Product Details

• Actors: Ronny Graham, Eartha Kitt, Robert Clary, Alice Ghostley, June Carroll
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Video Artists Int'l
• VHS Release Date: March 30, 1999
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301007581
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #266,331 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Variety, review, comedy tied together by a weak plot, July 11, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Faces [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Based on the Leonard Sillman Broadway show of the same name, this film showcases the talents of many new players who would go on to become household names. The excuse for bringing them all together was a show in financial shambles that keeps going by featuring the daughter of a wealthy potential backer. She is painfully bad in her brief appearances between numbers. There are lavish production numbers and we are introduced to Robert Cleary, Carol Lawrence, and Eartha Kitt for the first time. But it is the comedy sketches written by Ronny Grahman and Mel Brooks that make this worth seeing. Ronny does a marvelous satire of Truman Capote at a time when no one knew of him. Paul Lynde and Alice Ghostley are the parents in a take-off of Death of a Salesman with Ronny taking the Biff part. The twist is that Willie Loman is actually a failed second story burglar who wants his son to adopt a life of crime but the son is a straight arrow type. Very Funny. One of Lynde's best bits is as an African explorer doing a slide show about his most recent disaster of a trip. Robert Cleary sparkles in several numbers, Eartha Kitt is at her sensual best, and June Carroll sings "Guess Who I Saw Today". In total it lacks momentum but a good fast forward will get you to some great bits.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Delightful Musical Numbers, February 13, 2011

By 

Michael B. Druxman "A Good Story is a Terribl... (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Faces Widescreen Edition (DVD)

NEW FACES is not really a "movie".

Although it did play in theaters back in 1954, the picture is more of a filmed record of NEW FACES OF 1952, the hit Broadway revue from which it's adapted. The film's producers have added a slight framing story, but what is on the screen is, essentially, a series of musical numbers and skits strung together, performed by the original cast.

What made this stage production so memorable is that it was the vehicle that launched the careers of such stellar talents as Eartha Kitt, Robert Clary, Paul Lynde, Carol Lawrence, Alice Ghostley and Ronny Graham, as well as Mel Brooks, who wrote several of the skits.

Frankly, with the exception of a sketch inspired by DEATH OF A SALESMAN that features Paul Lynde as a "Willy Loman" who makes his living as a pick-pocket, time has not been kind to the comedy skits in NEW FACES. What might have been funny back in 1954 falls flat today.

On the other hand, most of the musical numbers are still delightful, particularly "Santa Baby" and "Monotonous," performed by the sultry Ms. Kitt, "I'm in Love with Miss Logan" (Clary), "Penny Candy" (June Carroll) and the melodic "Love Is a Simple Thing" (Carroll, Clary and Kitt). However, my personal favorite is "Lizzie Borden," performed by most of the cast. It's a tune that I find myself often humming to myself.

This new widescreen version of NEW FACES from VCI Entertainment has been digitally remastered and is the best available on DVD.

© Michael B. Druxman

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "New Faces" more Hollywood than Broadway, October 30, 2001

By 

Kent Wilson (Los Angeles, California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: New Faces [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I bought this video believing it to be a recording of one of the last successful revues to be done on Broadway -- "New Faces of 1952", a vaudeville entertainment that ran for almost 400 performances in the 50's! This "New Faces", however, features a tacked-on movie "plot" concerning saving the show by getting a loan from the rich father of one of the performers. In order to accomodate the addition of this throughline, several numbers from the show were edited out, most notably June Carroll singing "Guess Who I Saw Today" -- sadly, that number was the reason I was interested in buying the film. What remains is interesting, but a compromise to one interested in the original show.