] (VHS Tape)

As the 1950's came to an end, it seemed as though the genre known as the "tear-jerker" was the sole property of Lana Turner. Having starred in "Portrait in Black" and "Imitation of Life," it was obviously the American movie-going public could not except anyone else in their "weepies." However, Universal gave Susan Hayward a shot with a remake of an earlier work "Back Street." Saddled with contract player John Gavin, a Rock Hudson "clone", Miss Hayward was good as "the other woman" romantically involved with a married man. But, the movie belongs to Vera Miles as the "scorned" wife. She ignites every scene with a bitchiness that rivals anything every filmed. Her Liz Saxon is an alcoholic, an adultress, a poor mother, and a flashy dresser, to boot. The confrontation between Hayward's Rae Smith and Miles' Saxon at a trendy Paris fashion show is a highlight for its over-the-top melodrama that only could've been made by Ross Hunter. They just don't make 'em like that any more! It's our loss.

64 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars TEARSTAINED IN MINK, July 3, 2004

By 

Michael C. Smith "[e-mail]" (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Back Street [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Susan Hayward and Lana Turner battled it out on the screen in the early 1960's for the heavy weight crown of tearstained mink queen of the movies. What was left for an actress over 40 in 1961 but the highly glamorous gloss of a Ross Hunter picture or the grand gargoyle glamour of something like "Baby Jane"? Not much. To be a female movie star of a certain age at that time in Hollywood and to some extent even today meant only one thing, you're Over The Hill baby.
Both actresses had done their best work during the preceding two decades. It was Lana of the tawdry emotions versus hard Hayward of the rat-a-tat Brooklyn delivery always punctuated with a Garlandesque gesture. With films like "Ada", "Stolen Hours" and "Where Love Has Gone", Hayward wins the crown.
"Back Street" is the jewel in this crown. The essential Hayward tearjerker with all the required elements, an impossibly beautiful mannequin of a leading man for her and the audience to project their dreams upon. A truly wicked wife for him to make it almost impossible to denounce Hayward for coming between them, and two throwaway children to soften the tragic end of the film in one final surge of violins and Kleenex. All of this played out in the glamour capitals of New York, Rome and Paris provided by Universal's backlot (and a few lovely locations in Monterey County doubling for the Italian coast). Add to the mix the highly sophisticated costumes of the early 60's and sets of stunning beauty, all strung together to one of the most lyrically beautiful scores ever written for this genre. The result is the glossiest most improbably romantic film of her career that can be taken today in one of two ways, high camp comedy or lush romance. It all depends upon your point of view.
In support of Miss Hayward there is Virginia Grey as her older (and I mean much older!) sister Janenee. She provides throughout the picture the image Rae "All small letters, very chic. Smith, carries of what an ideal marriage and family means. She hits all the right notes as the loving sister who pushes Rae out of her small mid-western life in Lincoln Nebraska and into the world of high fashion in New York.
Reginald Gardner is the perfect picture of the perfunctorily gay designer Dalian who helps her to make her name and sends her off to Europe, or at least around the corner to the "Rome" set. His is just an extension of the Franklin Pangborne harmless gay man of the early years of movie history. Elegant sophisticate always ready with a bon mot and a hanky. He is alarmingly memorable in the role.
John Gavin, more beautiful than Rock Hudson and with a better body, is Paul Saxon, the spineless Ken Doll upon which Rae drapes all her dreams as if he were a mannequin to dress for each love scene. But with such a man around she and the audience need nothing more than what appears. He is the perfect vessel to dream about, create a personality for, and waste a good twenty years loving while passing up the opportunities presented for a real life.
About a quarter of the way into the film the fun arrives in the cool resplendent form of Vera Miles as Liz (perhaps the screenwriter chose that name to make a subliminal connection with the then scandalous Elizabeth Taylor) Saxon, wife to Paul. She is given all the attributes of a monster, alcoholic, unfaithful and a lousy mother. (Sounds like the tabloid "Liz" we all know and love.) She is perfectly designed to make us love Rae and her sad little back street affair. For there was just no other way to get around the taboo of infidelity in those days but to have a Liz on hand. Her confrontation with Rae is supremely bitchy and utterly wonderful.
As the beautiful Rae Susan Hayward plays one of her few completely sympathetic characters in her long and lustrous career. She approaches Rae as if this was a chance to win a second Oscar and in fact in the scene where she calls late one night from Rome back home on Thanksgiving she is magnificent. Her beautiful bourbon flavored voice is used to accentuate her loveliness in every scene. Her trademark gestures are at a minimum and only called into play when they are most needed. She carries the improbable picture on her perfect shoulders and gives a fine and detailed performance that is perfection in the soapy atmosphere of Europe. A few of the many highlights is the scene where she finds out that Paul is married, the phone call from the hospital and the race to the airport in Lincoln early on in the film. She is stunningly dressed in gowns by Jean Louis that are smart and very contemporary to what the ladies are wearing on the red carpet today. David Webs beautiful jewelery complements her and adds a feel of true richness to the picture.
As I mentioned earlier the score by Frank Skinner is perfection and punctuates the drama in so many ways that are essential in this movie.
The direction by stalwart David Miller is right on target. He should know how to do it, after all he did the same for Joan Crawford in "The Story of Esther Costello" and "Sudden Fear", as well as Doris Day in "Midnight Lace" and Lana Turner in "Diane".
This all was helmed by the master of the genre, Producer Ross Hunter who defined the genre with such hits as "Imitation of Life", "Portrait in Black", and "Madam X".
"Back Street" remains to this day the shinning beacon of the last gasp of the woman's picture where women were smart, strong, self-made in a mans world and all the while ever glamorous in tearstained mink.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Back Street, April 17, 2003

By 

Raquel R. Villarreal (Brownsville, Texas United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Back Street [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I believe this is one of the best movies of all times. It is an emotion-evoking movie. The dialogue is clear and decisive and above all there is no vulgarity throughout the film. It is the type of movie that can tirelessly be seen over and over again. The story could be anybody's life. The acting is very convincing.