Customer Reviews

Salome Where She Danced [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is the queen of camp classics: Yvonne in her very first starring role looking exotic, breathtakingly beautiful, and showcasing many of her talents. The plot is ludicrous, loosely, very loosely based on the life of notorious dancer Lola Montez, the story carries one from Vienna to San Francisco with many a bump (and grind) along the way. Yvonne plays Anna Marie, a ballerina in the Royal Ballet of Austria, who is secretly in love with a nobleman. He is killed in war, she is duped into becoming a spy and has to flee the country -- so naturally, she turns up on a stagecoach in Arizona. Stranded, she is forced to do her most exotic dance: Salome and the Dance of the Seven Veils. Catching the eye of a passing bandit, she is kidnapped and dragged to the desert where she changes his Confederate heart by singing O Tannenbaum in German. On to San Francisco, where she is preparing for her debut with the San Francisco Ballet, sings an aria or two long the way, and hides out on a boat disguised as a Chinese princess. (I told you the plot was ludicrous) But all is well and she has a happy ending, heading off in a runaway stagecoach with her reformed Confederate bandit.

Buying this DVD is an utter waste of your money and time. Since it's supposed to be 94 minutes long and is here only 56 minutes, what you've got us less than 2/3 of the actual film. Who wants to lay out $10 for this scam?

The beautiful Yvonne DeCarlo rules as the notorious"Lola Montez" who was the mistress of the King of Prussia and caused a revolution when he gave her the crown jewels.She then escaped to the American West to the Arizona town of "Salome" where she danced.This is a nice campy western classic!!!

Salome Where She Danced
If you're a Yvonne de Carlo-Fan, the movie is all right and it's worth your money and the time to watch it. If not forget it.

This vehicle propelled the beautiful Yvonne De Carlo (who doesn't love her?) to fame as she emerges from a clamshell ala Botticelli's Birth of Venus and dances her way from Europe to America. It's loosely based on the life of Lola Montez and Yvonne has some nice outfits. There are nice sets and costumes but script and direction needs work. In all, its a tad below average of a film, unoriginal and a bit silly. I laughed as she danced in front of the ogling cowboys in her green middle-eastern belly dancing outfit. Cultural clash! with the sophisticated Europe lady in the dancing outfit with the naive cowboy onstage! But it's fun! Many DVDs of old classics (pre 1960) still have not been digitally restored but rely on reasonable prints. So I am used to average quality prints and wouldn't complain if so. However, this DVD product was from a mediocre print, plenty of small scratches, some missing frames, green marks running down the right for 10 seconds in a battle scene, and the color is a bit red and faded. Furthermore, the real horror is Reel Enterprises! -- the distributors -- placing a WATERMARK in the right bottom corner on the entire length of the DVD!! I'm surprised no one else mentioned this (and the RE! copy is definitely shown as the DVD cover on Amazon). It's an amateur production job and to give you an idea, there's NO menu, no chapters in the menu and when you reach the end, the movie loops to the beginning. That's what a low-budget copy does (I know, I burn DVDs). Furthermore, the back of the DVD case gives movie info as b/w and 1936...which are incorrect (movie is in color and made in 1945). So the DVD producers didn't really know what they were doing. Even Amazon's description is incorrectly given as b/w and 56 minutes (ca 85 minutes). I give the movie 2.5 stars out of 5 (I'm partial to Yvonne) and the DVD print is 1.5 stars but due to the watermark, I'd give it 0.5 star out of 5. Only buy if you really want to see Yvonne's first starring role. Ok to rent for $1-2 if you can but otherwise wait til it's on TV or when it's restored. I can't figure out why RE! put a watermark on the DVD....so sad (what were they thinking? No one else does that!!)

People who write reviews should watch the movie first. This movie is full length and in colour.

Rod Cameron may not be all that great here but he is a natural when playing traditional western roles. We need Rod Cameron westerns,especially from the mid to late 40's and the 50's. And they need to be remastered and sharpened. Please, somebody. They're worth it. They have good stories and supporting casts.

this is a camp classic - it's a quite a lavish production.
The print is not great, as Universal seems to have lost the rights.Anyway it's the best one I have seen.
This movie which was Yvonne DeCarlo's first starring
role, made her a star.She sings one song - the other is dubbed. It really is worth watching.

This is one of several orders that I didn't receive over the past couple of months.

It's no wonder that Leonard Maltin rated this film a "bomb." It is. I have the colorized VHS, and that makes things even worse. The script is written in cliches. The story is ridiculous, taking place in Europe and in the American West. (After a 23-hour stage coach ride to the frontier town that was her destination, Yvonne looks clean and refreshed, heavy makeup still perfect.) The "dancing" is pathetic, and wholly unerotic. (At least they taught 23-year-old Yvonne how to bound around on toe shoes.) The acting is moronic; Rod Cameron especially needed to earn an honest living. Charles Lamont, the director, did his usual worst. In short, a "bomb."