Product Details

• Actors: Bob Hope, Lucille Ball, Marilyn Maxwell, Rip Torn, Jessie Royce Landis
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: April 21, 1994
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302772729
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #333,372 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

With a light touch of New York sophistication, Critic's Choice is a smartly grown-up vehicle for Bob Hope and Lucille Ball, making their fourth appearance as an on-screen duo. Adapted from the Broadway play by Ira Levin, it's a fitting follow-up to the pair's previous comedy (1960's The Facts of Life), with its upscale story about top-ranking theater critic Parker Ballantine (Hope) and the trouble he gets into when his second wife Angela (Ball) decides to write a play. Given Parker's snobbishly influential reputation for writing scathingly negative reviews, it's only a matter of time before he's forced to confront the issue of reviewing "Sisters Three," the comedy that Angela has written, rewritten and polished with the help (and romantic advances) of Dion Kapakos (Rip Torn), one of Broadway's hottest young playwrights. Complicating matters even further is Parker's touch-and-go friendship with his ex-wife (Marilyn Maxwell) and the disapproval of his young, intelligent son John (Ricky Kelman), who serves as his father's much-needed voice of conscience. Add it all up and Critic's Choice is an easygoing comedy that occasionally falls flat (veteran TV director Don Weis can't decide if he's directing an all-out comedy or a marital melodrama), but Bob & Lucy make it surprisingly enjoyable, and Levin's source material has a lot to say about marriage, divorce, and the foibles of playwrights and critics in the high-pressure world of New York theater. It's also interesting to see Rip Torn so early in his long-running career, and the fine supporting cast includes such '60s stalwarts as Jim Backus, Richard Deacon, and John Dehner. Also available in The Lucille Ball Film Collection, this DVD includes two noteworthy short subjects from the Warner Bros. archives: "Calling All Tars" is a 19-minute Vitaphone comedy short from 1936, starring Bob Hope in one of his earliest screen appearances, and "Now Hear This" is an Oscar-nominated "Looney Tunes" cartoon from 1962, directed by the great Chuck Jones in the kind of innovative, abstract design style that was in vogue among animators in the early 1960s. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

1963 comedy pairing Lucille Ball and Bob Hope. Broadway fans will enjoy the inside jokes of this movie based on a play by Ira Levin. Ball is a young playwright while Hope is her husband - and a drama critic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very funny! Reminded me of"I LoveLucy"!, July 3, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Critic's Choice [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie is a must see for Lucy fans! If you enjoy "I Love Lucy", then you'll enjoy this movie. Lucille Ball is fantastic! I admire her very much. She is my idol. No other actress, or person for that matter, has left such a legacy. She shines in this movie. I don't care what the professionals think. If you love Lucy as much as me, then you'll love her in this movie. It reminded me in some ways of "I Love Lucy", because in this movie Parker Ballentine(Bob Hope), doesn't think that his wife, Angela(Lucille Ball)has enough talent to write a play, similar to the way that Ricky doesn't think that Lucy has the talent to be in his shows. This movie is great for all the Lucy fans!

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!, April 14, 2001

By 

"mandybreann" (Harold, KY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Critic's Choice [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie doesn't really fit in well with the other Ball-Hope movies; it's much better. There is a lack of slap-stick comedy and a presence of realism that I found refreshing. If you are looking for a typical Hope movie, try "Fancy Pants," but if you are looking for a great semi-dramatic movie, try this. Just try to remember that the characters are not Lucy Ricardo and the usual Bob Hope: they are the Ballentines. Highly Reccomended!

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars THERE'S HOPE FOR LUCY., August 29, 2002

By 

"scotsladdie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Critic's Choice [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Bob is cast in his usual one-dimensional character as theatre critic Parker Ballantine - who must review his wife's new play!...With the comfort of booze, analysis, and the comfort of his first wife (Marilyn Maxwell), Bob labouriously decides to pen a review...Arriving drunk at the opening, and himself immediately being the center of attention, Lucy takes the expected measures, which lead to a comical - if routine - conclusion. A funny comedy which was even a more successful Broadway play. Implausible as it is, the great talents of Hope and Ball will undoubtedly please their many admirers. The costumes by Edith Head are above par and the supporting cast is excellent: Jessie Royce-Landis, Jim Backus, Lurene Tuttle, Jerome Cowan, Rip Torn, John Dehner and Richard Deacon.