Customer Reviews

Goodbye Charlie [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Vincente Minnelli directed this lively and intelligent version of George Axelrod's play about a gangster who dies and returns as a very lovely female: Debbie Reynolds. She has to convince Tony Curtis that she or he is really back! This is one of those great color CinemaScope situation comedies that were so popular back in the good old days of the 60s. You have to accept the situation to enjoy the plot and appreciate the humor. The cast also includes Pat Boone, Walter Matthau, Martin Gabel and Ellen (McRae) Burstyn. This is a real product of that feel-good time during the 60s. I always enjoyed this film.

Woah! Call the Gender Studies class in to explain this one to me... Debbie Reynolds stars as the feminine reincarnation of a no-good philandering wolf named Charlie; Tony Curtis is the best (and perhaps only) friend who was dragooned into reading the eulogy at Charlie's funeral. Of course, when Debbie shows up on the beach naked and with amnesia, Curtis at first gets drawn into the mystery, and then falls in love with... his old best friend(!) Where to begin? This has Reynolds ogling other girls in the dressing room, Walter Matthau (who had shot Charlie at the beginning of the film) hitting on Reynolds, Charlie golddigging with a hapless rich boy (played by Pat Boone) and finally, the romantic scenes between Curtis and Reynolds... the levels of homoeroticism in this film are so multifarious and bizarre, that it's truly, astoundingly mind-boggling. I really wish I could know more about the genesis of this project... How this project got green-lighted in the first place is a source of continual amazement... You really have to see it to believe it!

Judging by the amount of reviews written here,obviously this isn't a popular film. But just in case someone actually looks up this movie,I have to let you know this is a wonderful,silly,amusing comedy. Curtis and Reynolds are perfect on-screen together. Both deliver fun performances,as does Pat Boone. Here's a good movie to watch when your a little down,and in need of a laugh. It will definitely bring a smile on your face. A little personal note:A remake followed this film some 20 years later Blake Edward's "Switch". But between the two I prefer this one.

A playboy is shot by a jealous husband after he is caught in the middle of an affair with the man's wife. Later he comes back as Debbie Reynolds, possibly as God's punishment to him for the way he spent his life using women for his own pleasure, or mabey as a way of seeing if being a woman can teach him how to be a better human being, or maybe both. It's a saddly undiscovered comedy that hopefully more people will get to see and enjoy, now that it's been rereleased on video. I also happened to find the script for the play that this movie is based on. (There was a copy of the play write in the public library.) The play is very, very short, so of course the movie adds much more to the story. I was a little disapointed by the ending of the movie, however. (I liked the ending of the play much better.) The movie is still well worth seeing, however, and if you are lucky enough to find the play script, it is well worth reading.

With so much violence on today's screens, it's a wonder that anyone could be shocked (as some reviewer was) by this pleasant 60's gender bender. Geez, Pat Boone has a small role in it! If homoeroticism offends you, don't see the latest "Alexander The Great" either. (Yes, boys and girls, Alexander was [...]. So much for Don't Ask, Don't Tell). Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds have a great time (and so will you) in this farce about Charlie, a two-timing cad, who gets shot by a jealous Walter Matthau (who uses some strange americanized mitel-europa accent) aboard Matthau's yacht and comes back to life as a woman--Debbie Reynolds. (There was a remake but the original is much funnier.) Tony Curtis plays the dead man's best friend who Reynolds is staying with. After many funny incidents where Reynolds finally proves to Curtis she really is Charlie, Curtis realizes he's fallen for Reynolds. There's also one hilarious scene where Reynolds/Charlie has lunch with his former paramours and since Charlie knows all their secrets there's a bit of funny blackmailing that goes on. The ending is a great surprise to some, obvious to others but this piece of funny 60's fluff makes for a very enjoyable evening at the movies.

Woman-chaser messes with wife on-board jealous, self-center, hypocrite W. Mautheau's yacht. Hypocrite shoots no-good Charlie, but Charlie falls into the ocean. No body is found. Best friend comes to give memorial service to the two attending women friends and a producer. Charlie did not have any friends. One of the women came to ask for her dress back! Charlie was no good! Then Reynolds shows up with no memory, at first. Yep, she's Charlie. Returned for a second chance or a taste of her/his own medicine? Who knows, who cares! It is a fun, light simple black and white from my childhood. I loved it then, I like it now. Besides Reynolds and Matheau??, the best friend is a well-known, as are a couple of others. I am not a well-versed movie buff. I just liked the movie! My kids want to see it because I never forgot the silly song...Good-bye Charlie, Hate to See You Go! Good-bye Charlie........ You will have to buy or rent the movie for the rest.

Are you kidding???? I saw this movie when I was young and loved the music, the story and the idea, which by the way has been used over and over again. This was the best. Charlie, womanizer gets killed and returns as a good looking woman (Debbie Reynolds, who by the way did a great job playing a woman, playing a man). She thinks up this really wicked idea to collect money from all the woman she (he) had affairs with. Tony Curtis, his best friend, thinks this is awful and to his dismay is starting to fall for her, which is driving him nuts. The party that killed Charlie in the first place gets involved and another killing takes place. So there goes Debbie , so you may think, but not so. She returns as a real person, hooks up with Tony, love and kisses. But Charlie comes back again in the end as a Great Dane. (funny-eh) Well worth a look see.

This has remained one of my favorite movies throughout the years. I think Debbie Reynold's delivery of her lines drags occasionally when she is acting bewildered by what she is experiencing, but the plot is so cute and Tony Curtis shines so that it makes a wonderful romantic comedy. It is definitely worth viewing if you haven't already seen it...and I hope it comes out on DVD so that I can add it to my library.

I saw this movie once on television over fifteen years ago and have looked for it to be released as a video or to come back on again ever since, for i find it to be hilarious (especially mattheau) and both artsy and full of high sixties glamour. many of the people who watched it with me agreed and in fact, we all began using mattheau's pronunciation of the word home as hume to this very day. enjoy!

I was born in 1961 and probably saw this movie the first time it was shown on TV back in the late 60s or early 70s. It left an impression for some reason, much the way "It's a Mad Mad Mad World" and "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" did. I often find the theme tunes to these movies running through my head and once you've heard "Goodbye Charlie" as it's played hypnotically like a soft breeze throughout this movie, you'll be haunted by it forever. You may or may not appreciate that fact.