Reviews

You will love Vivien Leigh, not be crazy about Warren Beatty (but he is beautiful) and love the photography in this movie. Tennessee Williams is my favorite author so I love everything that he does and this was no exception. There is another version with Helen Mirren that is good too but Vivien will always have that aura about her that we all so loved. Try this one for a 'moody' afternoon to see what great acting was all about.

The movie was entertaining, and shocking to see a young Warren Beatty. The ending is short, but if you paid attention to the film it fits perfectly

Those two stars are only for Vivien. If it wasn't for her, I would not give this film any stars at all. I think this story had the potential to be an amazing movie - but the ambition stopped after Vivien Leigh. She was dynamic, as she always is. It is so unfortunate that all of the others (yes, I mean Lotte Lenya too - even if she was nominated for an Oscar for the role) were cast in this film. Jill St. John, Lenya, and especially Warren Beatty disappointed and ruined the whole movie. From all of the fire, insanity, "drifting" and pain of 'A Streetcar Named Desire' - it all came to this dead rag of a movie. Perhaps that is what happen when a stage director takes his beautiful supporting cast from Broadway to the screen (as in Streetcar) as opposed to casting Shirley McLaine's kid brother and Kurt Weill's muse comedic songstress. I wish someone would've told Beatty back then to stick to American gangster roles and American hairdresser roles - no more accents, please. I hope they did a better job of casting in the remake with Helen Mirren. It was bad enough to do that to Vivien Leigh in her second-to-last film. I would suggest reading the book on this one. Or just watch it for Vivien. She's marvelous.

Get it too see Vivien Leigh in her fragile second to last film roll (it was "art imitating life"). She was fascinating in everything she did. Warren Beatty's "preformance" is excruiatingly "high school play" - way out of his league with Leigh, Lotte Lenya (an over the top, scenery-chewing interpretation), and Coral Browne. Beatty's accent is "Eye-Talian" rather than Italian, his continental "flair", that of a soda-jerk (it's right up there in miscasting idiocy with John Wayne's, Genghis Kahn (THE CONQUEROR) but embarrassing instead of hilarious {Wayne}. I have a sentimental soft-spot for this film, but in reality it really isn't a success the SHOWTIME adaptation ( with the great Helen Mirren) is very close to the original short story. In 1961 the moronic censors would not allow a Williams adaptation to be filmed without major alterations (A Streetcar Named Desire - Sweet Bird of Youth - Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, were all but ruined had it not been for some very clever screenwriters). The DVD transfer is good - with the Trailer and a short infomative documentary about it's making. If you can afford both versions, by all means get both, otherwise SHOWTIME made the definitive "ROMAN SPRING".

This movie doesn't wear the years very well, but if you have the patience to get through the plodding pace, wooden acting and totally bizarre script, there is still something to think about. I'd definitely recommend listening to the interviews that come with the DVD, as they help you make more sense of the movie. Probably one of the most interesting aspects of the film for me was how it showed Warren Beatty rather true to life.

Reviews

Take a step back in time. My grown children still love this Christmas story and have passed that love to their children. It's a must have for the holidays.

I bought this movie for my kids (and me), every generation should see this movie. It brought back wonderful memories, I must have seen this a hundred times when I was a kid. Please buy this for your children, you won't regret it.

Not too many people know of this show unless you were a child growing up in the 70's in Southern California. KTLA (channel 5)aired this all the time during Christmas Time. I love introducing this rare gem to anyone that does not know about it. This is a great family movie for Christmas! It's a wholesome, clean and an innocent story reminding me of a less chaotic world we used to live in. Please enjoy!

I bought this to replace the old VHS Tape we have... which is of horrible quality... but this DVD was just as bad!! It's like someone copied our awful VHS Tape to DVD!!! It seems like someone created it in the basement or something!!! I couldn't help but think I was watching a pirated copy?!?! It has poor sound quality, is "choppy" in places with picture and sound, and is blurry and the color is muted! No remastering or sharpening of picture/sound quality! Just bad quality all the way around!! So disapointing!!

I bought this DVD for my mother as an anniversary present just before Thanksgiving last year. She hasn't stopped watching it since! I'm twenty six yrs old myself and haven't seen it since I was a little girl!!! At its core, the video is an excellent reminder of childhood memories coupled with the underlying, but nonetheless prominent message of the season's real meaning!!! Definitely worth the money!!!

Reviews

Received the suit today on time but it is not a three button suit as advertised but a two button suit. I am also not that satisfied with the quality of the material. It feels more like a polyester blend than merino wool. Returning suit.

I purchased this suit online for one purpose. I plan to wear it on formal nights for an upcoming cruise. So, I benefit by it also serving as fit to wear anywhere! This is an extremely good hundred dollar suit. Great value for the money!

What a wonderful Italian Suit. It arrived on time and awesome condition. Two thumbs up!! P.s Good Price

Quality is way beyond the price. As mentioned by others, the cut of the jacket is tight across the back but does not hinder dancing or other activity. Make sure you have an experienced tailor hem the pants and make alterations if needed, my 42 regular had to have the arms shortened. I would definately buy another suit from this supplier.

I do not know much about suits, but can tell fit, finish, and quality are high. I will be purchasing 2 more in differnt styles and colors, but I am satisfied with this suit. It is a great price.

Reviews

I only wish I'd discovered this series of books sooner! These books are great supplements to teaching history to your kids. The Magic Tree House website even offers a few free activity pages to go with many of the books and in addition to the history study guide, we use the companion story books to really get "personal" with history.

