This was one of my favorite movies the first time I saw it. After seeing 'What Lies Beneath', I would have to say that, as much as I love Back to the Future, I like Zemeckis' darker films best. I absolutely loved Bruce Willis in this movie.

Also, the use of film manipulation and special effects is excellent for its' time in this movie, and is still easily appreciated even now. What I love best about Zemeckis, has to be his use of the passing of time in his movies. Huge time lines are crammed into a few chapters! It's amazing. Characters age. It's so great. And, as always, there is just the right amount of imagination in this film. One of his best!


Wow this was a great movie! The acting and comedy was incredible, along with cutting edge (for its time) special effects. Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn are a hilarious duo, backed up by Bruce Willis's fantastic performance. I've seen this movie countless times, and it just gets better and better. The best of all time! They need to re-release it into theaters!


I know it didn't bring anything good to me. As a Christian I especially look for morality in a movie, anywhere I can find it, as long as there is some I might just enjoy the movie.

But where the heck is the morality in this movie ? probably in the fact that one woman just wants to have her man back and the other one wants to look "Forever Young". It felt rather light to me, just as Hollywood often does, put a bit of morals in it and mix it with a lot of useless action, basic character building, ambiguous events and there you have it. This one barely makes the exception, it has Bruce Willis, Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn as leads and that's pretty much the reason I watched it to begin with.

But then comes the 'women's fight for man' except here one woman is just looking for 'immortality' (as many have put it) and that is basically the only part in which it differs from other movies. True this one was made in 1992 so it may deserve some of the credit but nonetheless it isn't gripping at all.

I stopped watching after hearing the Lord's name being spoken three times in vain, how much do you have to go through before you say 'enough is enough' ?

I do not recommend this movie, even though Bruce Willis does good acting it does not save the movie, at all. I advise you to look for something else.

God bless you all.


I wonder if Zemeckis was attempting to preach to us about tampering with nature or for that matter, your outer body. Perhaps he was warning Hollywood about the danger in beauty plastic surgery that is getting out of hand. Maybe we should just blame the script writers for being very unfunny. The only advantage in watching this on broadcast TV is that the commercials were more interesting. But I liked the end party scene with Elvis and James Dean.


Wow--this is one strange and inspired comedy that is so unlike any other I can think of! Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn play aging childhood friends who grow to absolutely hate each other. Both are shallow and vain and both feel 100% in the right for hating the other. The awfulness of their relationship culminates in Meryl stealing away Goldie's husband--just because she COULD! Years pass and Meryl is a fabulously wealthy actress--who STILL down deep is vain and self-centered. Back comes the previously fat and unattractive Goldie but instead, she is thin and looks even younger than she looked decades ago! It looks as if she went to the greatest plastic surgeons in the world and said "here's a million bucks--gimme the works!!". Goldie is back to rub in her good looks and also to steal back wayward hubby Bruce Willis--not because she even wants him but because she CAN! Well, Meryl is worried about losing her man but she's much more upset because Goldie looks so much better than her! So worried that she goes to a strange witch-like lady (Isabella Rosselini) who tells her she has a magic substance that can give her eternal youth!! Despite the cost, the vain lady gladly pays and drinks the formula--and immediately feels the wonderful effects.

When she arrives at home, there is Goldie and Bruce to finish their plan--which is to kill Meryl and leave! Well, here is where the movie and special effects get REALLY, REALLY weird. Meryl is shoved down the steps and obviously breaks her neck. Goldie and Bruce are celebrating as Meryl wakes up and is alive--but, her head is on completely backwards!! After a little adjustment, she's back to how she was and the formula was an apparent success! So then she attacks Goldie with a shotgun--blowing her across the room into a fountain. A few moments later, Goldie gets up and walks about with a huge hole in her body--so big you can see right through her!! It's now obvious that she, too, has used the formula! Well, after some more senseless punching and slapping, the fight is over--they really can't kill the other no matter how hard they try. Plus, for some inexplicable reason, they decide to bury the hatchet and become friends again. Now, their immediate goal is to use Bruce's expertise as a plastic surgeon to make them look better--spackling in the hole in Goldie and being ready in case they needed touching up! Bruce has had enough and they try to force his to take the formula and be their permanent fixer-upper! But, despite their efforts and those of the weird little group with the potions, he escapes and vows to never see them again nor use the formula.

At this point, the film is wrapping up and the film ends with one of the funniest and visually impressive endings in film history. Instead of elaborating, you just need to see it for yourself.

The film has terrific over-the-top performances by Goldie and Meryl and Bruce plays an appropriately creeped out guy who just wants to be left alone!! The script is fresh and funny and provides a lot of amazing laughs. On top of everything, the biggest star are the special effects--amazing and so important to the movie.


From Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Forrest Gump), this is a fantastic black fantasy comedy with great stars and story. Basically Madeline Ashton (Golden Globe nominated Meryl Streep) finds Lisle Von Rhoman (Isabella Rossellini, you see her great arse and cleavage) who has a potion to make her younger, stop ageing, and avoid death. When she gets home, her man Dr. Ernest Menville (Bruce Willis) has plans to kill her and be with Helen Sharp (Goldie Hawn). But obviously the potion rescues Madeline from a broken neck, and she is still walking, with her head twisted backwards. Soon after, Helen also takes the potion, and avoids a large gun shot in her stomach. Towards the end, Ernest can't handle being with either of them, and after they co-operate, and Ernest finally dies (naturally), it ends with them finally falling apart, but Madeline still gets a good final line. It won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects, and it won the BAFTA for Best Special Effects. Very good!


The immense talent of Meryl Streep and some amazing body special effects are not enough to save this movie of being totally idiotic and a huge bore. The story is stupidly told even for a fantastic comedy and lacks a lot of real imagination. The gags shown along the movie are not funny at all. The final scene is so silly that almost makes you cry with despair. We can only regret that Miss Streep's talent is wasted in such a crap movie. But in fact this story of living dead could have been much better filmed in the hands of more talented director than Robert Zemeckis of whom I can't remember having seen any good movie till now.


"Death Becomes Her" is an exceptional look at dark comedy done right. Dark comedy is one of the trickiest genres in movies today because if not done right, you have an extremely uneven film on your hands.

"Death Becomes Her" is about aging in Hollywood which, according to Meryl Streep, is "illegal." "Death Becomes Her" is a fresh, original and satirical look at a classic and clichéd formula: growing old and the secret to eternal youth with a spin: it's effects on image-obsessed Hollywood. The strongest elements of this movie are the lively score, the award-winning special effects, and the highly enjoyable performances by Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis.

"Death Becomes Her" was Meryl Streep's first attempt at (dark) comedy and she outdoes even herself ("She-Devil") with an energetic, brassy, loud, and devilishly good performance reminiscent to a blonde Velma Kelly (Chicago)...who's afraid to get older. Streep makes playing Madeline, a woman more concerned with getting older than her pathetic life, look effortless. Goldie Hawn plays her arch-nemesis, Helen and she commands the role with class and humor. Hawn gets the most out of this role and keeps you interested and charmed at the same time. Bruce Willis is surprisingly very good at playing Ernest, the man caught between these two women, and we get to see him in a role out of the ordinary in which he departs from action star to emotional weakling. The way he inhabits the role is so natural and polished it adds to the movie and makes sense of other two leads who are fighting over him.

The actors play off of each other and even though the script is lacking (and gives these characters very little to work with), it's these inspired performances that carry "Death".

The biggest problem with this movie is that in the end you have no one to root for, no one to care about, which is the script's fault entirely. The script falls flat but picks itself up, thus building momentum; falling from consistency to inconsistency, which helps keep the interest and helps keep the story alive, but it develops too many problems too late into the film. Finally, when there's about a half hour left everything begins to build up again and the momentum keeps building at you're awaiting a "Bang!" ending, when, ironically, the ending turns out to be anti-climatic. In the end, the script is just too campy and Robert Zemeckis can't save the film.

In "Death" there are some similarities to other Robert Zemeckis movies but "Death" doesn't live up to his other creations. It's a movie entirely in it's own category and requires you to overlook the faults and get lost in the spirited performances. "Death Becomes Her" cleverly and hilariously deals with some of our greatest concerns; death, hatred, insanity, beauty, immortality, and, gasp, growing older!

Performances: A+

Script: C+

Special Effects: A

Score: B+

Overall Movie: B


Before she became America's top box-office star by playing its oldest virgin, Doris Day was an instinctive, if untutored, actress and an accomplished, popular singer. In Charles Vidor's Love Me Or Leave Me, she takes on the part of Ruth Etting, the troubled songstress from the jazz age, and her twin talents merge memorably. It's a faultless performance, all the more impressive for staying understated, scaled down.

Her co-star, James Cagney, takes the low road; as Marty (`The Gimp') Snyder, a lopsided fireplug of a man, he sizzles with resentment and ignites into rages. Strangely, his scenery-chewing complements Day's underplaying; the tension between their temperaments fuels this dark drama which occasionally resembles a musical but is closer at heart to film noir (Vidor, after all, directed Gilda).

A taxi-dancer in a Chicago dive, Day catches Cagney's eye (he holds the linen-laundering concession for the place). Finding she's not the quick pick-up he had in mind, he lands her a job in the kick-line at another nitery he services. When he finds out she wants to be a singer, he arranges for lessons with pianist Cameron Mitchell (who plays the thankless role of the loyal but shoved-aside lover). But Cagney, used to getting what he wants and to browbeating everybody around him into surrender, meets his match in Day. Her quiet determination proves every bit as strong as his bellowing bluster. When it looks like her star is in ascendancy, he becomes her manager, puts her on radio, and snares her a spot in New York as a headliner in the Ziegfeld Follies.

They settle into a grudge-match of a marriage, with guerrilla warfare erupting from both sides. (Cagney's Snyder is a marginally less disturbed version of his Cody Jarrett in White Heat.) One of their flashfire fights takes place in her dressing room after a show. Cagney knocks a vase of flowers across the room; Day extends her arm for him to unclasp a bracelet. They bicker some more, with Cagney losing the argument while Day nurses the drink that has become her ally. He leans over and tells her `You oughtta lay off that stuff  you're getting to look like an old bag.' It's the chilliest moment in the movie.

In the last third, Day answers a call from Hollywood, which lays the foundation for the unravelling of this messy, nerve-wracking relationship. And if the wrapping up grasps toward the sentimental (with a detour into the melodramatic), it doesn't quite take. Cagney, actor and character, hangs on like a bulldog with a bone. The Marty Snyders never change, and Cagney knows it; he stays the self-deluded small-time hood he started out as, who can't accept that he's driven away a woman he can't believe he loves so much.

Day, however, rises to a magnanimity that rings hollow. Her steely self-confidence about where her talents would bring her, and her casual callousness in using Cagney to help her get there, make her final gesture improbable. But when she takes the spotlight, singing `Mean to Me' or `Ten Cents A Dance' (with her feet planted provocatively  defiantly  apart), Day, actress and character, takes it by natural right. The voice isn't quite right  Etting's was reedy and tremulous, Day's big and secure  but the assurance and style are dead on.


"Love Me Or Leave Me" has been critically lauded and publicly supported. I can only concede it's a very fine music/drama/biopic.

What's so unique about this film is it's skillfully combining the "gangster" element with the "musical" genre. The bio-based storyline plays out like somewhat like a crime drama, while the musical portion rings forth with twelve complete full-bodied numbers.

The casting is truly inspired: what a coup getting Doris Day, at the peak of her physical, acting and vocal powers to be cast in a real-life role, while snaring the brilliant, often breathtaking James Cagney--forever at the peak of his powers--as the indestructible "Gimp."

Together they create fireworks, playing off one another's sweet 'n' sour characterizations with great relish. How amusing it is to see Cagney having fun with his deft limp-walk and grueling thug-character, complemented by Day's equally enjoyable, contrastingly lovable persona.

The songs are all very beautiful, and expertly rendered by Day in this, a wonderful tribute to her vocal talent and impressive musicianship.

The script is well-written to utilize the stars' individual gifts, and the widescreen production is a delight to watch. After all these years, "Love Me Or Leave Me" holds its own, thanks to the contributions of two now-legendary stars.


I am NOT a fan of Doris Day - there is just something about her that annoys me. But in this movie she acted very different from the usual Doris Day movie. And the way she sang those ballads breaks your heart. But the acting job that truly amazes - and has through the years made me a fan - is that of James Cagney. One wonders if he had a parent that was abusive or an Uncle or someone he had intimately observed. Because from somewhere that man understood something about an abusive relationship and put it in his performance. It was positively beyond extraordinary. He deserved an Academy Nomination at the very least. While he was cruel, vile, despicable, certainly repulsive and yet you felt at the same time he was pitiful, sad, pathetic. It was an extremely complex performance. When I saw "Love Me Or Leave Me" as a teenager I didn't appreciate the subtlety of his acting. It wasn't until I saw it many, many years later and had gone through a lot of living that I comprehended the true magnitude of his performance.


Not being a great Cagney fan, I didn't have high hopes for this film when I first saw it. The only reason I did watch it was Doris Day. Boy, am I glad I did. Anyone who questions Day's acting abilities should take a look at this film. Personally, I've always thought she was one of Hollywood's few singers who really could act. Look at the lackluster acting of Kathryn Grayson or Jane Powell sometime. Doris Day runs circles around them. If you're still in doubt after seeing this film, watch "Julie" sometime. Another one of her best films.

Also, Day is in fine voice in this film. All of the songs are wonderful. "Ten Cents A Dance" and "Shaking The Blues Away" among the best. I have heard the real Ruth Etting's rendition of both these numbers, and they are nothing like Day's performances. Obviously, they weren't going for mimicry here, but it works fine just the same. Highly recommended.


A great great biopic of Ruth Etting and Martin, the "Gimp" Snyder. Day is in great singing form and also holds her own as an actress. Her rendition of the title song is tremendous. Was there ever a better actor than Cagney? Did he ever make a bad film? His style will live forever. When you think of the films he made- White Heat, Yankee Doodle Dandy, Man of a Thousand Faces, and Love Me or Leave Me - I mean, who can compare? Joe Pesci is in some respects a good successor- as a little tough guy. But Cagney is great in all kinds of films- not just gangster films. And he could dance.


Doris Day portrays singing great Ruth Etting in "Love Me or Leave Me," a 1955 film costarring James Cagney and Cameron Mitchell. The film tells the story, somewhat fictionalized, of Etting's rise to fame in the 1920s and her association and marriage to Marty "The Gimp" Snyder, a Chicago gangster. In the story, Etting is highly ambitious, and Marty helps her career after picking her up in a dance hall and realizing he's not going to get anywhere. He's hoping for the big prize - i.e., Ruth - at the end of the rainbow, but though she's grateful, she's never going to be THAT grateful. Finally, he becomes so angry that he rapes her (this is suggested in the film but the scene was cut by the censors). She marries him, though she's in love with a pianist, Marty Alderman.

This film was made about five years before Ross Hunter glamorized Doris and made her the #1 box office star in a series of comedies, three of which were with Rock Hudson. Before that, she was a pretty woman with a sweet, smooth voice and sturdy acting ability. And nowhere does she demonstrate all three qualities as she does here. And throw in a sensational figure in some stunning gowns to boot. Doris' Ruth is a young woman who looks and acts like sugar but has the determination of steel underneath. She speaks softly but has the glint of ambition in her eye. Day's voice and style are nothing like Etting's, but the producers and director weren't looking for an imitation. Doris looks and sounds fantastic, singing a huge amount of music, including "Ten Cents a Dance," the title song, "Chasing the Blues Away" and many others.

Cagney gives an extremely powerful performance as Marty, a pushy little man with a huge insecurity and a passion for Ruth. It is a fully fleshed out portrayal of an abusive, possessive man that you can hate and pity at the same time. Cagney deservedly won an Oscar nomination for the role of Marty. He and Doris' contrasting acting styles mesh beautifully as well.

Though there were liberties taken with the Etting story, if you read her bio, it sounds just like the film. Did the movie have a '20s and the '30s feel to it? Not really. But it doesn't matter. The film is in color and has a rich look, and what a score. What actors. A must see.


LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME was MGM's lush and richly entertaining biography of 1920's torch singer Ruth Etting. Though not big on the facts, it is a wonderfully compelling drama with music chronicling the rise of the troubled young torch singer, who, according to this film's screenplay, had a trouble getting her career going until she met a gangster named Jimmy "The Gimp" Snyder (James Cagney), whose dangerous exterior melted in Etting's presence escalating to his Svengali-like grip on her career and her personal life. Etting tries to retain her independence until it is implied that Jimmy rapes her and Etting becomes,in Jimmy's mind, his possession. It is the relationship between the two, slightly complicated by the warm-hearted pianist (Cameron Mitchell)that makes up the crux of the story here. Cagney has rarely been more electrifying on screen and received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor but Day matches him scene for scene, in what is easily the finest performance of her career,but for some reason,the Academy overlooked her. Day, who was loaned to MGM from Warners for this, is smoldering, intense, and sexier than she has even been on screen. The scene where she stands alone on a nightclub stage, in a tight, black dress, dripping in sequins and fringe,and belts out the classic "Ten Cents a Dance" is worth the price of admission alone. If you're looking for facts about Ruth Etting's life, read a book, but if you're looking for supreme entertainment, don't miss this one. A must for Day and Cagney fans.


