Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3621 in DVD
• Released on: 2002-07-29
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Italian
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 129 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Like a good claret laid down for a couple of decades, Victor Victoria (1982) just improves with age. Based on a 1930s German screenplay, Blake Edwards' cross-dressing musical tackles sexuality and gender with a sweet generosity of spirit and endearing warmth. To Edwards' credit and that of his wife Julie Andrews in the title role it is far more than a star vehicle, with James Garner, Lesley Ann Warren and, particularly, Robert Preston (as worldly gay Toddy) contributing quick-fire performances that brim with brilliant timing. Andrews, too, is wonderful in a deceptively complex part.

It shouldn't have worked at all. Victor Victoria was made at a time when the Hollywood musical's currency was at its lowest and Andrews might have been deemed a rather old-fashioned sort of star. But by keeping Henry Mancini's songs in context as stage numbers, the traditional values of the musical are subverted. And the whole thing is bathed in a soft, intimate light; this is a film of considerable artistry on every level.

On the DVD: Victor Victoriais presented in widescreen with a sharp Dolby Digital soundtrack; the picture quality is splendid. Extras include lists of cast, crew and awards as well as the original theatrical trailer. Best of all is a touching--if occasionally repetitive--commentary from Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews, who clearly remember the project with great pride and affection. Somewhat belatedly they resurrected it as a Broadway show in the 1990s, in which Andrews again scored a considerable personal triumph. --Piers Ford

DVD Description
DVD Special Features:
Commentary by star Julie Andrews and writer/director Blake Edwards
Original Theatrical Trailer
Easter egg featuring an interview with Blake Edwards
Screen Ratio: Widescreen 2.35:1
Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1

Synopsis
Blake Edwards tones down the broadly farcical style that is his signature with this sly musical comedy starring Julie Andrews as British entertainer Victoria Grant. She and an older friend, gay impresario Toddy (Robert Preston), are close to starvation in 1930s Paris. Desperate for work, he changes her image, introducing her to the cabaret world as female impersonator Victor/Victoria. Victoria, now a woman pretending to be a man in drag, becomes a huge success in the nightclub world. Chicago gangster King Marchan (James Garner) becomes especially intrigued by Victor/Victoria while visiting Paris with his dim-witted girlfriend, Norma (Lesley Anne Warren), and his ever-faithful bodyguard, Squash (Alex Karras), who's more than a little concerned by his boss's interest in a transvestite. As Marchan tries to get to the source of his attraction to the entertainer, trying to uncover the truth behind the rhinestone headdress, the farce commences, and the meaning of gender and sexual preference comes into question for all the characters. A director who often shows a willingness to let the seams in his work show for comic effect, Edwards has opted for stylish smoothness here while opening himself to questions of gender that his earlier films had anxiously mocked. Robert Preston steals the film as Victoria's graceful Svengali.

Customer Reviews

Julie Andrews has an exceptional vocal range
This movie is pretty much a remake of Viktor und Viktoria (1933) which is still available on DVD from amazon.de. However there is a character (Blake Edwards as Charles Bovin, Private Investigator hired by Labisse) that distracts from the movie by using too many slapstick scenes that do not fit the story.

Victoria Grant (Julie Andrews) a starving out of work legitimate female singer. She meets also out of work singer Carroll Todd (Robert Preston). Due to an extraordinary event a plan hatches in Toddy's mind he suggests that Victoria pose as a man pretending to be a woman in order to get work. Victor Grezhinsk (Julie Andrews) the Polish aristocrat female impersonator meats promoter (James Garner) who is at odds as to his/her gender. After a sneak peek he knows the difference but what about his big time gangster buddies?

Many top actors and singers. You find singing ranges that very few people can match in Julie Andrews. Leslie Ann Warren is like a shiny toy. There are way too many great actors to mention in this review.

You will like the story. You will like the singing "Crazy World" outshines the movie. You will want to watch this over and again.

Everyone will know he's a phony
Blake Edwards had a unique style of film; all the films seemed to have a certain atmosphere while each maintaining an individual character. Of course, Julie Andrews was a frequent actress in his films - Edwards and Andrews are married, and have been since 1969, an astonishing longevity for Hollywood.

In 'Victor/Victoria', Edwards returns to a Parisian settings familiar to fans of his work in the Pink Panther series - there is some minor elements of slapstick (the clutzy waiter, the bumbling detective, perhaps a nod in the direction of the Pink Panther films), but the real narrative plot is drawn along by the stylish comedy of Julie Andrews (Victoria Grant/Victor) and Robert Preston (Carroll Todd), in one of his last films.

The film is actually based on a much older piece, from 1933, written by Reinhold Schünzel, a German actor and writing, known in Europe primarily from the 1920s to the 1950s (perhaps English-speaking audiences would know him best from his role in Alfred Hitchcock's 'Notorius'). This was not the first, nor the last remake of this piece.

