Product Details

• Actors: Lona Andre, Carl Brisson, Kitty Carlisle, Duke Ellington, Gwenllian Gill
• Format: Black & White, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Universal Studios
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 89 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300185362
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #253,414 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars COCKTAILS FOR TWO..., January 8, 2003

By 

"scotsladdie" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murder at the Vanities [VHS] (VHS Tape)

And whacky tobaccy!! A bizarre, thoroughly fascinating excursion into 1934. This uniquely obscure and eccentric film isn't exactly a classic: but it probably merits cult status! Made just after the repeal of Prohibition (December 5, 1933) it legitimately sings the praises of being able to drink like "civilized ladies and men" in the standard by Sam Coslow entitled COCKTAILS FOR TWO. This movie also has an eclectic cast: Victor McLaglen, Jack Oakie, Gail Patrick, Kitty Carlisle, Jessie Ralph, Dorothy Stickney and that beautiful, elusive starlet - Toby Wing (one remembers her scene where she giggles, somehow). Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra provide the musical numbers which also includes SWEET MARIHAUNA, LULL ME TO SLEEP (!). Based upon the play by Earl Carroll and Rufus King, the plotline is obvious: just sit back and become mesmorized watching this high camp done in inimitable style!

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars murder at the vanities, April 27, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Murder at the Vanities [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Murder at the Vanities is an interesting and enjoyable musical mystery. The music runs the gamut from the familiar "Cocktails for Two" to the wierd "Sweet Marijuana" (this IS 1934!) to Duke Ellington jazzing up Lizst. Jack Oakie ends up with the cute Toby Wing at the end. The only downer is the European male star Carl Brisson seems miscast. Overall, this is a lot of fun.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So awful that it's a delight (and it's a historical document, too), April 30, 2006

By 

L. E. Cantrell (Vancouver, British Columbia Canada) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Murder at the Vanities [VHS] (VHS Tape)

.
In the 1920s, the biggest name on Broadway was Flo Ziegfeld, whose staple (but by no means his only claim to fame) was an annual review called the "Ziegfeld Follies." The "Follies" offered the biggest names in variety and acres of scantily-clad, beautiful girls. His great rival was Errol Carrol who produced a similar show called the "Vanities." Carroll couldn't match Ziegfeld's star power but he offered more girls and even less clothing.

The market crash of 1929 was the beginning of the end for the two Broadway titans. Ziegfeld, true to his time and style had been heavily into the market on margin. He went flat broke and died not long after, leaving his wife, the wonderful actress Billie (the Good Witch Glenda) Burke, to pay off his debts. Carroll struggled along for a few more years. In September of 1933, believing that the day of the huge review show was over, he tried his hand at a book show, which just happened to be about a huge Broadway review. It was called "Murder at the Vanities" and it ran for 207 performances until March 1934. Oddly enough, one of its featured performers was a Rumanian named Bela Lugosi who not long before had had a smash hit on Broadway playing a vampire, of all things.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. had earned enormous success and profits with a series of movie musicals featuring numbers spectacularly choreographed by Busby Berkley. Rich, glossy Paramount considered itself several cuts above gritty, striving little Warner Bros., but it did not have anybody remotely like Busby Berkley. "Murder at the Vanities" must have seemed like a brilliant idea to the Paramount brass. They could simply import spectacular, audience-tested musical numbers from a hit Broadway show with built-in name recognition.

Like many brilliant ideas both before and after, it didn't work. Broadway magic and movie magic have many things in common, but they are not interchangeable. Berkley's numbers are brilliant and stirring even today. The big production numbers in "Vanities" are just static and bloated, coming to filmic life only occasionally, as in the scene when Toby Wing notices blood dripping on her.

For us in the Twenty-first Century, though, "Murder at the Vanities" does perform the valuable service of showing just what a set of big review numbers of the Follies-Vanities type looked like. Later Hollywood recreations, as in "The Great Ziegfeld", "Yankee Doodle Dandy" and "Rose of Washington Square"--not to mention "Funny Girl"--all had a softening effect and were heavily influenced by the styles of their times.

The strongest performers in the movie version are Jack Oakie, Victor McLaglen and that exquisitely superannuated saddlebag, Jessie Ralph, all thoroughly steeped in filmland ways. Yes, they are hammy but the sheer energy they exude almost comes burning off the screen. Kitty Carlisle's part is virtually a dramatic nullity but she does get to sing two big numbers--even if one of them, "Where Do They Come From and Where Do They Go?"--background music for the display of clothing-optional babes--has to be one of the most thundering musical clunkers ever to stink up Hollywood or Broadway but, hey, she looked GREAT in a body stocking and pasties! Carl Brisson was a European performer of the Viennese school of operetta and completely out of his context, whether on Broadway or in Hollywood. Gertrude Michaels in the obligatory role of the unpopular cast member is quite good, especially in the marijuana number, which is a hoot! (By the way, an earlier reviewer has noted that the marijuana number was cut from television screenings. It may well have been at some time, but when this film was regularly shown on television in the San Francisco area in the early 1950s, the marijuana number was definitely there, as was all the very strongly suggested nudity.)

Other reviewers have praised the appearance of Duke Ellington and his band. I strongly disagree, Ellington and his players appear in one-half of one number, purely as a stunt. I think that it was an insulting use of a truly stellar artist. Ellington, on the other hand, I imagine, would have said that it was an easy gig that paid well.