This film reminds me more of "Star 80" than "A Star Is Born". I do not have any idea how close Doris Day and James Cagney came, in their portrayals, to the real characters. However, their performances are wonderful. I was especially taken with Ms. Day's portrayal. When she sings a song, she stays exactly in character she sings the songs precisely how her character would sing the songs. Cagney's performance is less remarkable than Day's, because he had less road to travel. He is certainly fun to watch, though! Granted, I don't know Ruth Etting as a performer; however, I do know Day is portraying someone quite unlike her standard screen persona. Cagney's portrayal depends more on our, as viewers, knowledge of a gangster's past (particularly Cagney's gangster characters). It would have been interesting to explore more about how Day's character is (or, is not?) attracted to this type of man.

The songs do not intrude on the drama. Instead, the Etting songs punctuate and enhance different "chapters" in the film. A dramatic musical is somewhat more complicated than a musical comedy. This film succeeds as a musical drama.

The flaw is that the film did not tell enough. There is a hint of a sexual attack of Etting by Snyder, which is followed by the wedding of the Day/Cagney characters. Her drinking, and his sordid back story, are as not as well developed as they should have been. These things make the characters less heroic, but more interesting and vulnerable. I think subtlety is great; we don't need to see everything, but "Love Me or Leave Me" should have unturned a few more stones. I do not need to see every piece of a puzzle, but need to see enough pieces for a full picture.

******** Love Me or Leave Me (5/26/55) Charles Vidor ~ Doris Day, James Cagney, Cameron Mitchell


Love Me Or Leave Me (1955) is perhaps Doris Day's finest hour as an all around performer. That she is in fair voice is to be expected. But to also find her an accomplished actress of the melodrama is quite astonishing, since Day is often known as the fluffy powder puff of feather weight musical tripe, or, the squeaky clean, yet strangely asexual appendage of Rock Hudson. However, in 'Love Me Or Leave Me' Day smolders sensuality, proving that her acting chops were sadly underrated during the rest of her career.

The film is a musical bio based on the rather sorted life and times of torch singer, Ruth Etting (Day). Ruth's initial affiliation with Marty 'the gimp' Snyder (James Cagney) elevates her status from taxi dancer to nightclub performer. But Marty's a small time operator; a hood in the vein Cagney well understood and brought memorably to the screen in countless performances throughout his illustrious career. At first proud of his wife's success, Marty's admiration quickly turns to jealousy as he begins to sense a growing affection between Ruth and her piano player, Johnny Alderman (Cameron Mitchell). That the affection is platonic is a moot point, especially after Marty decides to put a couple of slugs in what he perceives to be his wife's illicit paramour.

Apart from its tempered moral attitude toward sex, director, Charles Vidor keeps the film's narrative pretty darn close to the truth of Etting's own life. It helps, by classical Hollywood standards that in real life Ruth Etting achieved something of reconciliation with her murderous ex while dashing off into the sunset with Johnny. The score for the film is first rate. Day warbles to sultry perfection the smoky "Ten Cents A Dance" and "Love Me Or Leave Me", tears your heart out with "Never Look Back" and "I'll Never Stop Loving You" and stops the show with her radio debut, "Sam, the Accordion Man" and the film's singular, lavishly staged, production number, "Shakin' The Blues Away." Considered a departure from the 'usual' musical fair of its day, in that the emphasis here almost seems to be more concentrated on the drama rather than the music, 'Love Me Or Leave Me' is dynamic box office entertainment. It sings, slinks and sets the screen on fire with two enigmatic performances from Doris Day and James Cagney.

Warner's DVD has been very nicely rendered. Though some grain and age related artifacts are apparent during transitional dissolves and fades (as was an inherent flaw of all early Cinemascope films), the anamorphic widescreen picture exhibits a more than pleasing quality with deep blacks, velvety navy blues and pronounced reds and oranges. Flesh tones can appear a tad pasty at times, but this is in keeping with the limitations of early Ansco Color and is NOT a flaw of DVD mastering. The audio has been remastered to 5.1 and is surprisingly aggressive during the musical sequences. Three vintage shorts, two featuring the real Ruth Etting, are the only extras we get. It would have been nice to have Ms. Day do an audio commentary, but alas, no such indulgence for the film buff.


I enjoy this movie, this is what good entertainment is all about, Hollywood today should learn lessons from movies like this.

Well, as all of us classic movie fans know that the 1950's was the era of movies about real-life vocalists who rose to fame but had a hard price to pay that ruined them. Lillian Roth's story "I'll Cry Tomorrow" portrayed by Susan Hayward, The Helen Morgan Story, The Country Girl, then "A Star Is Born," and countless of other fictional or non-fictional films on vocalists who pay the ultimate price for fame. We never get enough of seeing movies about fallen stars who left a place in our hearts.

This particular movie always interested me, I saw this movie on Turner Classic Movies and fell in love with the singing of Doris Day, I didn't know there was a real Ruth Etting, I didn't know she was really portraying a real life singer, I didn't check out the real Ruth Etting until 2 years ago, I saw her for the first time in "Hips Hips Hooray" on Turner Classic Movies and was kind of shocked the real Ruth wasn't anything like how Doris Day portrayed her. Doris Day's portrayed Ruth as a sexy and sassy performer and sung with a strong, jazzy, bluesy voice, when I saw the real Ruth perform in the movies and in 2 shorts, she wasn't sexy and sassy, she was reserved, the type of performer to stand still and sing with great emotion and feeling, she wasn't the wiggling hips type like Doris Day portrayed and Ruth's voice was so light, airy, powerful without being loud and aggressive, you don't hear the blues, jazz in Ruth's voice yet she was a torch singer. I see why she was popular she was a one of a kind. She didn't have to shout and sing various notes to get a song across, she knew how to put over a number without all that fancy stuff, singers today could learn a lot about singing from Helen Morgan, Lillian Roth and Ruth Etting, they didn't have to jump around, move around, shake their butts, be overly blatantly sexual, they weren't loud and annoying to make you cover your ears, they just sung their songs, each word with feeling, they didn't do all that oooh, ahhh, ooohwoooyeah stuff. The two things that Ruth and Doris did have in common was they both sing with great feeling and emotion.

The real Ruth Etting seems frail and too sweet, she's adorable, which makes me wonder why she hooked up with a gangster anyway but then again looks can be deceiving, I heard she wasn't the sweet, girl next door type in the first place and she wasn't so naive and a pushover like Doris Day portrayed her. Doris is very curvy and plump in this movie, she looks tough and looks like she could let the limping Cagney have it and run so he couldn't catch her yet Doris portrays Ruth as weak, so it makes me wonder what the real Ruth Etting was really like, the real Ruth looks so frail and innocent, she looks as though you could knock her over with a feather but I hear she was tougher than Doris portrayed her but I guess the movie was more interesting portrayed Ruth as naive and gullible. You know how Hollywood is, they never tell the whole truth, they either leave something out and put in what they want. Ruth Etting didn't like this movie, she said many things were false and she was going to sue but told not to by Walter Winchell. Ruth Etting was one of the top singers in her prime, the definition of a torch singer. She was quite unique and powerful yet with a little voice and a little body but you believed everything she singed, her adorable face and presence would naturally make you feel her pain, behind the pretty face that was a lot of hurt that was obvious through her singing. She was a true artist who makes you stop and listen.


As I write this, TCM has a Ruth Etting 1930's short film playing (Think of short music 1930's films as the grand daddy of music videos). (Singer Ruth Etting and her small time gangster husband/promoter Marty Snyder were real life people. This film is said to be a partly fictional view of their marriage and breakup.)

Doris Day plays Ruth Etting well. She's a bit beat up by life (and Snyder) and in the end, she's left him for a kinder man, but she squares accounts with him (for past promo work that made her a star) and sings in his club to large crowds. Tho Cagney is accused of attempted murder, you still feel sorry for him, and glad that Day will sing to promote his new night club. It seems modern that she has risen past his abusive ways to stand on her own, to forgive him and even help him in a manner that will not seem like charity.

As Snyder himself says of his ex-wife's performance in his club "She's fulfilling a contractual obligation...Business is business."

But here's where Hollywood (and maybe better 1950's recording technology) does better than real life.

Day ***outsings*** Etting!

Day sing the title song "Love Me or Leave Me" and "Ten Cents a Dance" and it still sounds modern today. Etting's 1930's recordings in early movie sound technology are tinny and too full of vibrato for modern tastes.

If you doubt that Doris Day could play deeper dramatic roles, this film (along with films like "The Man Who Knew Too Much") should convince you otherwise...(We already know to expect a great performance from Cagney.)


During the late 1940s and early 1950s musicals acquired a distinctly noir-ish quality, and the life of singer Ruth Etting was made to order.

