Product Details

• Actors: Bette Davis, Paul Henreid, Claude Rains, John Abbott, Benson Fong
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630160086X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #215,072 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars CLAUDE RAINS STEALS THE SHOW FROM BETTE DAVIS..., November 12, 2001

By 

Lawyeraau (Balmoral Castle) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (COMMUNITY FORUM 04)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Deception [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a stylish and intriguing film about a pianist, Christine Radcliffe, who has an affair with her benefactor, the wealthy and reknowned composer, Alex Hollenius. She began this affair years after she had fled World War II Europe, leaving behind the then love of her life, cellist Karel Novak, whom she believed to have been killed in the war.

One day she discovers that Novak is stateside and playing his cello at a college concert. She goes, hoping against hope, and discovers her long lost lover, and it is as if they had never been parted. She brings him to her stylish and sophisticated home, where he sees traces of another man having been there in an intimate sort of way. He is suspicious, though Christine avows her love for him.

They decide to marry immediately, and do so, throwing a celebratory party which is the epitome of post war chic and is crashed by Alex Hellonius, the now spurned former lover. Hellonius happens to be one of Novak's favorite composers, but his somewhat outrageous behavior at the party at first puzzles Novak. Novak finally catches on that there must have been something going on between Christine and Hellonius, but Christine denies it, saying that he was merely her benefactor.

A cat and mouse game ensues between Hellonius and Christine with the emotionally fragile Novak as the unwitting the pawn. Hellonius taunts Christine under the guise of friendship and musical sponsorship of Novak. Christine suspects that Hellonius is up to no good and is worried. He taunts her, until she believes that she can no longer maintain the deception. She then resorts to a solution that will prove to be unnecessarily final.

Bette Davis is excellent in her role, but Claude Rains pulls out all the stops. How he did not get an Academy Award for his performance, I will never know. He is sensational as the egotistical, clever, and utterly brilliant composer. Paul Henreid gives a fine performance as the war scarred, sensitive cellist, but is somewhat overshadowed by his co-stars. This is a must see film for all Bette Davis fans and classic film lovers. The film will also turn the viewer into a die hard Claude Rains fan.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Two Dynamos Tear Up Screen!, June 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Deception [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Dynamic Bette and equally intense Claude are nearly overshadowed by the knockout sets in this operatic dramatization of a love triangle. Bette's New York apartment was actually based on Leonard Bernstein's little pad. It's a perfect setting for this highly charged drama but equally ravishing is the unforgettable musical score by Eric Korngold. Even the credits are art deco, silverish-charcoal, which puts this fun masterpiece on a surreal level. One shot that no one should miss and which has become a classic: the final close-up of la Davis as a woman says to her: "You must be the happiest woman on earth!" Oh, those Davis eyes and face. They can tell a life story in just the flicker of an eye.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Claude Rains outBette's Bette (Davis, that is), August 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Deception [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is Rains at his best male bitchiness. The dinner with Davis and Heinreid (usually cut for some inexplicable reason when this film makes an extremely rare appearance on commercial late-night television)is worth the price of purchase: a degree of sophistication almost non-existent in most American-made movies of this or any era, post Hayes-office. This is a movie of an era that is vanished and can never be duplicated. It's like looking at a John Singer Sargent portrait. The music may even sound good at this late 1990's remove from classical film music of the 1940's.