Product Details

• Actors: Mike Farrell, Margot Kidder, Fred Gwynne, Graham Jarvis, Elliott Gould
• Directors: David Greene
• Writers: Richard Levinson, Robert Thomas, William Link
• Producers: Bob Cooper
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Subtitles: Spanish
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Lions Gate Home Ente
• VHS Release Date: May 17, 1993
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302794498
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #190,837 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An EXCELLENT who-done-it movie!, October 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Vanishing Act [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I first rented this movie in 1988, 2 years after it was released. It turned out to be a real sleeper! The acting is very good and the story line will not only keep you guessing but will stun you at the end. It starts out a little slowly, but quickly picks up the pace and snares your full attention. There is mild use of vulgarity, no violence and no sexual or adult content. . . . very nice for a change! As old as this movie is, I can't figure out why the price has never come down. And if it is held high by consumer demand, why don't all the video stores keep it on hand??? RENT IT IF YOU CAN FIND IT!!! P.S. If you own it and want to sell it, contact me. I might be interested. . . .

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The ending - What??? - Wow!, October 30, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Vanishing Act [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This thriller is taut and suspensful, almost electric with intensity, and with all of its star players practically at the top of their form. Here is "poor hard-luck Harry" Kenyon whose wife has disapeared and apparently the only policeman (Lt. Rudimeyer) in town available to investigate it (the rest all busy marching in the parade) would rather be left alone eating his kosher corned beef sandwich from a deli on west 87th street, New York.

But then comes this woman (with a little help from "Fr. Maklin") who claims to be the missing wife (Christine Prescott Kenyon) and seems to know everything about her, and to somehow be able to anticipate each and every possible evidence Harry would put forth to prove to Lt. Rudimeyer that this woman is not the real Christine Kenyon. How does she do it? She knows where they met, where they married, what they argued over the night she disappeared, where his friend whose cabin the newlyweds were borrowing for their honeymoon keeps his booze, seems to have half of Philadelphia on her payroll, and even the dog seems to know her. Of course that last is explained by one of the funniest fictional characters ever filmed, a veterinary disciple of Sigmund Freud ("If fleas are your problem, look elsewhere!").

For best enjoyment of this intense yet chess-match-like battle of wits, stop the film once Harry Kenyon practically breaks into the bank after Lt. Rudimeyer allows the Bank manager to hand "Christine" the check and they start arguing, and review the film. Try to think of all the different things Harry could have done to convince Rudimeyer. (One could almost make a video game out of this...) Then see it straight through to the end, which will come as a total surprise, managing to change and explain everything in an astonishingly short time. Incredible the different interpretations one can put on the exact same series of events. Then wind it back and it is amazing how many clues were there all along (no, the ending is not some tacked-on bit thought of at the last second, no matter how much it may seem so at first). And see how well any of your ideas for Harry would have worked.

I liked this film so much I bit the bullet and paid the $... price for it, the only rental-price-only video I ever bought new. Now, if only there could be more films which are that clever...

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent suspense with unpredictable ending, January 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Vanishing Act [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is an excellent flick that I saw twice on TV in the mid-to-late eighties. It has an all-star cast (Gould, Kidder of Superman fame, Farrell of MASH, and Fred Gwynne of Munsters). This movie is full of suspense without the usual blood and gore that so often accompany it. You will not know who to side with because it is not readily apparent who are the good guys and who are the bad. You will be caught up in this movie in no time - and don't even try to figure it out!