Born in 1896, Etting was a hardknocks chorus girl when she caught the eye of small-time Chicago hood Martin "Moe the Gimp" Snyder, who married her in 1922 and proceeded to promote her career--occasionally, according to rumor, at gun point. By 1927 Etting was a popular singer and a major Broadway star, and when talkies arrived the couple moved to California, where Etting became a favorite for the musical shorts that were then in vogue. But the marriage was volatile, and when Snyder found Etting was having an affair with pianist Myrl Alderman, Snyder shot him. Alderman survived and Etting wasted little time in divorcing Snyder and marrying Alderman, but the scandal was so shocking that it effectively ended her career. She died, largely forgotten, 1978.

As you might expect, LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME plays fast and loose with the facts, presenting Etting as an innocent (she wasn't) and Snyder as a major crime figure (he wasn't); even so, it does seem to capture something elemental about both the era and the characters. Much of this is due to the on-screen chemistry between leads Doris Day and Jimmy Cagney, who spark and sizzle in a truly surprising way.

It will not surprise viewers that Cagney plays Snyder extremely well; he is, after all, best recalled for his numerous crime-drama roles. But it may surprise viewers that Day had the acting chops to match him. Today she is most widely remembered as a master of light comedy, but in truth Doris Day's films of the 1940s and 1950s were more often hard drama than fly-weight amusements, including such heavy-hitters as YOUNG MAN WITH A HORN, STORM WARNING, and YOUNG AT HEART; she would continue her string of dramatic roles in such films as Alfred Hitchcock's THE MAN WHO KNEW TOO MUCH. Her performance in LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME is often considered her high-water mark as a dramatic actress: she gives it everything she's got, and the sparks really fly when she and Cagney square off.

The look of the film, which was directed by Charles Vidor and sports art direction by the legendary Cedrick Gibbons, is beautiful, and the film moves at a smart clip; its one failing is that censorship issues of the era left several scenes--including a legendary rape sequence--on the cutting room floor. The music, drawn from Etting's most famous recordings, is also memorable, and Day pulls out all the stops for her songs. The DVD is not flawless, but you'll never notice it, and it includes several bonuses, two of which show us the real Ruth Etting. Recommended.

GFT, Amazon Reviewer


A belter of a musical / drama with Day and Cagney in contrastingly powerhouse roles. My folks have long urged me to watch this movie to see the other side of Ms Day and here she deliver grits, not ditz, to great effect. She looks genuinely sexy in her scenes, not a word often used to describe her screen persona. Her singing too is terrific and almost all the songs are great, although a little artistic control might have seen fit to drop "Sam the Accordion Man". Cagney is, well Cagney, rampaging through the movie, slugging everyone in sight, including Day. I think the film was right to depict him with almost no redeeming features up until, I suppose, the obligatory happy ending - you feel he doesn't deserve the good turn that Day / Etting pays him when his new club opens. The only problem for me with continuity in the film is one minute Cagney's forcing himself onto Day at her moment of greatest repulsion to him and the next they're married. Did I nod off or something? By the way I've noticed that hardly any of the reviews here mention the young Cameron ("Buck Cannon") Mitchell as the triangular love interest. In contrast to Cagney's overblown characterisation, he subtly underplays his part and is clearly in sympatico with Day in their scenes together. However, he really should get his hands closer to the dummy keyboard in the song set-pieces! In fact it's a real shame that Day didn't continue in this vein of acting, as many have said, but also, for me, that Mitchell subsided into hack television work. What else? Well, the dialogue is realistic, smart and sassy, the sets sumptuous and the direction well paced. I too can't understand why Cagney and not Day (or Mitchell come to that) got the Oscar nomination. "Love me or Leave Me" is a refreshing contrast to the Rodgers / Hammerstein musicals of the times with its candid depiction of 20s and 30s America, surely one of the most fascinating and exciting times ever.


The original theatrical trailer calls James Cagney's portrayal of Marty 'The Gimp' Snyder an 'aggressive characterization'. However it's one thing to see Cagney as a gritty mobster in films like "Public Enemy" and "White Heat" where his aggression is expressed as an enemy of society. Here he seems an even more threatening presence in a one on one situation with his protégé Ruth Etting (Doris Day), a torch singer who got her start in 1920's era Chicago. It's such an effective performance that for once, I almost began to dislike him as an actor, which probably goes a long way to explain just how amazing he actually was.

The film also keeps you a bit off balance, as the drama and personal turmoil between Ruth and Marty is offset by a whole host of musical numbers during Etting's rise to stardom. Acting as her mentor and personal manager, Snyder gets it almost right when he states "Why just have half of Chicago when she can have all of New York", as he lands Etting a gig with the Ziegfield Follies. Leaving Chicago however is the beginning of the end for the couple, as Snyder's power and influence mean nothing outside his home territory. Rebuffed by business managers and show people, Marty's comeuppance spells disaster, ultimately leading to the movie's title song finale to a packed house. In one last recognition of the impact Marty had on her career, Ruth repays the favor by headlining his new club, allowing him at least one more turn in the spotlight.

It's unusual to see Doris Day in the role of Ruth Etting, one associates her with lighter and more whimsical screen characters, but she's effective here nonetheless. Her song numbers reflect the progress of Etting's career and her relationship with Marty with titles like 'Ten Cents a Dance', 'Mean To Me', 'I'll Never Stop Loving You', and in the wind up, 'Love Me Or Leave Me'. It's not your typical 'feel good' story by the time it's all over, nor does it try to be. One thing is certain though, and that's the sentiment expressed to Marty Snyder just before the curtain falls - "You gotta give her credit, the girl can sing..."


Having seen this movie more often than all others, and one of those you will never forget the theater in which you saw it the first time, it undoubtedly is Doris Day's best. I am one of many who also feel she deserved an academy award for her portrayal of Ruth Etting. With her tremendous voice, and the acting skills she demonstrated in this role, one can only imagine what she would have done had she been one of the MGM stars, when their musicals were known as the best. I understand she came within a hair of being cast in South Pacific, but as has been rumored, it was either Marty Melcher's insistence on a much higher salary, or a clash between Doris or Marty with the director. From reading her biography, it is very apparent that she wasn't one of your typical Hollywood stars. With these typical stars and directors, as well as most everyone else associated with the AMPAS being those who decide who be will be nominated, as well as ultimately winning, Ms. Day's choice of living a less typical Hollywood life style may have had some bearing on her not being nominated for Love Me or Leave Me. I definitely believe this is the reason she has never been given a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Let us hope this award will be made before this gracious and lovely lady is unable to make an appearance there.


Curiously enough after I viewed my VHS copy of Love Me or Leave Me, I went to the movies and saw Walk the Line. One of the things that struck me was that while Joaquin Phoenix had a much tougher job because Johnny Cash was performing almost up to the end and had a distinctive sound that I didn't think anyone could match, Phoenix did a very good job in capturing him.

On the other hand Ruth Etting had not been seen in films for over 20 years, nor had she made a record in that length of time either. She was living very quietly in retirement. So except with older members of the public, Doris Day did not have to compete with an image people had in their minds.

Also people left out of this story include Martin Snyder's first wife and his daughter from that marriage. Also the fact that Snyder was Jewish. My guess is that MGM did not want a false issue of anti-Semitism raised.

There sure were enough issues anyway. Ruth Etting, a girl from the sticks with lots of singing talent, is determined to succeed. So she latches on to a small time Chicago hood named Martin Snyder who gets her career started and in gear.

I remember reading that in her life with Snyder, Etting found it impossible to socialize due to Snyder's boorish behavior. One of the few other show business personalities that she did socialize with was her co-star in Kid Boots on Broadway, Eddie Cantor. Cantor who was brought up on the Lower East Side of New York, lived with guys like Snyder in his youth so he was used to it and put up with him. Very few others would.

Incidentally the title tune Love Me or Leave Me comes from the score of Kid Boots.

In Love Me or Leave Me, we don't have Doris doing an imitation of Ruth Etting, we have Doris singing like Doris which is just fine for me. She sings the songs that were identified with Etting very well. The album for this film sold very well for her.

James Cagney made his third and final trip to the Oscar Derby with his portrayal of Martin "the gimp" Snyder. In its way Snyder is as complex a role as Cagney's Cody Jarrett. He's an uneducated kid from the slums who made it in the rackets, but feels terribly inferior around all the show business creative types that his wife now by necessity has to associate with, where ironically due to his drive has pushed her there. Cagney lost the Oscar race to Ernest Borgnine for Marty. Ain't that a piece of irony itself.

Cameron Mitchell as Johnny Alderman (real first name Myrl) does very well as the man who eventually became her second husband as does the rest of the cast.

All three of the people that Day, Cagney, and Mitchell portray were still alive at the time that Love Me or Leave me was being filmed. All signed off on the picture, I assume all parties were satisfied with it.

And so should you.


