Product Details

• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English, Spanish
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: September 26, 1991
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300248445
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #305,493 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

John Cleese has always maintained that Fawlty Towers was inspired by a real-life hotel he stayed in during his Monty Python years that was run by a proprietor who treated guests as an inconvenience to running a business. No one in the world, however, can possibly match the sheer insolence and incompetence of Basil Fawlty, perhaps the most brazenly rude character in the history of customer disservice. When Sybil overhears that "The Hotel Inspectors" are in the area, Basil makes an about-face in his brusque treatment of a demanding guest, falling all over himself to cater to the guest's every whim while he boorishly insults every other customer. When he discovers his mistake he makes up for lost insolence in a campaign of comic terror. In "The Germans," perhaps the best-loved episode of the series, John Cleese hits all-time heights of impertinent provocation when his wife, Sybil, is in the hospital for an ingrown toenail (much to Basil's glee). Simple instructions not to mention "the war" to the German guests sends Basil into a flustered frenzy of conversations that all wind back to WWII, culminating in his storklike goose step as he offers his impersonation of Adolf Hitler. "A Touch of Class," the series pilot, finds Basil bemoaning the riff-raff he's forced to deal with when he signs in a Lord Melbury. Immediately melting into an embarrassingly obsequious toady, Basil is blinded by nobility and becomes the perfect patsy for the old con man. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Lot Of Good Laughs!, August 24, 2000

By 

Bjorn Clasen (Rolléngergronn, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, Europe) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fawlty Towers, Vol. 1 - Hotel Inspectors/Germans/A Touch Of Class [VHS] (VHS Tape)

»The Germans« contains the episodes »The Hotel Inspectors«, »The Germans«, and the very first episode of the show, »A Touch Of Class«.

»The Hotel Inspectors« is a classic. Really hilarious confusions develop - above all because of Basil Fawlty's prejudice and total lack of common sense, increased by his unbearable wife Sybil's well-meant 'encouragement'. A good laugh! One of the best episodes of »Fawlty Towers« ever!

»The Germans« is a somewhat overrated episode which does not come up to its reputation. All in all it's not particularly funny - things go a little TOO exaggeratedly chaotic and crazy in the end.

»A Touch Of Class«, however, is good fun. On the usual humouristic level of this show.

This video certainly is worth the money. Only regret: The bits of the interesting interview with John Cleese are placed BETWEEN the episodes which is a bit annoying, since you probably don't want to watch the interview every time you feel like laughing over »Fawlty Towers«!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Don't mention the war!", August 24, 2000

By 

[e-mail] (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fawlty Towers, Vol. 1 - Hotel Inspectors/Germans/A Touch Of Class [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is the one episode that EVERYONE remembers from thetwoseries of Fawlty Towers - it features a very ill Basil Fawlty who is running around trying to keep all his guests at the hotel happy. Only to forget that he has some German's staying. Not wanting to offend them he states to all his staff, "Don't mention the war!" It's amazing to see Basil walk up to the German guests and talk about the war non-stop, to such an extend that he makes one cry, to cheer her up he begins marching hilariously backwards-and-forwards giving the Nazi sign and pretending to be Adolf Hitler.

Classic brit-com that you must see...

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How did they ever win the war?, June 22, 2004

By 

Rocco Dormarunno (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fawlty Towers, Vol. 1 - Hotel Inspectors/Germans/A Touch Of Class [VHS] (VHS Tape)

John Cleese once remarked that he did as much with "Fawlty Towers" in 12 episodes than Lucille Ball did in several years of "I Love Lucy". When I first heard that, I thought Cleese was being as crass as Basil Fawlty. But you know something? He came darn close.

This volume of "Fawlty Towers" contains three of the best episodes, and it is the one tape out of the four-tape collection that I play the most. "Hotel Inspectors" shows Basil at his most fawning, his most insincere. Ditto for "A Touch Of Class". But the real show-stealer is "Germans", perhaps the single most funny half-hour in sitcom history. Most people speak about the famous scene where Basil goose-steps around his German patrons, after he's repeatedly admonished the help not to mention the war. But everything in this episode is pure comic genius: Basil's griping with Sybil and the orderlies at the hospital; the exasperating attempts at hanging up the moose's head; and the Major's senile non-sequitors are hilarious. As the Germans ponder how the British ever won the war, the obvious answer is: If every English soldier was John Cleese, the Third Reich would have laughed to death.