Martin-Landau Movie Reviews

As a childhood fan of the Space 1999 (both seasons), I was overjoyed to have this tape fall into my lap. J2 Communications produced the tape I have in 1990. There are no little "extras" on the tape, but it does have the episode in a reasonable quality. I am very glad to have this tape, and highly recommend that you get it!

The DVD has a retrospective documentary hosted by Saint, featuring rare footage and interviews with surviving cast and crew members. It also has an audio commentary with recollections from Lehman. This track can be rather "talkie" at times, but is great to have, just the same. Additional features include a music only track, remastered 5.1 sound, theatrical trailers, and a photo gallery. All in all, this is another great Hitchcock classic, on DVD. Highly Recommended as one of Hitchcock's best thrillers

As for the cast, it is excellent! Cary Grant gives a perfect performance as Roger O. Thornhill - and he is hilarious and charming, as ever! Eva Marie Saint is also very good, as the mysterious and glamorous girl Cary meets on the train. James Mason does a wonderful job playing the debonair but evil villian.

Directed by Hitchcock, this is a great comedy/thriller - in my opinion, it is Hitchcock's best movie! Additionally, it is a good idea to get the DVD, because the movie is astonishingly sharp and clear and there are plenty of special features. 100% worth your money! If you haven't seen this, by all means do, and if you have, get a DVD you can watch again and again!

The DVD has a retrospective documentary hosted by Saint, featuring rare footage and interviews with surviving cast and crew members. It also has an audio commentary with recollections from Lehman. This track can be rather "talkie" at times, but is great to have, just the same. Additional features include a music only track, remastered 5.1 sound, theatrical trailers, and a photo gallery. All in all, this is another great Hitchcock classic, on DVD. Highly Recommended as one of Hitchcock's best thrillers

As for the cast, it is excellent! Cary Grant gives a perfect performance as Roger O. Thornhill - and he is hilarious and charming, as ever! Eva Marie Saint is also very good, as the mysterious and glamorous girl Cary meets on the train. James Mason does a wonderful job playing the debonair but evil villian.

Directed by Hitchcock, this is a great comedy/thriller - in my opinion, it is Hitchcock's best movie! Additionally, it is a good idea to get the DVD, because the movie is astonishingly sharp and clear and there are plenty of special features. 100% worth your money! If you haven't seen this, by all means do, and if you have, get a DVD you can watch again and again!

The DVD has a retrospective documentary hosted by Saint, featuring rare footage and interviews with surviving cast and crew members. It also has an audio commentary with recollections from Lehman. This track can be rather "talkie" at times, but is great to have, just the same. Additional features include a music only track, remastered 5.1 sound, theatrical trailers, and a photo gallery. All in all, this is another great Hitchcock classic, on DVD. Highly Recommended as one of Hitchcock's best thrillers

As for the cast, it is excellent! Cary Grant gives a perfect performance as Roger O. Thornhill - and he is hilarious and charming, as ever! Eva Marie Saint is also very good, as the mysterious and glamorous girl Cary meets on the train. James Mason does a wonderful job playing the debonair but evil villian.

Directed by Hitchcock, this is a great comedy/thriller - in my opinion, it is Hitchcock's best movie! Additionally, it is a good idea to get the DVD, because the movie is astonishingly sharp and clear and there are plenty of special features. 100% worth your money! If you haven't seen this, by all means do, and if you have, get a DVD you can watch again and again!

The first 2 hours of the film follow the relationship between Rex Harrison in his marvelous role as Caesar and his relationship with the beautiful and wily Cleopatra, as presented by Elizabeth Taylor. As most historically know, their love is doomed from the start. But, the little chess game they get going is the strength of the picture, aside from its blatant flaunting of on-screen money. After the intermission, Richard Burton's Marc Antony makes his moves on the now wiser Cleopatra. Antony knows he will never be Caesar and is often jealous of the former leader. This is very problematic because today's viewers (who are not tainted by the controversy surrounding the film) will find his character less enrolling than Caesar. This leaves the second half of the film scramble to live up to the first half.