In 1955, at almost the chronological mid-point of her film career (1948-1968) Doris Day made what are arguably the two finest films in which she ever appeared, Young At Heart and Love Me Or Leave Me. Both are best classified as Musical Drama and in both she played opposite a character whose screen name was Barney. If co-star Frank Sinatra got to sing the cream of the score in Young At Heart - Just One Of Those Things, Someone To Watch Over Me, One For My Baby, whilst she was stuck with the crowd-pleasing cotton candy confection - Ready, Willing And Able, Hold Me In Your Arms - with which she was identified, in Love Me or Leave Me she got to perform virtually the whole score, which, though not boasting anything like the quality of the Sinatra numbers in YAH was not exactly chopped liver. In both films she was obliged to abandon the role of professional virgin with which she was also identified in favor of semi-pro actress and in both films she managed reasonably well. LOLM is based partly on fact: Singer Ruth Etting did marry Martyn Snyder in 1922 and remained married until 1937; the following year she married Myrl Alderman, remaining married to him until his death in 1966. Whether events were as dramatic as portrayed here is speculative. Suffice it to say that though Cagney walks away with the picture as you would expect Day is only three or four steps behind while Robert Keith (who had played her father in YAH) scores well in the thankless nice-guy role as an agent. Good to watch, good to listen to, what more can I say.


James Cagney is always a delight to watch, even when he's playing a pompous and disgusting pig like Marty Snyder. If you don't agree with that statement, you may have a hard time taking in Love Me Or Leave Me, because Cagney's character is about as unlikeable as leading men come. I know next to nothing about Snyder's non-fiction life, but if we are to believe his composite in this film, the dude must have been completely lacking redeeming qualities of any kind.

Of course, Cagney himself is well known as one of the nicest, most decent human beings who ever worked in Hollywood, so the fact that he so effectively channels Snyder's loathsome persona certainly demonstrates the actor's tremendous skills. If you've seen any of Cagney films, you're probably used to those, but his ability to own every scene he's in despite the fact that the audience is destined to abhor his character shows very clearly how fully Cagney leaped into every performance he undertook.

Doris Day is not one of my favorite actresses of the classic era, but she is excellent here. Perhaps I just hadn't seen her at her best until now, but after witnessing her show-stopping Zigfield Follies number here, I'm a believer. It's hard to sell her as a sympathetic character, especially watching her maintain her timid vigil under Snyder's dominating and abusive umbrella, but the film explores their volatile relationship in such depth, some semblance of understanding creeps through. This is not your traditional love story however, and in fact that emotion seems to have very little to do with the pairing on the screen in Love Me Or Leave Me. The film instead essays a very peculiar mutual dependency, and it's a fascinating relationship to digest in the hands of these two gifted actors, both of whom make every scene they share sizzle as they play off of each other.

A substantial number of musical performances pad the running time, and it could be argued that some could have been omitted for the sake of streamlining the story. But the songs serve as external monologues in which Day fills in the emotional gaps in her character's psyche, and paying close attention to the words reveals a lot about the unspoken undercurrent of alternating disgust and devotion that seems to have classified this co-dependent arrangement. Luckily, all of the music is excellent, and Day's performances are all top notch. Whether we're seeing her headline elaborate stage numbers or simply rehearsing by the piano, her plain but effective vocal delivery always seethes with emotion.

Though the film is definitely dated, it has aged quite well. Today's audiences will likely note the casual misogyny that runs rampant throughout the film, which was so prevalent in early Hollywood and was somehow accepted as part of popular culture. Those not familiar with this phenomenon may be a bit shocked by what they see here, but if we put it in context with the times and consider what a woman's role was traditionally considered in the era, it's not off-putting to see Day endure these verbal and emotional attacks without retaliation. It certainly doesn't dilute the strength of her performance, or the character for that matter, and knowing that it wasn't considered socially proper for a woman to talk back to her fella in those days adds yet another layer of complexity to the fabric of this union. We know there will come a point where Day finally can't take anymore, and watching her soak up each new trespass while being forced to bottle her emotions allows us to truly be engulfed by the inner turmoil of this woman whose dreams are coming true, even as her life away from the stage is a nightmare.

This is an engrossing character study on both sides, and Day and Cagney are both in top form here. If that alone isn't enough to persuade you to watch this film, I'm at a loss to provide a better selling point.


What can I say about this movie that hasn't already been said, so how 'bout some background information. If you're up on your Hollywood History, you know that many stars who were chosen for a film were replaced for certain reasons, but if Jasmes Cagney had not been under suspension at Warners, he would have played Robin Hood instead of Errol Flynn. Barbra Streisand originally wanted Elvis Presley for her version of A Star Is Born and he would have been great and the film would have been a lot better, but the Colonel wouldn't have it. Judy Garland originally wanted Cary Grant for A Star Is Born and personally, I think he would have far better in the role of Norman Main. After Judy Garland was fired from Annie Get Your Gun, the first person that they wanted to play Annie was Betty Garrett, but because of her an-gent she lost out having the role of a lifetime in the movies, and after this happened, Betty Garble wanted to play Annie in the worst way, but 20th Century wouldn't lend her out, so finally after seeing Betty Hutton in The Perils of Pauline, she was hired to play Annie. Originally, Audrey Hepburn was the not the first choice for Breakfast at Tiffany's, instead they wanted Marily Monroe, and she would have been great, but her schedule wouldn't allow, and many others lost out to roles like these did. So, what does this have to do with Love Me Or Leave Me. In Jane Russells Autobiograpy she said that she was offered the part of Ruth Etting but had a choice between that project and another and her an-gent kept telling her, "Do Love Me Or Leave Me", but in the long run Doris Day was given the role. Personally, I can see Jane Russell playing Ruth Etting to the hilt. She would have been great. She would have matched Cagny scene for scene and been up to Cagney and his scene stealing, and she could have sung those songs, but, alas, Doris Day got the role and in the long run set her up at Metro for many years into the future! We're very proud of our Doris Kapplehoff, Price Hill girl, from here in Cincinnati, Ohio!


Some films, for all the critical praise they receive, simply pass underneath the popular radar. 'Love Me Or Leave Me', Charles Vidor's masterpiece, is one of those films. It is the greatest musical Doris Day was ever involved with, yet it doesn't seem to command the same devotion as 'Calamity Jane', an entertaining but unsatisfying comic romp, or even the lumpen 'Moonlight' movies. That's a great pity, because this film contains one of the two extraordinary dramatic performances Day delivered in the mid-fifties (the other was in 'The Man Who Knew Too Much'). In her earlier musicals, Day was an energising presence, but slightly overstated and eager as a comedienne. She was still the best thing on screen, but she lacked subtlety as an actress. Here, she's in a whole new league. Just look at the scene in which James Cagney tells her that she's going to be a Hollywood star. Her apathy is something unimaginable in Day previously, a weary cynicism expertly underplayed. Having seen this film, I don't think it's hyperbole to talk about her as being the equal of Judy Garland as an actress, if maybe not quite as a singer (although her expressive, surprisingly sensual voice makes all her other peers look suitably weak - particularly as most of them were being dubbed anyway).

She holds her own against a Cagney at full tilt, which is no mean feat (no other actor is so able to blow other stars off the screen, with the possible exception of Al Pacino). He plays Martin Snyder as a dynamic combination of ego and insecurity, all macho bluster and hair-trigger temper. He's a monster, yet one who becomes increasingly sympathetic as the nature of his failings becomes apparent. He's a man looking for self-respect, but he can't find any - he's ridden to success on the talents of Day's Ruth Etting - so he tries to demand it from everybody else. The film doesn't soft-peddle his repellent egotism - his behaviour at the Ziegfield theatre is both intimidating and pathetic - and for the most part the audience takes Etting's side. There's a great moment shortly after the characters arrive in LA and he's been throwing his weight around, when she punctures him mid-boast. 'Just who do you think you are?' she demands, pointing out how little he's achieved compared to those he tries to intimidate. He deflates, and it's so satisfying the audience wants to cheer. Yet the movie is too complex merely to point the finger - Etting does owe much of her success to him, for all his mistreatment (and, at times, mismanagement) of her, something she realises even as the audience urges her to leave him in her wake. There's another wonderful scene, towards the end, when Robert Keith's Loomis checks Snyder's fury and tells him to, essentially, get over his own fragile ego. Etting knows she owes him - now he has to be big enough to let her pay it back. Just for a moment, it seems as though he really will change, but the film is too canny for any sort of pat resolution. He remains an egotistical heel to the end.

The cinematography for this film is sublime, dark and rich in a way that's reminiscent of Vincente Minnelli. The film, however, is altogether less fatuous then that director's most famous works ('Meet Me In St. Louis' is visually beautiful but sentimental and patronising). A better comparison is George Cukor's 'A Star is Born', released the previous year, which matches the velvety style with dramatic teeth. The musical numbers are as good as those in any other musical of the period - particularly 'Chasin' the Blues Away' at the Ziegfield, and the final performance of 'Love Me or Leave Me'.

