Home :: DVD :: Comedy :: Romantic Comedies  

African American Comedy
Animation
Black Comedy
British
Classic Comedies
Comic Criminals
Cult Classics
Documentaries, Real & Fake
Farce
Frighteningly Funny
Gay & Lesbian
General
Kids & Family
Military & War
Musicals
Parody & Spoof
Romantic Comedies

Satire
School Days
Screwball Comedy
Series & Sequels
Slapstick
Sports
Stand-Up
Teen
Television
Urban
A Countess from Hong Kong

A Countess from Hong Kong

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $13.48
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 >>

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Chaplin's Sad Swansong
Review: "A Countess From Hong Kong" (1967) is painfully unfunny and depressing to sit through, particularly since it was Charlie Chaplin's final film. At age 77, he was obviously out of touch as a filmmaker and no longer enjoyed the creative autonomy of his own studio. This shows in the finished product, which is terribly claustrophobic and static. Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren are expected to do little more than Chaplin imitations and both appear ill-at-ease with the weak romantic-comedy material. One wishes that Chaplin had permitted a documentary to be filmed on the "Countess" set -- it would have been far more intriguing and enjoyable than this leaden farce.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A Sad Swansong
Review: "A Countess From Hong Kong" is painfully unfunny and depressing to sit through, particularly since it was Charlie Chaplin's final film. At age 77, he was obviously out of touch as a filmmaker and no longer enjoyed the creative autonomy of his own studio. This shows in the finished product, which is terribly claustrophobic and static. Marlon Brando and Sophia Loren are expected to do little more than Chaplin imitations and both appear ill-at-ease with the weak romantic-comedy material. One wishes that Chaplin had permitted a documentary to be filmed on the "Countess" set -- it would have been far more intriguing and enjoyable than this leaden farce.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Under-rated
Review: "Countess" was Chaplin's final film and sadly I think it has been labelled as being awful. This is not the case. I feel that the main reason for people believing this to be a bad film is that they don't understand it. Chaplin always created fantastic stories out of simple ideas and this is not an exception. It is written and directed with such subtle elegance that some of the simpliest visual gags turn into the most hilarious situations. There are fantastic actors all round: Brando himself, Sophia Loren looking gorgeous, Sydney Chaplin showing that talent does run in the family and Patrick Cargill as the butler. Chaplin himself pulls a cameo and does a great job at not hogging his screen time, a mistake made by directors like Tarantino. The result is an amazingly gentle film that shows people from a fresh human perspective, a breath of fresh air by todays standards. You will be missed Charlie.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a little old-fashioned for 1960s standards
Review: A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG was director/comedian Charlie Chaplin's final film. In this film he is the director, writer and composer.

The story concerns a beguiling Russian countess named Natascha (Sophia Loren - HOUSEBOAT), a young woman forced into prostitution in Hong Kong, when she happens to meet an American politician named Ogden Mears (Marlon Brando - A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, SUPERMAN). She stows away in his stateroom aboard a ship headed back to the States, where she belives she can escape her miserable life.

The usual battle-of-the-sexes ensues, when Natascha and Ogden are forced to spend the entire voyage together, bickering and fighting over their different opinions and tastes. But its soon evident that they are in love. Things become complicated when Ogden's icy wife (Tippi Hedren - THE BIRDS, MARNIE) joins the ship at Hawaii, while Natascha finds herself marrying Ogden's valet in order to gain an American passport!

This is a film that feels a little old-fashioned for the 1960s, but it is a rather charming and engaging romantic comedy. Perhaps the film is best-known for launching the hit single "(Love) This is My Song", made famous by Petula Clark. The movie also stars Sydney Chaplin, Patrick Cargill and Margaret Rutherford in a rather-clever cameo.

The DVD includes the trailer. (Single-sided, single-layer disc).

This DVD is part of a new series of classic releases from Universal that also include "Pillow Talk", "Send Me No Flowers", "The Thrill of It All!" and a twofer of "Man's Favorite Sport?/Strange Bedfellows".

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a little old-fashioned for 1960s standards
Review: A COUNTESS FROM HONG KONG was director/comedian Charlie Chaplin's final film. In this film he is the director, writer and composer.

