Product Details

• Actors: Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson, Telly Savalas, John David Carson, Roddy McDowall
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Warner)
• VHS Release Date: September 1, 1998
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304114583
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #183,720 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 'Maids' - - -Three Pretty Stars in A Row., October 4, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Pretty Maids All in a Row [VHS] (VHS Tape)

An odd, (and hardly publicized) little black-comedy/bedroom farce written and produced by STAR TREK creator Gene Roddenberry and directed by Roger Vadim (AND GOD CREATED WOMAN, BARBARELLA). One could understand Vadim involved with this piece of light-hearted sleaze, but Roddenberry? Boasting a great and diverse cast with Rock Hudson, Angie Dickinson..., Telly Savalas, Roddy McDowell, Keenan Wynn, and James Doohan (Star Trek's Mr. Scotty himself), the film has dark humor, [love]situations, and a murder mystery to boot. Rock Hudson, in one of his weirder and misogynistic roles, plays a coach/counselor (Tiger) at a western university. He's bedding some of the college ... coed's, killing them when they want commitment, and leaves their bodies strewn along various parts of the university (a far cry from his characters in films with Doris Day). An on-campus investigation (headed by Telly Savalas as Capt. Sam Surcher) begins and Tiger is the prime suspect. In the meantime, one of his students, Ponce (John Carson) is having a tough time scoring with girls. Tiger (Hudson) is willing to give the young man some advice. Then, enlists the help of Miss Smith (Dickinson) to help Ponce along but gets (and gives) more than she bargains for. Much of the humor is the relationship of Hudson's and Dickinson's characters in the film when helping out Ponce (Carson), and the weirder humor comes when Tiger (Hudson) is "sampling" the coeds. The film is slightly entertaining. Satirical at times with it's point of view of women and the education system. However, it is mostly worth watching just to see these actors play against type. A curiosity from the man who created STAR TREK. Note: Look for actress Joanna Cameron (as Yvonne), one of Hudson's ...co-ed/victims. She played ISIS - - in the Saturday morning live action kid's show part of the SHAZAM (Captain Marvel) hour. Also, William L. Campbell has a supporting role as a sheriff deputy (Grady). He played one of Star Trek's (orig. series) memorable alien villains, Trelane from the 1967 episode "The Squire of Gothos."

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Different View, December 26, 2005

By 

slk54 "Mark" (Florida, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pretty Maids All in a Row [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Oh, give me a break! I happen to really enjoy this movie because it is funny and it is a movie. Almost every complaint makes it appear as if it was more than just a movie. What's wrong?

This is a rare film and because of the story content it will probably never get release on DVD. It's a comedy, not a political correct idea that every person is trying to live by today.

One letter stated that Rock Hudson character rape these girls. Rape? I would advise this person to watch this movie again. These girls were enjoying the sex they were having not screaming and yelling for help.

This movie was meant to entertain not to focus on somebody's politically correct concept. If you don't like the movie don't watch it!

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Aroused, August 17, 2006

By 

Kevin Killian (San Francisco, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pretty Maids All in a Row [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Roger Vadim's twisted satire of Southern California and the American education program was a flop on first release, and it was a long time before he dared return to the USA to make another feature. But today PRETTY MAIDS ALL IN A ROW definitely has the hallmarks of a masterpiece, anchored by four brilliant performances. First off, Rock Hudson in perhaps his last important picture. He's a little fleshy and with his shirt off the camera seemes reluctant to travel past his navel for fear of exposing some extra weight on his hips. And Vadim's cameraman (Chuck Rosher, who later did A WEDDING and THREE WOMEN for Robert Altman) hones in on some penetrating closeups which really show up his crows feet--he's lived and that seasons his character. As usual, he's the men girls want and the man boys want to be, but here it's a deeper and considerably darker version of himself than he ever let people see on the screen. His ideal married life is something of a sham, or is it? A cryptic epilogue with Telly Savalas makes us wonder if "Tiger" hasn't really the perfect marriage after all. Vadim needed a larger-than-life star for "Tiger" and he certainly got one.

Matching him at every stroke is the young John David Carson, the boy who can't seem to get a date and walks around with a clipboard covering his arousal at all times. Carson plays "Ponce de Leon Harper" as though to remind us of his own perpetual fountain of youth. Whatever happened to this actor? He goes from boy to man in a series of believable, subtle segues; and let me tell you, it can't have been easy playing the kid whom Rock Hudson takes under his wing. Carson makes it all look easy. It's a graceful, vibrant acting job, like a young James Stewart could have turned in (if Stewart were allowed erections in the cinema of the mid 1930s).

Angie Dickinson has never been better. She's super sexy, charming, very funny, brainy and extremely elegant, like Kay Kendall, especially in her toga-style hostess gown with the slits in its side that go all the way up her armpits. These were the Bacharach years for Angie Dickinson, and if rueful acknowledgement of her unavailability, when she first appears, a little Bacharach-like phrase erupts in Lalo Schifrin's playful and ultimately moving score. Can you imagine being Angie Dickinson at this time? She had just finished THE CHASE and POINT BLANK, and meanwhile was the inspiration for some of the most stylish and passionate music of the century; no wonder she looks like the kitten with cream on her face. Vadim doesn't let her drop a beat, even during the scene which every other actress would find humiliating (when Hudson pretends that he's pretending to make love with her, then drops her claiming it was all a pedagogic exercise). Angie Dickinson just picks herself up and walks away taller than ever.

Finally, Barbara Leigh as Jean McDrew, Tiger's wife. We had just seen CROSSROADS with William Powell and Hedy Lamarr, said to have been the first film to come up with the "meet cute" gambit you've since seen in a hundred pictures, where the guy seems to be meeting the girl for the first time and takes what seems to be alarming liberties with her--and she goes right along with them--and then in a minute or two you realize, oh, they're actually married people, just playing. Well, Barbara Leigh could have invented this game. She's as foxy as Hedy Lamarr and, like Hedy, seems capable of actually forgetting the face of her own husband. Every day must be a delight when you're Barbara Leigh. By the way if you care about the movies you must read Miss Leigh's autobiography THE KING, McQUEEN, AND THE LOVE MACHINE.

A huge array of young, talented actresses play the victims, girlfriends and fellow students of Tiger, Ponce, and Miss Smith. People have called this film "misogynist." I don't know. To me it's like Aimee Eccles (the Eurasian actress who plays Hilda Lee) tells shrewd top cop Telly Savalas in the movie, "It's all about love."

Wish I could add a star just for the jaunty theme song sung by the Osmonds, "Chilly Winds." It's demented and you will love it!