Customer Reviews

Raquel Welch With Tom Jones [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
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The lady can actually sing and dance, and oh how much fun it is to just look at her!!!!.....Captures the 70's perfectly......I laugh to myself when they call the gals today a sex symbol.....

Raquel! is a treat: the vintage 1970 special doesn't skimp. International sites abound. The opening segment for "California Dreaming" shows a hazy, late 60s Paris to great effect -- lots of wide shots of incredibly beautiful city landmarks. Of course the scenery no matter how beautiful comes second to the star, whose gorgeous face, magnificent body, openly sexual style and ok voice are front and center. I first saw Raquel Welch when I was a young boy and I must say even at a proto-pubescent age I was greatly effected by her beauty and willing and enthusiastic role as a sexual inspiration. She still makes my heart race. The corny scenes, complete with '60s "modern" trappings, are priceless, like the hilarious costumes worn by the dancers in the "Aquarius" segment. Speaking of costumes, Raquel's take every opportunity to show off her great legs and her bountiful breasts. What a show.

This is Raquel Welch like most people have never seen her before. Most people today are unaware that she can sing and dance. This video is fun watching. To believe that at one time she was really Raquel. With guest like Tom Jones, Bob Hope and John Wayne, Raquel gives us an hour of just simple fun and disbelieve. The songs are really sung by Raquel and the background shots are lovely. This is Raquel at her best. With alsome body works and looks, Raquel makes an attempt to sing and dance to our delight. Raquel was a product of the 1960 and early 1970 with no really big movies to her credits, nevertheless Raquel Welch is fun to look at and funny at times. This is really a collectors item. Watch and enoy. There will never be another Raquel Welch.

[videocassette from V.I.E.W. Video]

One of those great moments in a popculturalist's life: when that cool TV Special from way back when is discovered as commercially available to watch at home.
I wasn't over-excited by the all the overseas glamour shoots amidst Pyramids and Palaces, or the duet with Bob Hope. The bit with The Duke was nice. What really made my 19 year old pupils dilate was the medley with Tom Jones. What I recalled as a spontaneous, audience-interactive event is now revealed as something staged, though not over-choreographed, event.
For Ol' Time Rock and Roll fans it's interesting that they do a Little Richard medley, as perhaps a year before, on the This Is Tom Jones! TV show, the Archictect himself joined Tommy J. for a Little Richard medley containing most of the same songs. Jones does his coupla moves but Raquel out dances him, without a doubt! She's digging the whole experience and the sexual electricity must have burned up the mixing board. Jones might have out-sung her, but she does not forgo any spotlight here!
Jones is solo on a typically over-the-top, totally unbelievable performance of "I (Who Have Nothing)", though Raquel stands by with an affirmative glow.

Choreographer and director David Winters is not widely known today. But he put his creative weirdness on some of the most far-out musical specials of the Mod-Pop era. Every one is worth watching, and owning. Not only this classic with Raquel Welch, but also the Nancy Sinatra special Movin' With Nancy and the Tom Jones London Bridge Special, among others. This one really has it all: beautiful photography, great loungy arrangements of groovy Top 40 hits, outlandish geometric eye-popping costumes you won't believe, jaw-dropping dance routines, and plenty of trippy psychedelia. This was THE happening world of 1970. It shares a similar style and moody attitude with the legendary Brigitte Bardot musical special of 1968, including similiar Paris locations. Both women, Bardot and Welch, were then in their early 30s, probably in their prime, both difficult, both prima donnas, with Bardot ruling the Old World and Welch on top of the New. Bardot was the more beautiful woman, of course, with a sexier body and better moves, but Welch was the much better singer. While the great Bardot special was pretty much all Bardot, the Welch special suffers from the demands of U.S. network television. Shows back then had to appeal across demographic lines. That's why Nancy Sinatra had to drag along a Dean Martin to croon some old fogey stuff. And it's why Welch had to slow things down with John Wayne and Bob Hope. I admire both Wayne and Hope, but they didn't belong in this freaky, ultra-mod world. Tom Jones is also along for the ride, a much better complement to the star, and he and Welch sizzle together in a few musical numbers. They're like the couple on top of the wedding cake. (Too bad they never worked the Vegas Flamingo together.) This is a definite midnight video, to be played on a bill with Valley Of The Dolls and maybe an Austin Powers movie. High camp and absolutely indispensible.

A classic '70's timepiece, pairing two pop-culture icons in their prime. This multimillion-dollar, TV song and dance extravaganza was filmed around the world - from Paris to Mexico. Lavish production numbers of classic songs from the era include: "Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head," "Let the Sun Shine In/Aquarius," and many more. #1325 - 48 min

Make no mistake, Raquel Welch was the biggest Hollywood star in 1970. TIME magazine had just proclaimed Welch as the NO. 1 Sex Symbol in the world. In her first TV special, Raquel Welch debunks claims that she was clueless in the singing and dancing department. Set against the backdrops of some of the most exotic locations around the world, Raquel earned high marks for her classic rendition of 1960's tune "California Dreamin" & "Everybody Talkin". John Wayne, Bob Hope, and Tom Jones go along for the ride. There is also a 5 minute sequence intercepted between the singing and dancing that shows Welch speaking to the hordes of press in Spain, London, and Paris. Buying this video will meaurabley enrich your life.