Top Banana [VHS]

Top Banana [VHS]
by Albert Zugsmith, Alfred E. Green

Top Banana [VHS]

List Price: ~~$19.98~~
Our Price: $7.85
You Save: $12.13 (61%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.00 (click here)
Category: VHS Video
See more movie releases

Buy this VHS video movie at online store in your country
Canada

Product details

Actor: Danny Scholl, Jack Albertson, Judy Lynn, Phil Silvers, Rose Marie
Director: Albert Zugsmith, Alfred E. Green
Producer: Albert Zugsmith
Producer: Ben Peskay
Producer: Harry Zevin
Writer: Gene Towne
Writer: Hy Kraft
Writer: Johnny Mercer
Edition: VHS Tape
Format: Color, NTSC
Running Time: 100 minutes
Release Date: 1998-09-01
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: MGM (Video & DVD)
Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)

VHS Movie Reviews of Top Banana [VHS]

Movie Review: Phil Silvers delivering mid-Century Vaudevillian shtick and one-liners.
Summary: 3 Stars

I am a fan of mid-Century content, especially related to New York, so this was interesting to me for its boatload of dated references to everybody and everything from the Essex House to the Jersey tubes to Toot Shors. After that, however, it ran pretty dry for me. I wouldn't recommend going too far out of one's way to see it.

Still it's an excellent showcase of Phil Silvers delivering a bunch of classic Vaudevillian shtick and one-liners. Available on VHS only, pulled from the sole surviving 16mm positive, no resto.

The film was based on an earlier Broadway play and this was subsequently shot on an L.A. sound stage one day with the original cast members, no editing, one take, just as it would have been seen by an audience member sitting in the Winter Garden where it ran.

There's a bit more background available over at Wikipedia.

Movie Review: Phil was the best
Summary: 5 Stars

This is really a shoot from the Broadway play that Phil starred in and was done in 1953. The cuts are a bit quick, however there is some excellent bits with vaudevilian's Jack Albertson, a folk or two from Sgt. Bilko and of course Phil. Rose Marie from The Dick Van Dyck show is also in the movie. You must love Phil Silvers and Bilko to enjoy this work and I do indeed!

Movie Review: A marvelous record of an overpowering low-comedy performance by Phil Silvers as Milton Berl...I mean, Jerry Biffle
Summary: 4 Stars

There are two excellent reasons for watching this filmed Broadway stage show that stars Phil Silvers as Jerry Biffle, the headliner of a popular television comedy show (and patterned after Milton Berle). First, there's the rare chance to see Phil Silvers in prime, ego-driven form. Jerry Biffle is a great comedian. He also has an ego as big as a brachiosaurus. He's a whistle-blowing, finger-snapping terror who runs every aspect of his show and tries to run every aspect of the people who work for him. He needs jokes like a starving man needs manna. He can punch home a one liner as hard as Rocky Marciano. He's loud, aggressive and funny. The second reason is to watch Silvers work with a collection of second bananas who, like Silvers, cut their low-comedy teeth working years in burlesque. There's Jack Albertson as Biffle's head writer, Joey Faye as a gofer and Herbie Faye as a barber. The extended routine the four of them do to demonstrate what it takes to get to be a top banana is worth the price of the VHS tape. It's done to Johnny Mercer's "Top Banana" song and features prat falls, double and triple takes, corny jokes, wheezing routines and seltzer water down the pants, all done fast, loud and with split-second timing.

The story is just a hook to hang Silvers' performance on. Jerry Biffle's show is starting to slide in the ratings. The pressure is on, so two young singers, Sally Peters (Judy Lynn) and Cliff Lane (Danny Scholl) are added for love interest. They fall for each other but Biffle falls for Sally, too. Then there's Sally's roommate, the wise-cracking and earnest Betty Dillon (Rose Marie). She falls for Jerry. It all works out with minimum interruption to Silvers' performance. By the end of the show we've almost forgotten there was any romance to begin with. Johnny Mercer wrote the songs, music as well as lyrics. The comedy numbers are great, the swinging numbers are fine. The couple of serious romantic numbers are just so-so.

Sure, the movie is static. Basically, cameras were stationed in front of the stage sets and the players did their stuff. However, great chunks were edited out, including almost all of Rose Marie's part (she is second billed) including nearly all of her songs. In fact, of the 14 songs in the score, only seven survived. The two production numbers that made the cut, unfortunately, are pretty awful. The full Broadway score is still available on CD. On it you'll hear two cut numbers that I wish had survived: "I Fought Every Inch of the Way," a clever, slightly sardonic song about love sung by Rose Marie and "Word a Day," a jauntily literate song about improving a person's vocabulary sung by Rose Marie and Silvers.

The show is all about Jerry Biffle and depends entirely on Phil Silvers' roaring, inflated and even touching performance. For those who only remember Silvers in his Sergeant Bilko role or as the comic relief in such films as Cover Girl and Summer Stock, his performance here might cause a re-evaluation. He was a classic low comedian who could be overpowering. Yet unlike some, he also managed to show some believable vulnerability that made him genuinely likable. What he was able to do could only have been achieved by big talent and years of honing his craft in burlesque. Watch him in the second great low-comedy set piece. He and a flunky have gone to Sally Peters' rooming house to help her elope. They realize a small man (Johnny Trama) with a pork-pie hat and a dead-pan face is observing them. Before long they're deep into a classic burlesque routine where the small man's hands stick to everything he touches, including the other men's hands and various parts of Silvers' anatomy. First two and then the three of them are twisting, contorting, turning and stepping over and under trying to get loose of each other. It's a great routine that requires the three to know exactly what they're doing. Trama makes the routine work but Silvers makes it funny.