This isn't just Vidor's last great film, it's probably his greatest film (and yes, I do remember 'Gilda' - but even that film doesn't have such a satisfying dramatic shape). The open ending is a device that too few films of the period used, but the tension between resolution (Etting is paying off her debt to Snyder in preparation for a future without him) and unresolved questions (Will he go to prison? Will his club be a success?) is oddly satisfying - all biographical pictures should be as open about their inability to provide neat closure to a life. The final shot of Day, singing 'Love Me or Leave Me' as the camera draws back, is one of the Hollywood's (few) great endings.


I've rarely been impressed by the Cinerama style of film-making. While I'm sure that the gigantic scope and vivid color made for a great experience at the time, it often doesn't stand up today. "Love Me or Leave Me" is one of the few such films of real quality, due in no small part to the presence of James Cagney and Doris Day. Few have seen any of Doris Day's dramatic efforts. After all, this is only one of a handful of dramas she made (others including "The Man Who Knew Too Much", "Young Man with a Horn", and "Storm Warning"). James Cagney is most impressive in an almost standard role (for him), but covers an interesting level of emotion.

In the end, it's a very interesting and entertaining spectacle. Charles Vidor's direction, though rather static, is fantastic and showcases his stars well.

7.5 out of 10


This film is the story of 20's singer Ruth Etting and her marriage to Marty Snyder. When Doris sings the old standards,it's great but MGM tacked on two numbers that sounded OK but they threw the ambiance off. It plays with the facts as usual,Ruth Etting was well into her thirties before she went Hollywood. In real life Ruth Etting was a quiet,refined woman stuck in a bad marriage. Despite what the film says,Ruth had many friends who just accepted Marty as her husband. Ruth was no ambitious tramp conniving people out of work so she could take their place but I guess it made a better story. The song Ten Cents a Dance was actually written for a stage show.


LOVE ME OR LEAVE ME is not your typical musical. That is, no one breaks out in song and dance. The numbers are used in the context of the story either in rehearsal or performance. This is a musical drama. Don't know how accurate the story is of Ruth Ettings rise to fame with the help of her manager/gangster/husband, but for it's day, made in the 50's, it's quite blunt. Doris Day and James Cagney have seldom been better, and they make a terrific combo. Also appealing is the underrated Cameron Mitchell, so good in HOW TO MARRY A MILLIONAIRE. Here he gives a laid back, easy going performance which is great contrast to the Marty Snyder character played by Cagney. Like in A STAR IS BORN, there really isn't anyone else of any importance in the movie. Just three or four main characters. To fully enjoy this movie, hope one has a wide screen TV for the full CinemaScope range. Stero system would also help. The musical numbers are brilliantly staged, both the big production number and Miss Days quieter moments. Correction in other peoples comments. Susan Hayward did not win her Oscar for I'LL CRY TOMORROW released the same year as LOVE ME. She won a few years later for I WANT TO LIVE...also, someone said her voice was dubbed for I'LL CRY..not so. She did her own singing as Lillian Roth...Miss Hayward WAS dubbed by Jane Froman, however, in WITH A SONG IN MY HEART...

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Doris Day and James Cagney are excellent in this lush Technicolor story that details the career of singer Ruth Etting. Day's bright, cheerful, optimistic, happy persona gradually gives way to depression and alcoholism brought on by the demands of a small-time hood who gains control of the singer's professional and personal life. Day's one desire is to sing and to make it big in show business, and her mentor opens doors for her but at the same time exacts a terrible price from the singer. Cagney is great as the controlling and abusive hoodlum and paints him with most unflattering strokes, yet generates a bit of sympathy because he is so pathetic as he clings to Day in desperation. Cameron Mitchell has a nice turn as Day's accompanist and love interest, playing him with warmth and sincerity. Robert Keith is also good as an agent who has first-hand knowledge of Day's unhappy personal life.


MY RATING- 7.3

This one is a curious mov made when James Cagney had already left his crime movs. It also stars the popular Doris Day as the singer who is sponsored by him. Cagney gets his crime movs touches to create a gangster who loves Doris Day in his way. In the end, she'll stay with Cameron Mitchell. I never liked too much Day, cause of her image too `goodie goodie' yet she proves to be a good actress here. She sings some fine songs like one of my faves-`Shakin the Blues Away'.


In the 1950's there were many film boigraphies: For me 4 are memorable: Interrupted Melody with Eleanor Parker/ The Great Caruso with Mario Lanza/ With A Song In My Heart with Susan Hayward and Love Me or Leave Me with Doris Day...Im commenting here on the last mentioned. what a film what a cast...what music !!!Saw this when I was @ 9yrs old, and never forgot...the sets the costumes, and Doris Day... what an underraed talent... with all her wonderful films, has only been Oscar nominated once, acted beautifully and sang her heart out! Strange that 2 other biopics I mentioned,neither Ms. Hayward nor Ms. Parker did their own singing.. and both were oscar nominated!!(love them both but Doris did it all) She has never won a major award!!Cmon Oscar its time to honor Doris Day with a special Oscar she more than deserves!! and Grammy shouldnt Doris Day be in the Hall of Fame by now ? Her recordings incl. soundtrack of LMOLM sold millions, Que Sera Sera Secret Love... Love you Doris you deserve to be honored and recognized!! also James Cagney was brilliant as well/good chemistry between both leads... buy the video/ get the soundtrack.. if available. i still have my original vinyl lp with that great Doris Day cover !!Love this film !!


After seven years and seventeen pictures at Warner Brothers, Doris Day moved to MGM to star in a dramatic musical based on the life of 30s singing star, Ruth Etting. The film was called "Love Me or Leave Me" and would co-star James Cagney. Shot in CinemaScope and Technicolor, it was a lavish film.

Doris Day gave the performance of her career and matched the great James Cagney in the acting department. The critics were raving loud and clear and rumors of Oscars for Miss Day and Cagney were often discussed.

The story concerned a young singing hopeful, Ruth Etting, in 20s Chicago who meets a tough gangster, Martin Snyder, who strong-arms her to fame. First in nightclubs, then radio, the Zigfield Follies in New York and finally, Hollywood films.

James Cagney attacked the role of Snyder with frightening realism. His experience as an actor culminated in an explosive performance and garnered him a Best Actor Oscar nomination.

Doris Day, the first actress to get billing over Cagney in over 30 years, deserved a nomination, but lost out to Eleanor Parker in "Interrupted Melody", also at MGM. She was remarkable throughout most of the film. There were times when she lost character and broke into her "girl next door" personality but those mistakes were few, however, and I'm sure when Miss Day sees the film today, she could kick herself.

She is the showcase of the film, however, and delivers, vocally, some beautiful music. In addition to the Etting standards, two new songs were added. "I'll Never Stop Loving You", which became a big record hit for Miss Day and an Oscar nominee for Best Song, and "Never Look Back", a gorgeous ballad done with a full orchestra.

Her big extravagant Follies number, "Shaking the Blues Away" was typical MGM and a far cry from anything she did at Warner Brothers.

Cameron Mitchell as Johnny Alderman, the musical director who loves Etting, Harry Bellaver, Robert Keith and Tom Tully were all first rate. Even Veda Ann Borg in a walk-on, was fun.

I loved this picture and recommend it highly. You won't see Doris Day used to better advantage than here. She and Cagney were excellent together, and memorable.


This isn't exactly a musical, but it almost seems like one because there more singing than much else, but this is obviously one of the hooks. Basically one day in a bar that she used to work in, Ruth Etting (Doris Day) met producer Martin Snyder (Oscar nominated James Cagney) who could promise a new and better paid career on stage. She doesn't get in to it immediately as she is on for a few seconds, but she soon gets the chance for longer shows. She enjoys herself and the critics and producers are throwing offers at her. Later, after marriage Ruth and Martin get even bigger and she has become one of the most successful women on stage, and her career soon comes to Hollywood. It is only she discovers an old friend (near love) is working on the film, Johnny Alderman (Cameron Mitchell) that things go a bit pear shaped for her and the marriage/relationship with Martin. Also starring Robert Keith as Bernard V. Loomis, Tom Tully as Frobisher and Harry Bellaver as Georgie. It won the Oscar for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story, and it was nominated for Best Song for "I'll Never Stop Loving You", Best Music for Percy Faith and George E. Stoll, Best Sound and Best Writing, Screenplay. Doris Day was number 84 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, and James Cagney was number 8 on 100 Years, 100 Stars - Men. Very good!


After a series of silly, fun-loving movies, 1955 was a big year for Doris Day. That year saw her handed the role of singer Ruth Etting, who made it to the top but whose personal life suffered for her success.

The film begins with a chance meeting by Etting at a dime-a-dance joint with gangster Martin Snyder, brilliantly played by James Cagney. Cagney, with his connections, brings stardom to Etting, but she loses her freedom to a miserable existence dominated by Snyder, who ultimately marries her, after a memorable fight on opening night at the Ziegfeld Follies.

