Product Details

• Language: English
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000KKQBUI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #308,736 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and Mysterious in Black and White, April 17, 2009

By 

Pepper (Seattle) - See all my reviews

This review is from: So Long at the Fair [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ] (DVD)

It is unfortunate that one reviewer used this agenda to complain because she foolishly bought the wrong DVD for her player. She gave it a "1" because she didn't pay attention to the fact that it was a Region 2, so the movie is unfairly graded with a "1". Why Amazon leaves this sort of entry in the system is beyond me. Perhaps they don't understand what "review" means any more than the customer did!
This film is in luscious black and white, has the feel of impending doom and even though everything around the characters appears fun and beautiful, the sister's vain attempt to find her brother becomes more and more frightening. If this had been filmed in color, it would have lost all of its charm.
The acting is great and period effects on the mark. I have watched this film off and on since I was a teen, which is going on about 60 years now. Dirk Bogarde was at his peak, as was Jean Simmons, and it is fun to watch these two performers strut their stuff. I recommend it for mystery fans and for those who enjoy period films. It is delicious fun and will keep you guessing to the end. Now if we could just get it on Region 1 DVD!!!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jean Simmons and Dirk Bogarde in delicious gas-lit mystery, December 15, 2010

By 

Byron Kolln (the corner where Broadway meets Hollywood) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 100 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: So Long at the Fair [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ] (DVD)

Time and again I've asked myself, why this movie, of all the superb mystery films of the 1950s, holds such potency. My fascination with SO LONG AT THE FAIR (1950) began as a teenager when I saw the final portion of the film whilst channel-surfing on late night television. It intrigued me so that I had to track down the video (yes, the video--remember them?) which became an oft-played favourite. Now that I finally have the film again, this time in my DVD collection, I'm beyond thrilled to once again immerse myself in it's gas-lit charms.

"We were pretty"... That's all Dirk Bogarde had to say in his official biography when trying to understand why SO LONG AT THE FAIR was such a success. Yes, Bogarde and Jean Simmons are very attractive in the leads but it's a combination of them, a superbly written screenplay, evocative art direction and a certain undefinable "sparkle" that elevates the film above and beyond most of it's kind in the mystery genre.

SO LONG AT THE FAIR is a perfect example of the "locked room" mystery (others include "The Lady Vanishes" and "Dangerous Crossing"), where someone disappears beyond all comprehension in the most ordinary and safe of places--a closed room. Vicky Barton (a most lovely Jean Simmons) and her older brother Johnny (David Tomlinson of "Mary Poppins" fame) have traveled to Paris to see the world-famous Paris Exhibition. They book into the Hotel Unicorn (don't you just love the name?) and enjoy a night on the town before the big excitement of the fair itself. On the morning of the Exhibition, Vicky awakes to discover that Johnny has disappeared... Even his room is no longer "there"!

No-one at the hotel recalls Vicky even having a brother in the first place. Visits to the British Consul and even the local police prove fruitless. Increasingly frantic, Vicky starts to believe that she's slowly being driven mad, until a chance encounter with George Hathaway (Dirk Bogarde), a bohemian artist who did briefly meet Johnny, turns the case on it's head...

Filled with twist after delicious twist, and a roster of fine British talent (including Honor Blackman and Cathleen Nesbitt as the hotel manager) SO LONG AT THE FAIR casts it's hypnotic spell for me every time. Here's hoping that one day Criterion gives this movie the fanfare it deserves.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thank you, Spain!, August 11, 2009

By 

Julie M. Vognar "Julie" (Berkeley, California United States) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: So Long at the Fair [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ] (DVD)

"...we were pretty," said Dirk Bogarde (John Coldstream: Dirk Bogarde: The Authorized Biography), in explaining why this Bogarde-Simmons concoction was popular at the time. Oh REALLY, Mr. Bogarde? And I suppose Laurence Olivier cast Jean Simmons as Ophelia in his 1947 "Hamlet" merely because she was pretty? No way!

And, although pretty they are, the two principal actors, as well as every single member of the cast do a top-notch job at all times. Not one slip, not one careless interpretation (for instance, George (Bogarde) flirts with Victoria (Simmons), but she doesn't flirt with him. She has something more important on her mind.) Cathleen Nesbitt as the hotel owner is especially good.

Above all, this is a mystery, and you will be scratching your head over the solution all through it. Set beautifully at the 1889 Paris Exhibition, it concerns---the disappearance of Miss Barton's brother (Johnny). Not only his disappearance, but that of his room at the elegant hotel, and from the memory of every single employee of the hotel. Fortunately, George borrowed 50 franks from Johnny the night before, and so, before Victoria, Johnny's sister, goes completely out of her gourd, the sleuthing begins. The title comes from an old song (forgive me if you all know it; sometimes I think I'm older than I am):

Oh dear, what can the matter be?
Dear, dear, what can the matter be?
Oh, dear, what can the matter be--
Johnny's so long at the fair.
He promised to buy me a box of blue ribbons
to tie up my bonny brown hair.

I guessed the ending 6 minutes, 26 seconds before the end; by 3 minutes 11 seconds before the end, everyone knows. Some say, even, that the story is more or less true. That may be.