Product Details

• Actors: Laurence Harvey, Sylvia Syms, Yolande Donlan, Cliff Richard, Meier Tzelniker
• Directors: Val Guest
• Writers: Julian More, Wolf Mankowitz
• Producers: Val Guest, Jon Penington
• Format: Black & White, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Kino Video
• VHS Release Date: June 27, 2000
• Run Time: 111 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304786514
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #234,737 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Laurence Harvey is a brash hustler with a stream of snappy patter who takes bongo-playing crooner Cliff Richard out of the coffeehouse and into the big time in this sardonic spoof of the cynical star-making industry. Set amid the sleazy strip clubs and bustling nightlife of London's Soho district, Expresso Bongo is a fab bit of show-biz lampooning that loses its bite and its momentum when it leaves the lively streets for the claustrophobic offices and penthouse suites of the professional music industry sharks. It's still a marvelous time capsule of Britain's pre-rock pop-music scene, and the cast is terrific. Fast-talking Harvey is a dynamo as the small-time opportunist, with Sylvia Sims as his worldly stripper girlfriend growing weary of his schemes and Yolande Donlan as the savvy but aging American sex symbol plotting her comeback on the back of Harvey's naive new star. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Where's the rest of it?, April 2, 2000

By 

david gonzalez - See all my reviews

This review is from: Expresso Bongo [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Although the print is great and the letterbox format really helps, several of the songs from the original are missing. I recorded this film back in the 80's off of television and the version I recorded has at least three more songs. Their ommision for me makes it a very different film. If you've never seen it, you might not mind, but if you have, be prepared for the musical readers digest version of the film. Laurence Harvey is fabulous although the deletion of his musical numbers greatly inhibits the arc of his character's development. Richard is excellent in his first role. All his songs are intact!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The Same Shoddy Piece of Goods, December 21, 2001

By 

michael rawls (gainesville, fl USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Expresso Bongo (DVD)

Forget about stars. Kino's DVD of "Expresso Bongo" is the same mangled version that appeared on VHS a couple of years ago. Three
songs performed by Laurence Harvey are missing. I e-mailed Kino about this abridgement at the time. Mr. Gonzalez is quite correct in calling Kino's cut a "Reader's Digest" version of the film.I was hoping Harvey's numbers would be restored for the DVD version but I see I will have to make do with my murky off-the-air video recording.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Expresso Bong.....Oh, March 12, 2002

By 

"len4711" (hastings, east sussex United Kingdom) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Expresso Bongo [VHS] (VHS Tape)

An on target black and white satire of the 1950's pop music scene with only one problem. The music isn't all there. As I remember it , there was at least one other song in the original cinema release and it's omission removes some of the bite from the whole. Overall, a bit of a let-down considering that there wasn't much music to start with, although Cliff Richard does get a reasonable look-in. (Can you believe that he was really nineteen at the time ? He only looks about fourteen here.)Anyway, it is still worth having a look at but I imagine that those expecting to see the same film that they saw all those years ago are going to feel disappointed.