The VHS tape is watchable but is by no means a good transfer. I can't see anyone making a DVD out of this artifact, or even spending the money to produce more tapes, so better get it while you can. For fans of Phil Silvers and low comedy routines from burlesque, you'll want this.

Movie Review: Note From One of the Cast
Summary: 3 Stars

This is the only movie of a Broadway musical filmed as an audience would view it from a seat in the theatre. The VHS is considerably shorter than the original show which ran about two and a half hours. The movie was made in Hollywood, though there is a shot of a real audience in a real theatre. It was filmed at the end of the national tour of the Broadway company. The original sets and props were used to create the stage exactly as it looked had you seen the show at the Winter Garden in NYC. The VHS leaves out "Flash Hogan," the singing dog and other "acts" that were part of the TV show within the show. The full length Broadway show made the storyline a little more clear. Actually, the earliest film was complete but was cut when it played on TV. I recommend this to Phil Silvers buffs and to musical theatre history teachers as well as those who enjoy looking back at the way things were. The information in this review was gained first hand. I was a singer in the show and I'm the brunette on the cover of the box!

Movie Review: Interesting filmed play....shot in 3-D but flat on video
Summary: 3 Stars

TOP BANANA was an interesting experimental project...a stage play shot in color and 3-D in an attempt to recreate the experience of seeing a Broadway show from the front row for the moviegoer.

I don't think the film was ever released in 3-D format, though, as the film was released after CinemaScope had won over Hollywood. Reportedly the 3-D elements are likely lost forever, though a few 3-D clips survive. That's a shame.

Watching it flat the camera angles seem a bit odd and static, certainly something not helped by the loss of the intended stereoscopic aspect. The VHS isn't complete either. Obviously an edited and modified flat presentation on VHS isn't an ideal way to see a movie intended for 3-D theatrical showings.

Write your own review

Love Triangle Video

Genres > Comedy > By Theme > Love & Romance
Showbiz
By Year > 1950-1959
Classic Comedies
Drama
Musicals & Performing Arts > Musicals > Classics
Comedy

Video Genres

Movies most talked about in Love Triangle Video

Nice Girl (B&W) [VHS]
Universal Studios; Release date: 1997-01-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $38.00

It's a Date [VHS]
MGM (Warner); Release date: 1998-09-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $49.94

Grumpy Old Men (P&S) [VHS]
Warner Brothers Video; Warner Home Video; Release date: 2001-04-03; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops: ~~$9.98~~

While You Were Sleeping [VHS]
Walt Disney Video; Release date: 1996-04-30; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $3.74
Price in other shops: ~~$9.99~~

I Don't Want to Talk About It (VHS) [VHS]
Sony Pictures; Release date: 1996-02-13; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $169.99

Abbott & Costello: Buck Privates [VHS]
MCA Universal; Universal Studios; Release date: 1992-03-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $12.50
Price in other shops: ~~$14.98~~

Sunday in New York [VHS]
MGM (Warner); Release date: 1998-09-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

The Raven [VHS]
Good Times Video; Release date: 2003-09-16; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $24.99

Holiday Affair (1949) [VHS]
Turner Home Ent; Release date: 1999-09-28; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.95
Price in other shops: ~~$14.98~~

Top Banana [VHS]
MGM (Video & DVD); Release date: 1998-09-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.85
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

Similar Video, DVDs, Audio CDs

Gigi
Warner Brothers; Release date: 2008-01-08; DVD
Best price: $5.79
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

This Laugh is on me: The Phil Silvers story, Image

This Laugh is on me: The Phil Silvers story,
by Phil Silvers, Robert Saffron
Prentice-Hall; Published: 1973; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $100.00

Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Allegro" (First Complete Recording) Image

Audra McDonald, Patrick Wilson - Rodgers and Hammerstein's "Allegro" (First Complete Recording)
Release date: 2009-02-03; Music CD
Best price: $13.79
Price in other shops: ~~$15.98~~

Broadway Musicals: The 101 Greatest Shows of All Time
by Ken Bloom, Frank Vlastnik
Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers; Published: 2008-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $12.90
Price in other shops: ~~$22.95~~

9 To 5: The Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording) Image

9 To 5: The Musical (Original Broadway Cast Recording)
Release date: 2009-07-28; Music CD
Best price: $11.75
Price in other shops: ~~$17.98~~

Put on a Happy Face: A Broadway Memoir (Music Sales America)
by Charles Strouse
Union Square Press; Published: 2008-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $9.95
Price in other shops: ~~$19.95~~

Annie Hall
Release date: 2000-05-30; DVD
Best price: $28.85

Annie: The 30th Anniversary Cast Recordings Image

Original Broadway Casts - Annie: The 30th Anniversary Cast Recordings
Release date: 2008-06-03; Music CD
Best price: $16.65
Price in other shops: ~~$24.98~~

Vaudeville
Release date: 2000-01-04; DVD
Best price: $19.99
Price in other shops: ~~$24.98~~

Top Banana (1951 Original Broadway Cast) Image

Johnny Mercer, Phil Silvers - Top Banana (1951 Original Broadway Cast)
Release date: 2003-03-11; Music CD
Best price: $5.66
Price in other shops: ~~$9.98~~