Much of the cast is very strong, elevating the film above the standard "Sword and Sandal" drama. Hume Cronyn, Martin Landau, Carroll O'Connor and Desmond Llewelyn offer support throughout. Roddy McDowell is wonderfully despicable as he claims Caesars throne. Some of the scenes are so epic in their production they just drip of expense. Along with all of that expense, the storylines have occasional slow points and lack clarity. This gives the illusion that the producers were trying to buy themselves to a great story.

The four-hour film is only a good story with awkward pacing. This DVD set also includes a third disc with a fascinating two-hour documentary on the creation of the film. Hearing that side of CLEOPATRA is better than the film itself. Director Joe Mankiewicz intended for CLEOPATRA to be 2 separate films, each at 3.5 hours. But when Burton and Taylor began their scandalous love affair, the Twentieth century Fox bigwigs canned that idea. The publicity from the affair might not hold long enough for the second film to be made. So, the studios demanded cuts be made and the two films combined. This explains many of the lapses in logic, but doesn't make the resulting film any better. Much of the wasted timing, recasting, reshooting and relocating is enough to make you believe the film to be a flop.

Still, CLEOPATRA is a gutsy experiment and this DVD set is a glorious record of it. The third disc is worth the price of admission alone.

Enough time, thought, and money have been put into this production that I am bound to overlook a few of the most important items about this film. The movie is more than just the actors are. The characters are very well portrayed. The set and costumes are dazzling. They really showed up in the scene when Cleopatra enterd Rome. And the navel battle was spectacular.

Every one is going to have a favorite Cleo and find flaws in the others. However this Cleo will always the one others are gauged by.

The first 2 hours of the film follow the relationship between Rex Harrison in his marvelous role as Caesar and his relationship with the beautiful and wily Cleopatra, as presented by Elizabeth Taylor. As most historically know, their love is doomed from the start. But, the little chess game they get going is the strength of the picture, aside from its blatant flaunting of on-screen money. After the intermission, Richard Burton's Marc Antony makes his moves on the now wiser Cleopatra. Antony knows he will never be Caesar and is often jealous of the former leader. This is very problematic because today's viewers (who are not tainted by the controversy surrounding the film) will find his character less enrolling than Caesar. This leaves the second half of the film scramble to live up to the first half.

Much of the cast is very strong, elevating the film above the standard "Sword and Sandal" drama. Hume Cronyn, Martin Landau, Carroll O'Connor and Desmond Llewelyn offer support throughout. Roddy McDowell is wonderfully despicable as he claims Caesars throne. Some of the scenes are so epic in their production they just drip of expense. Along with all of that expense, the storylines have occasional slow points and lack clarity. This gives the illusion that the producers were trying to buy themselves to a great story.

The four-hour film is only a good story with awkward pacing. This DVD set also includes a third disc with a fascinating two-hour documentary on the creation of the film. Hearing that side of CLEOPATRA is better than the film itself. Director Joe Mankiewicz intended for CLEOPATRA to be 2 separate films, each at 3.5 hours. But when Burton and Taylor began their scandalous love affair, the Twentieth century Fox bigwigs canned that idea. The publicity from the affair might not hold long enough for the second film to be made. So, the studios demanded cuts be made and the two films combined. This explains many of the lapses in logic, but doesn't make the resulting film any better. Much of the wasted timing, recasting, reshooting and relocating is enough to make you believe the film to be a flop.

Still, CLEOPATRA is a gutsy experiment and this DVD set is a glorious record of it. The third disc is worth the price of admission alone.

Enough time, thought, and money have been put into this production that I am bound to overlook a few of the most important items about this film. The movie is more than just the actors are. The characters are very well portrayed. The set and costumes are dazzling. They really showed up in the scene when Cleopatra enterd Rome. And the navel battle was spectacular.

Every one is going to have a favorite Cleo and find flaws in the others. However this Cleo will always the one others are gauged by.