Product Details

• Actors: Ida Lupino, Celeste Holm, Richard Widmark, Cornel Wilde, O.Z. Whitehead
• Directors: Jean Negulesco
• Writers: Jean Negulesco, David Hertz, Edward Chodorov, Margaret Gruen, Oscar Saul
• Producers: Darryl F. Zanuck
• Format: Black & White, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: January 1, 1998
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301966996
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #176,369 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Road House has acquired a cult as a prime film noir. Certainly the title location is archetypal, a lounge and bowling alley up toward the Canadian border, and Ida Lupino and Richard Widmark make the most of flavorful roles that would qualify them as exemplary noir denizens even if they hadn't established that elsewhere. He's the second-generation owner of the place who's never been obliged to grow up. She's a somewhat shopworn dame he's brought back from Chicago to play the piano and sing. He--Jefty's the name, by the way--decides to marry her, and is unhinged enough not to realize he needs to ask first. She, meanwhile, has been rubbing Jefty's sobersides right-hand man (Cornel Wilde) the wrong way, and both of them are getting to like it. Fairly psychotic vengeance ensues.

This was director Jean Negulesco's first film for Fox, pretty much coinciding with his career peak of Johnny Belinda, a Warner Bros. picture that would bring him an Oscar nomination. Yet Road House is a frustratingly mixed bag. The writing boasts expert three-cushion dialogue--which Lupino delivers deftly--but the script is poorly structured overall. (Screenwriter-producer Edward Chodorov was appropriating material from another crazy-young-fellow movie he'd worked on, MGM's 1942 Rage in Heaven.) Cinematographer Joseph (Laura) LaShelle's lighting and setups are characteristically artful and glossy, but he's obliged to make too many studio "exteriors" look good--a standard cheat in that era, but more irksome than usual because the ostensible location cries out for legitimacy (couldn't they have gone to Lake Arrowhead at least?). Totally on the plus side, however, Ida really does sing and, for the first time in her career, is not dubbed; as Celeste Holm's character notes in admiration and envy, "She does more without a voice than anyone I ever heard." Musical highlights: "One for My Baby" and "Again." --Richard T. Jameson

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lupino Unbound, December 28, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Road House [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Jean Negulesco was an also-ran among golden-age directors, but he fired on all cylinders in this late-forties piney-woods noir. Richard Widmark is a giggling psycho who owns, what else, a Road House somewhere near the Canadian Border; Cornel Wilde is his all-American man Friday. Into the mix comes Lupino, a tough "shantoozie" who becomes the apex of a sick triangle. The talk is hard-boiled and freighted with innuendo (in the style of the times). Worth the price of admission is Lupino singing "One more for my baby (and one more for the road)" in her burnt-toast voice, while sitting at a white piano gouged with burns from her smouldering cigarettes. This movie was made for viewing on the late, late show.

50 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The mating season, June 29, 2001

By 

John R. Bridell (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Road House [VHS] (VHS Tape)

ROAD HOUSE sets a dark mood with plenty of night scenes. I'm usually turned away from a film having too many night scenes. Half the time you can't tell who's who and what's they doing. Nothing unclear in ROAD HOUSE. Director, Jean Negulesco, deserves a gold star for handling the lighting in those scenes. I give another gold star to Celeste Holm, the girl that you want for a "friend." The plot gets down to the simply fact of the mating season. I was a little concerned that Widmark's evil propensity wasn't foreshadowed during the earlier stages of the film, but it was acceptable to believe that he just flipped his cork. The best part of the movie was perky Ida Lupino's torch song singing effort beginning with "Set 'em up Joe," and "Again." The soundtrack was marvelous.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "It was always Jefty...or us.", December 17, 2004

By 

Dave (Tennessee United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Road House [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This underated film noir classic has three great stars of the genre: Richard Widmark, famous for his psychotic laugh, Ida Lupino, who was always perfect as the sultry femme fatale, and Cornel Wilde, who despite being very talented never became the big star that he should've been. Other reviewers have already gone over the plot, so I won't bother. Along with the three stars, there's great support from Celeste Holm, who you might recognize from the classic "High Society". Ida Lupino is hotter than ever in this great tale of lust and revenge! Ever since I first saw Richard Widmark's classic and sadistic performance in "Kiss of Death" I've been a big fan, and once again he plays the villian to perfection! Cornel Wilde gives a great performance as a man torn between his love for a woman and his loyalty to his best friend. This classic was made during the "golden years" of film noir, the late 40's, and it has stood the test of time. Hopefully, we won't have to wait too much longer before Fox releases this (along with the other Richard Widmark film noirs) on dvd.