I ordered this book for my 9 year old son. He absolutely loves it. Since he has started reading Magic Tree House books his reading has drastically improved. I believe this book and the Magic Tree House books are a must have for this age group. These books help them learn history facts in a fun way.

There was a lot involved... so much infact that my 8 year old son wasn't very attracted to it. However in the next few years perhaps he'll take another look thought it or use it for a project he does at school. I wouldn't recommend buying this book for 'fun' but rather for direct use with a project you might be working on.

Reviews

I lived in Italy from August 2003 to August 2004 and before leaving I bought this guidebook. I would have been better off with no guidebook at all. The information in Rough Guide Italy (e.g., prices for hostels, opening/closing times for attractions, etc.) was consistently wrong to the point that I questioned whether anyone had attempted to verify what was printed in the last ten years. Rough Guide, in an attempt to differentiate itself from Lets Go and Lonely Planet, spends a lot of time on "off the beaten track" areas. This is generally good but it seems that in some cases cities do no merit the praise heaped upon them (i.e., Rough Guide does this solely in order to offer something different). Anyway, the point is that I had the opportunity to use Rough Guide countless times over the year. The historical information is not bad but its practical value is seriously lacking. Rough Guide, if you're listening it would be in your best interest to update your stuff!

What I like best about the Rough Guides is that they give critical reviews. They will point out the tourist traps and will give negative reviews. I find that Frommer's and Fodor's rarely point out the negatives to a particular hotel or site. The rough guide is very critical and is a great balance to these other guides. I would balance your trip to Italy with a Fodors (or Frommers) book because the maps and illustrations are often better and there are more higher-end hotels listed.This book will help you decide where is best to spend your vacation in Italy. There are clear critical descriptions of all the regions and great general info on getting around in Italy.If you aren't interested in "roughing" it and staying in lower priced hotels. The guides are still very useful in rating attractions, and areas in which to stay... but you will need another book to look at more moderate and luxury hotels.I would definitely read this book before going to Italy.

I just came back from a 2 week trip to Italy, my first time going there. I have used guides such as LonelyPlanet and Let's Go before, but I selected RoughGuide for this trip because I have heard a lot of good things about the series and as it was one of the most recently published guides for Italy, I was hoping it will have the most updated information.First of all, the good things about the guide:1. It does contain a lot of practical information about big and small cities in Italy, and it was immensely useful during my trip.2. A lot of historical and insightful details for museums and art galleries that went beyond the basics, that I found very usefulHowever, the good is not enough to overcome the shortcomings of the guide, and that is why I think there must be a better guide for Italy than this and I encourage travelers to seek them out. Some of the things in the guide that really bothered me included:1. Listing recommended bars and cafes without marking them on the provided map. Without a street index for any map, I was unable to find the places they recommended unless I spend 20 minutes looking at every single street name on the page. As streets in places like Rome, Florence and Venice are very small, this was a very difficult task. I sometimes came to the conclusion that the street for the bar listing was not even in the map provided. Contact information for bars and cafes were not provided, so it was not even possible to call them to ask for directions.2. No layout plan/map for large museums and galleries. When I came to places like the Vatican, the Roman Forums and the Uffizi, I found it difficult to locate important "sights" with only word directions (i.e. on the right of the second altar...... or on the left side of that first pile of rubble.....) This is especially a problem when I sometimes found myself coming in from a different entrance than the one the writers used. It would have been a lot simpler if they included a map of the museum itself. This was especially difficult in the Uffizi in Florence. They would describe a painting as being in room 6, but room numbers are not displayed for every room in the Uffizi. The rooms are also not clearly shaped and defined, and I did not even realize I had crossed four rooms until I looked at my friend's guide to see I was no longer in room 3, but in room 7. 3. Not really a guide for roughing it. For Siena, the category of inexpensive dining means a meal for less than Euro 20. This is actually quite expensive for a backpacker on a budget.4. Not very thorough directions. In Siena, information is given for how to get to the train station from the city centre, but no information is given for getting back to the train station (the bus drop off and pick off points are in different parts of the city). To get from Naples to Pompeii, they list taking the train to Torre Annuziata and then switching to another line, but you save yourself a lot of trouble if you just take train to Sorrento.5. Lack of low budget accommodation listings. There are a lot of listings for hotels, but there is hardly enough listings of hostels. Even when there are listings, the comments they offer are not very helpful to help me decide whether it is a hostel that is worth using. All in all, this guide did help me a lot. At the same time, I am quite certain I would have been able to find the same help in another guide to Italy, that would have offered better directions and descriptions of famous sights. Perhaps this is a good guide if you are already quite familiar with Italy, because it does offer information for smaller towns and out of the way places. However, for a first time backpacker to the country who was interested in seeing the big and medium-sized sights, I found it lacking a lot of information that would have been helpful.

I'd like to offer another review from just the one out here - although I have not used Rough Guide to Italy, I just got back from Switzerland where I couldn't have survived with out my Rough Guide! It was comprehensive (the smallest of towns we went through had information in the guide), provided detailed city maps (which we could do our own tours), and offered good info on hotels and meals. Granted we are not student backpackers and looked for a guide that was fit to our needs - that is what Rough Guide to Switzerland did for us and will be doing for us through Italy!

What's rough about this guide book? Oh, the information! I don't know who this book is written for, because as a regular backpacker, I find it completely useless. Two major problems are the lack of sufficient information about hostels (there's plenty of hotels listed, though), and there's no information considering the costs of travelling around Italy.Unless you are travelling with a suitcase full of money, don't buy this one.Oh: I tried to rate this book as "-", but it wasn't possible. One star given is too much.