Preston plays an aging, gay, musical theatre man-about-town, who we take it is various a performer, talent scout, and director. Through a strange set of circumstances, he happens to be in a restaurant with a down-on-her-luck singer, who has just flopped at her last audition, and was willing to sell her virtue to the hotel manager for a meatball. She has captured a cockroach, and intends to plant the bug in the salad, thus avoiding payment of the bill - Carroll Todd ('Toddy' to his friends) and Victoria escape the restaurant, and come to share a room together while figuring out what to do.

Toddy comes up with the idea of dressing up Victoria as a man to then present her as the greatest drag queen, with the absurd name of Count Victor Grezhinski, a gay Polish count. 'Who would ever believe it?' Victoria protests. 'A woman pretending to be a man pretending to be woman.'

'It's perfect!' Toddy insists.

'Everyone will know he's a phony,' Victoria insists.

'Exactly! Everyone will know HE's a phony.'

Victoria as Victor auditions for Andre Cassell (John Rhys-Davies), the greatest talent and booking agent in Paris. He schedules Victor to open in a grand venue, and the deception seems complete. That is, until King Marchand (James Garner), a Chicago gangster and nightclub owner, arrives, complete with bodyguard (Alex Karras) and moll in tow (Leslie Ann Warren). He doesn't believe the act, and is determined to discover the truth.

While Victor/Victoria is not a musical in the sense of 'Cats' or 'Showboat', it does have some really stunning musical numbers, as one would expect from a Julie Andrews production. 'Le Hot Jazz' and 'The Shady Dame from Seville' are excellent numbers (Preston does his own reprise of 'The Shady Dame' for the big finale), and other numbers are fun; Leslie Ann Warren does her own over-the-top tribute to Chicago. The original music is done by Henry Mancini, and thus another Pink Panther connection.

The costumes (done by Patricia Norris, a very experienced and wide-ranging costumer) are perfect, both for the stage production numbers (dramatic and with flair, as might befit a drag queen, then or now), and off the stage - the period setting of inter-war Paris, with the genteel poverty of some and the opulence of others side-by-side is very well done.

This is the first film in which I recall major gay figures - it was a popular film in part because the primary actors were well know, and the issue of gay life was presented both in a distant and a non-controversial manner. If there are politics in it at all, it is that sex shouldn't be a political issue. King Marchand, a bit upset at being identified as someone who might date a man (Victor) has one scene in which he re-affirms his masculinity (by going to a seedy bar and picking a fight), only to discover that people aren't always what he thought they were.

This could be a theme throughout the whole film - people are never what you think they are, and life never turns out as expected. The tone of the film is rather lighthearted throughout, and the situations play very well. Does King Marchand get the girl/guy? Does Carroll Toddy become the toast of Paris? Does Chicago get an airport?? See the film and find out.

Le Jazz Hot!!!
Although he has just recieved an honorary Oscar, Blake Edwards is often looked upon as a purvayer of low comedy. Although he is the genius behind such sparkling classics as The (original) Pink Panther and Breakfast at Tiffanys, many people frown upon him for his later films such as S.O.B., Blind Date and Switch (let's not mention the post-Sellars Panthers). Victor / Victoria falls, chronologically, between the two sets of films and, in my view, is Edwards at his peak.
Edwards directs his wife Julie Andrews (never better and that includes being a nanny and a nun), in a tale of a [woman pretending to be a man pretending to be a woman]. The central plot serves as an excellent backbone on which to hang a wonderfully farcical script, some hilarious set-pieces and the fantastic song-and-dance numbers (Bricuse and Mancini's score makes you wish they'd worked together more often).
Andrews, as I say, is flawless coming somewhere between the innocence of Poppins and the lewdness of S.O.B. and giving a fantastic performance. From under her very nose though, the film is stolen by the ever-watchable Robert Preston as Toddy. Preston brings great depth and love to a part that could quite easily have been, as he is refered to in the film, 'a pathetic old queen'. James Garner commendably plays the straight-man (in more ways than one!) with a twinkle in his eye and Lesley Ann Warren hilariously chews every bit of scenery she lays her hands on.
The script, which bears Edwards' name as a co-writer, is as witty and moving as anything written in Hollywood's 'Golden Era' and the musical elements have as much vibrancy as MGM's in their hey-day. Musical highlights include Le Jazz Hot and The Shady Dame from Seville (not to mention the riotous reprise as performed by Preston for the films finale). One-liners don't come much better than "A lot of men can't get it ... up to now, you've been fine", "You look like a raccoon" (you need to see it) and the entire scene in the restaurant that leads to the line "It is a moron who takes advice from a horse's arse" (Edwards regular Graham Stark at his dead-pan best).
The extras on the DVD are limited to trailers and a commentary. The commentary by Edwards and Andrews is informative, if a little disappointing considering the wildness of the film and mainly consists of Edwards enjoying watching the film and Andrews making sure that all of the on and off-screen talent is name-checked.
A real unsung gem that deserves to be seen as often as possible. Tell your friends!