The story concerns a beguiling Russian countess named Natascha (Sophia Loren - HOUSEBOAT), a young woman forced into prostitution in Hong Kong, when she happens to meet an American politician named Ogden Mears (Marlon Brando - A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE, SUPERMAN). She stows away in his stateroom aboard a ship headed back to the States, where she belives she can escape her miserable life.

The usual battle-of-the-sexes ensues, when Natascha and Ogden are forced to spend the entire voyage together, bickering and fighting over their different opinions and tastes. But its soon evident that they are in love. Things become complicated when Ogden's icy wife (Tippi Hedren - THE BIRDS, MARNIE) joins the ship at Hawaii, while Natascha finds herself marrying Ogden's valet in order to gain an American passport!

This is a film that feels a little old-fashioned for the 1960s, but it is a rather charming and engaging romantic comedy. Perhaps the film is best-known for launching the hit single "(Love) This is My Song", made famous by Petula Clark. The movie also stars Sydney Chaplin, Patrick Cargill and Margaret Rutherford in a rather-clever cameo.

The DVD includes the trailer. (Single-sided, single-layer disc).

This DVD is part of a new series of classic releases from Universal that also include "Pillow Talk", "Send Me No Flowers", "The Thrill of It All!" and a twofer of "Man's Favorite Sport?/Strange Bedfellows".

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: time for a reevaluation
Review: after the recent passing of brando i picked up a magazine celebrating his career. it listed this as one of his 10 best films and said this film was beautiful and vastly underrated.
couldnt agree more.
the misfire was in misrepresentation of it as an out and out comedy. of course chaplins films were rarely 'just comedies'.
countess of course relates to the earlier 'woman of paris' and this is indeed a throwback to 1920s sensabilities.
critics have for years pounced on this film (and brando was one of those critics, but then brando pounced on a lot of his own films and his method acting didnt simply gel with chaplins direction)but brando is indeed good as is the film itself.
its a nice small charmer. you'll enjoy it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Wonderful
Review: I abolutely like this movie, because I dont see it as a "last film from C.C." I see it as it is, a good comedy, especially
because Loren an Brando do not have the greatest chemestry - it
makes it even funnier. I like the type of comedy from these days
and it cant be compared to our times - I judge it positively for a movie from these days. Love it much!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Another review
Review: I see there's several reviews already for this film, but here goes my two cents worth. Even though this is Chaplin's last film, it's his first and only film in color and widescreen. The movie is old fashion to say the least, it might of been better in b/w. Brando and Loren are completely wasted, the supporting players fair much better. Chaplin is quite good in his cameo role (makes you wish he'd given himself a bigger part). At the time, Chaplin took the negative reviews as almost a personal threat. He really defended the film, even going so far as to say he thought it was the best film he ever made! However several years later he admitted it wasn't very good, he said the actors where great but the story was really thin.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Another review
Review: I see there's several reviews already for this film, but here goes my two cents worth. Even though this is Chaplin's last film, it's his first and only film in color and widescreen. The movie is old fashion to say the least, it might of been better in b/w. Brando and Loren are completely wasted, the supporting players fair much better. Chaplin is quite good in his cameo role (makes you wish he'd given himself a bigger part). At the time, Chaplin took the negative reviews as almost a personal threat. He really defended the film, even going so far as to say he thought it was the best film he ever made! However several years later he admitted it wasn't very good, he said the actors where great but the story was really thin.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: One of the worst movies I ever watched (well, almost)
Review: The main reason why I bought (!) this movie is because I wanted to collect all of Brando's movies (I'm a Brando fan, U see). Though this movie filled one of the collection slots - I was extremely disappointed with the quality of the movie. The only Brando movie I watched by fast-forwarding along way ! Worst of all Brando's Movies. You wouldn't believe that the Great Chaplin created this movie - poor closure to a near perfect film career. No wonder Brando picked this movie purely out of respect for Mr. Chaplin. There is just nothing good about this movie, very primitive in everything. Monotonous Music and Camera work, and the worst acting job by all actors involved. What a mega waste of talent and time.

Even if you are a huge fan of Brando/Chaplin - DO NOT Rent/Borrow/Buy this movie - JUST NOT WORTH IT ! ...unless you are a collector like me :)


<< 1 2 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates