Product Details

• Actors: Groucho Marx, George Fenneman
• Format: Black & White, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 2
• Studio: Westlake Entertainme
• VHS Release Date: September 6, 1995
• Run Time: 30 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303699499
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #561,293 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Classic Groucho humor, July 6, 2004

By 

D. Alban (Arlington, VA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You Bet Your Life, Vol 1 (DVD)

Prior to seeing this DVD, I hadn't watched any episodes of You Bet Your Life, though I'd heard a few of the radio episodes. This was an older Groucho than I was used to seeing in the movies, but he is still as witty as ever. I thought these 4 episodes were quite funny, with a few absolutely classic one-liners both from Groucho and his guests (he is completely upstaged at one point by a 78-year-old woman who has some hilarious remarks about being a spinster and then makes Groucho put out his cigar.)

This DVD is well worth checking out if you've never seen the show before, especially if you're considering getting the larger, more expensive boxsets like I am. Just don't expect a very substantive gameshow component - it's mostly about banter between Groucho and the guests, with the actual quiz show being more of an afterthought.

The production quality is weak - the image hasn't been cleaned up, there are occasional audio glitches, minor editing jumps, etc. It appears to be a straight-to-DVD pressing of The Best of Groucho, since that title screen appears before the first episode. I also had navigation problems with the scene selection screen, though that may have been due to my remote. But it's very watchable and for a $5 DVD, it's hard to complain too much.

The DeSoto commercials (and direct pitches from Groucho and announcer George Fenneman) appear throughout and appear to have been left mostly unedited, though I think that's actually a plus. I think at least two of the episodes are from 1954, since they're hawking a 1954 DeSoto. He does refer at one point to having sat in his chair for 7 years, but he's probably counting back to 1947 when the radio show began. Also, in one of the episodes Groucho reads a telgram announcing that George Fenneman was voted best TV announcer by his fellow broadcasters, if that helps anyone identify the episodes.

If you're a Groucho fan, this is too good of a deal to pass up.

33 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Episodes Available Elsewhere, January 9, 2005

By 

Marc Goodstein - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: You Bet Your Life, Vol 1 (DVD)

Word of warning; I recently bought this DVD and Volume 2 only to discover that all 4 episodes on Volume 1 and all 4 on Volume 2 are also available on the "Groucho Marx:You Bet Your Life" DVD from Platinum Disc Corp.(Which has 13 episodes).

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent offer, July 15, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: You Bet Your Life, Vol 1 (DVD)

I bought this for $3.00 and i must say it is awesome! I have never seen the show before but i knew Groucho was ganna have knock em dead jokes. And he did have a lot of one liners. Even an old lady had the best lines by making fun of Groucho, and putting his cigar out. With four episodes and a total of an hour and 48 minuts, its well worth it.