Day's singing was never better. In addition to the old Etting favorites, she sings the new song I'll Never Stop Loving You.

Cowboy movie actor, Cameron Mitchell, turns in an equally strong performance as piano player, Johnny Alderman, who leaves Etting, out of disgust for the way she is being dominated, only to encounter her years later, when the two of them are working on a movie. Their revived romance leads to near tragedy.

Cagney received a well-deserved Oscar Nomination. To this day, I'll never understand why Day and the film were overlooked for Oscar nominations.


Doris Day was an icon of beauty in singing and acting by her warm voice and genius acting in different movies obtained this film by her legend songs as (Iwill never stop loving you) with soft melody and warm lyrics by magic voice of Day.

James Cagney was a villain of Hollywood by shark eyes and voice to send for audience the core of badness and evil characters as his profile in cinema.The producer choose previously Ava Gardener to be the hero of this film in-front Cagney but Cagney refused this choose because he said that Gardner not familiar with his role and he cheesed Day in it because of her fantastic abilities between singing and acting and she succeeded in it with Cagney.


Everybody has seen 'Back To The Future,' right? Whether you LIKE that movie or not, you've seen an example of how to make a time-travel movie work. A torn-up poster for 'Back To The Future' shows up in this movie, representing, perhaps unintentionally, what the makers of 'Tangents' (aka 'Time Chasers') did to the time-travel formula. Then again, the movie claims to have been made in 1994, but it looks -- and sounds -- like it was produced at least ten years earlier, so maybe they achieved time-travel after all.

Start with an intensely unappealing leading man. I mean, what woman doesn't love gangly, whiny, lantern-jawed, butt-chinned, mullet-men with Coke-bottle glasses? Oh, none of you? Prepare to tough it out, ladies, cuz that's what this movie gives you.

Second, add a leading lady who -- while not entirely unattractive -- represents many '80s clichés: big hair, too much makeup, two different plaids, shoulder pads, acid-washed mom-jeans, etc.

Throw in a Michael Medved look-alike who wears pink blazers with white pants, a stunningly transparent villain who talks like Mortimer Snerd and has an office that looks like a circus-themed library, and evil henchmen who have nothing better to do than direct air traffic. That's our cast, folks. Enjoy!

I could try to explain the plot, but it will take a lot less time for you to just track down a copy of this movie and watch it yourself. If YOU figure out the plot, please don't hesitate to share it with me.

I would strongly advise watching this movie with the help of the folks at Mystery Science Theater 3000. I don't think it could stand on its own.

The film, 'Tangents': 3 stars -- at least they tried.

MST3K's 'Time Chasers' episode: 8 stars -- they actually succeeded.


Take a low budget, inexperienced actors doubling as production staff as well as limited facilitiesand you can't expect much more than "Time Chasers" gives you, but you can absolutely expect a lot less. This film represents a bunch of good natured friends and neighbors coming together to collaborate on an interesting project. If your cousin had been one of those involved, you would probably think to yourself, "ok, this movie is terrible... but a really good effort." For all the poorly delivered dialog and ham-fisted editing, "Time Chasers" has great scope and ambition... and one can imagine it was necessary to shoot every scene in only one or two takes. So, I'm suggesting people cut "Time Chasers" some slack before they cut in the jugular. That said, I'm not sure I can ever forgive the pseudo-old lady from the grocery store for the worst delivery every wrenched from the jaws of a problematic script.


Watching Time Chasers, it obvious that it was made by a bunch of friends. Maybe they were sitting around one day in film school and said, "Hey, let's pool our money together and make a really bad movie!" Or something like that. What ever they said, they still ended up making a really bad movie--dull story, bad script, lame acting, poor cinematography, bottom of the barrel stock music, etc. All corners were cut, except the one that would have prevented this film's release. Life's like that.


Delightfully awful! Made by David Giancola, a guy who I've long forgiven for this travesty. The man "gets it", and he has the humility and humor to laugh at a very early effort.

Most filmmakers might have the good sense to forget about their early work. Not David, on the contrary he celebrates this movie. What is really needed here is a 'special edition' DVD, with outtakes and commentary.

Seriously, it's amazing what can be made with a little imagination, a lot of 'can do' spirit, an investment in your own community and your good friends. Giancola was in his teens/early 20's; how many people can watch and laugh with a film they made themselves at an age before most of us moved out of the house?

Bravo,David and Edgewood Studios.


Time Chasers joins various films that have been given the razzing they deserve on MST. A little more competent than most films that are shown, it's still pretty bad. A bike riding scientist invents a time travel device and puts it in his Cessna. Why not a car? Well, he can't drive and I doubt he can get going fast enough on his ten speed. Like the lunkhead he is, he tells an evil corporation (is there any other kind?) about his invention and they take over the project. There's also some kind of lovestory too and our butt chinned hero takes his plaid clashing girlfriend to shopping malls of the future and to the fifties! Pretty soon there's two lunk heads running around and they go back to 1777. Why? I just don't know and I really don't care. The question that still bugs me is, where did that gun come from?


Tangents (better known to MST3K watchers as Time Chasers) is a prime example of pure MST3K fodder. Made on a shoestring budget by a small production company, it's a by-the-numbers example of a small-budget film with big-budget aspirations.

The plot itself is a fairly interesting take on well-treaded territory: the hero, Nick, invents a way to make his ultra-light plane travel through time and sells the idea to a CEO, only to later discover that the CEO is going to use it for, you guessed it, evil.

The excecution of the plot, however, suffers from a number of handicaps. The portrayal of the future (both the utopian and apocalyptic ones) is laughable at best with the former looking like an 80s shopping mall and the latter a bad Warriors knockoff. The main characters are all boringly average (causing Crow to dub the film "The Adventures of the Average People" in the MST3K episode), the only one having anything identifiably unique about them being the main character, Nick, whose only unique traits are "building a time machine" and "not being able to drive a car" (setting the stage for an absolutely ridiculous bicycle chase scene). If anything, the film reminds us that probably the only Vermont export of note is Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (who, coincidentally, provided ice cream for the filming of this movie).

All in all, Tangents falls in the same general category of MST3Ked films as Overdrawn at the Memory Bank; a small budget film that is ridiculous enough on its own merits to make it a decent watch for lovers of pure cheese (though, as always, I recommend watching the MST3K version instead).


What happened to the 'second' hero who went back to 1777? Didnt the soldiers of 1777 document the 1st use of an UZI? Wouldnt a PLANE CRASH FROM 1777 BE NEWS??? The girl who 'died' in the plane crash didnt find it unusually shocking that she FOUND HER OWN DEAD BODY IN THE PLANE CRASH?? My god, this script must have been written over a lunch meeting with the producers. Awful, and just flat out stupid. 1 star because of the JFK Dollar from 2041.


Think of this one as Back to the Future...except not very good.

The use of time travel and possible timelines gone askew does nothing to add to the film. Our lead guy is a David Koresh look-alike, but a lot less evil. I think he was trying to do justice to physics teachers who do aviation on the side, but have no time for grocery shopping. There's a romance angle here, but it's not really important. Characters meet themselves in other times and it gets really confusing like where did he get that gun after he jumped from the plane into the lake?? You have incompetent security guards and a CEO with a really funny accent (even funnier acting). There's a lot of running, biking, flying, and a really cool car stunt that took 4 takes. Due to limited budget, the future, past, and present look pretty bad which makes it more funny. Hey, if Lisa Kudrow is in this (even for a few milliseconds), it's worth checking out for kicks.

"Food courts of the future!"


That's what the director of this film had to be saying throughout it's making The story is set around Nick, a geeky teacher at Castleton college who invents a time machine using eight commador floppy disks and his plane. After Superdweeb sells his time machine to Bob Evil he discovers the FUTURE has been harmed. Will he be able to prevent the future for being ruined? Will he end up with Lisa? Will anyone really care?

The answer to the third question is...NO!! This film is horrid and so many flaws I'm lost. How in the world to the past self who is the present self know his future self who was really the present self know JK took him to 1777? With all the deaths they caused to the minutemen, shouldn't that have caused a time rip or something? Where did that gun come from on the fishing boat? What about the flying grandma? Shouldn't pilots pay attention to the sky? What was the point of making this film? And if it was for college, did they fail?

1/10 Why no zero available???


Nick Miller has developed a means of time travel using a computer and his small airplane. Needing the funds to continue his experiments, he agrees to sell his invention to a large corporation named GenCorp. But Nick hadn't planned on how GenCorp would use his time machine. On his next trip to the future, he discovers a world in chaos where social order has broken down. Nick decides he must go into the past if he is to restore the future.

Like most people on this sight, I came by Time Chasers courtesy of Mystery Science Theater 3000. And while the movie is bad, it's not as bad as a lot of the stuff they showed. Oh, it's got the usual bad acting, a dorky lead, poor special effects, some ridiculous locations (Others have mentioned it, but I've got to agree with the slamming of J.K. Robertson's office. The mezzanine of the local public library isn't a very effective or realistic looking location.), giant plot holes, and everything else you find in your typical, run-of-the-mill bad movie, but it's got something I wasn't expecting to find. It's actually got some good ideas buried under the rubbish. The whole notion of time travel, changing the future, and going into the past to make things right is a good, interesting concept. Unfortunately for the makers of this movie, I think their ideas far exceeded both their abilities and certainly their budget. It's too bad, because as I indicated, there are some good ideas to be found in Time Chasers.

The MST3K treatment of Time Chasers is good  actually, it's very good. The first time I saw it, I found myself laughing out loud. So, while I give the movie a 3/10, I'll give it a 4/5 on my MST3K rating scale.


This is a really dumb movie, with a very low budget, and because of that, this is a very entertaining film.

Nick is a nerdy, bike riding teacher, who has built a little plane into a time machine. He sells his idea to JK, an evil guy from the government. Meanwhile, Nick is falling in love with his old friend from school, now reporter Lisa. The movie's low budgetness might be what makes it enjoyable. You actually get an intimate feel of the characters and their cheap surroundings. With that said, this is a terribly written and directed film. Whenever Nick goes back in time, it looks like he's going into television static. The acting is just terrible, and everyone seems like they're reading off of cue cards. The ending of the movie takes place in 1777, and leads to one of the dumbest climaxes ever.

This is a genuinely bad movie, but it's not without it's charm.

My rating: * 1/2 out of ****.


****SPOILERS****SPOILERS****SPOILERS****SPOILERS****

You've been warned. Okay, I can't stress this enough but the 'hero's' chin really does focus your attention on him rather than what masquerades as a plot. The hero, Nick Miller, a college physics professor, invents a time machine on his Cessna using a Commodore 64 (yeah, you had one too right?). He, stupidly, sells his invention to the local evil corporation headed by the initialed JK Robertson (NOT to be confused with JK Rowling of Harry Potter fame, of course). Said evil corp duplicates the technology and proceeds to usher in Apocalypse in the year 2041. Big-chinned hero and reporter girlfriend try to change the future and in a series of events too painful (and not horribly important, though including one version of girlfriend Lisa getting killed and a duplicate Nick coming into the picture) to recount, they along with JK, flunky Pink Boy and garage mechanic end up in 1777 Vermont. Blah, blah, blah...

One of the blaring flaws is them messing with history. JK kills his Michael Medved looking flunky in 1777 with an Uzi and the body is left there. The group freely mixes with the Red Coats and the Revolutionaries at that time without either side making notable comments about these strange looking people. And somehow, after all this interaction, the future from that point wasn't affected by the fact that these differently dressed people with strange accents that came down from the sky in a flying bird. Riiiight. You could see where, with talented writers and editors WITH eyes in sockets, this could've been a decent film. Big budgets aren't always needed. Thank the heavens for MST3K! I miss you!


I'm not really sure they were trying to make a good film. There was a lot of material that really helped weaken this film that could have been edited out, and wasn't. It's almost as if the director, or the producer was making a film simply to have a bunch of friends appear on camera and was afraid to take out very poor scenes when their removal would have strengthened this film. Still and all, it wouldn't have been a good movie.


I feel badly for the actors and directors of this film who may come across this site's comments about it, which was fairly well done - for a low-budget film.

All the criticisms about the film are true: The evil CEO's office in an apparent library, the antique computer with outdated floppys, and the fairly wooden acting are all valid criticisms. But what do we expect, Spielberg? Lucas? I'm sure they could have taken this film to greater heights, but let's give it its due.

Think about it. The plotline was clever. How many ways can you go into the past? Car, stationary machine, plane? But the "future" portrayed here was embarrassing. Frankly, I thought they had gone BACK in time to 1984! Surely, they could have done better than that. Even in 1994, people knew what types of technologies to expect in the near future. Why not portray even one laptop?

I enjoyed the revolutionary war re-enactors, but I think a "twist" of an ending would have been cute, and could have salvaged some of the film. What if, when they returned, everyone had BRITISH accents, including the evil CEO of a now-British conglomerate. Think about it.

So, here's my "director's cut" of this film: 1. Allow the lead actor to drive a car (better chase scenes) 2. Use a real computer - at least use the right sized disks 3. Cut the "ditching bicycles" scene (it's only 3 seconds long) 4. Show a better, more plausible future 5. Shorten the "bad future" scene, and shoot it at night, or in the fog, to make it look REALLY ominous, and 6. Make the final scene important (as I said above).

Until then, my rating is 4.


... to dull the incredible pain this stinkmaster causes. You really have to feel sorry for Lisa Kurdow in this film. The film's makers picked her to be in a small, uncredited cameo role. Instead of making her the lead, they chose Bonnie Pritchard. Why is beyond me. Probably the only person who can act in this entire film is Lisa. There are plot holes big enough to park the Titanic inside. The plot goes like this: A geek that has loser written all over him invents a time machine (and why in the world was he using Commodore C64 computers anyway? Did IBM & Apple wisely tell these people not to use their products? For 1994, those computers would have been about 10 years old.) He takes a reporter (Pritchard) back and forth in time, then also a swarmy businessman. The businessman copies the time machine, and starts reeking havoc on the timestream. Therefore, the inventor has to go back in time and tell himself not to show the invention to the businessman. But something I didn't understand: if you go back in time to prevent yourself from doing something, how would you know to go back in time to do it? In the end, I cheered when both inventor and businessman died in the Revolutionary war era.

This film was produced by Peter Beckworth. He also gave us Moving Targets, a film that combines the talents of Burt Ward, Miles O'Keefe, and Linnea Quigley. It was filmed completely in Vermont, and it shows why there are no major cities in that state. Avoid this one unless you're watching the MST3K version.


Time Chasers is probably one of the better movies on MST3K, though the competition isn't too tough. There was actually a pretty complex plot, but it had been done before in Back to the Future. The so-called hero wasn't very likeable (couldn't even drive a car), and the bad guys screwed around, making them not very threatening. It didn't have much for special effects and it could have really used them. The MST3K was great, and it was fun to watch the movie because it was filmed in Rutland, Vermont. I give it a 4/10.


One of the funnier MST3K experiments. This was an ambitious film, light years ahead of Manos and Hobgoblins. they simply couldn't afford the talent or special effects for it. In terms of effort they get a 7/10. Almost as funny as Space Mutiny. I give this one a 3/10 because there was a passable plot, and some half-decent acting. The funniest part for me is when the wormy fat guy is in the plane with his evil boss and Crow cracks: "Sir, I'm getting a little worried about lunch, it's almost 12:30" or something like that. This one was fun to watch, even though it is strictly fodder for the folks at Best Brains.


The comments already posted for this film do not do it justice. It is a very low budget sci-fi film made by lesser known people and should be judged that way. To say the film shouldn't be made is plain wrong. How do people learn without doing? Small pictures should be encouraged, not made fun of just because they are not of the highest quality.


Hilarious comedy of disaffected youth in Korea. Stylish and action packed (and a close second to Glengarry Glen Ross in the most swearing stakes). Bored again after their first attack on the gas station our 4 heroes return and start running the place with the staff held hostage - the situation begins to go out of control after run ins with the local gangsters, the "delivery boys union" and the cops. If this film comes within 100 miles of you don't miss it!


This movie is so awesome. The anarchy, the insanity and pure emotions unleashed throughout the film. All of these factors make the movie both extremely entertaining and tantalizing. Yes, I agree that this is definitely a morally bankrupt flick, but you actually feel satisfied, and I mean like cartharsis, after the credits that roll finally end(yea, you gotta see the credits too)

Above all, this is one of the best comedies I have ever seen in my life so far. And it's got a great soundtrack too :)

Go Bulldozer! "I only attack one!"


This is an odd little Korean film about 4 slacker-types who rob a gas station, and come back to rob it a second time. When they're mistaken for the attendants they realize that they'll do better by taking OVER the gas station and collecting the money. As time passes (this all takes place in one night) they amass a roomful of hostages that they've taken, all guarded by Bulldog, a not-too-bright lad with a floppy hat and a big stick. This says a lot about Korea, I guess, in that most people don't want a full tank of gas because it's so expensive, and a few other things that flicker by that indicate that the economy isn't exactly booming. Some of the comedy to this is pretty standard but there are some touches that put this above most action/comedies. There are flashbacks to failures of the 4 young men that show the frustrations that got them where they are at the time they decided take matters into their own hands. There is dumb humor in this but there's also some sly and dark humor thrown in here & there which redeems it. Overall I found this to be an amusing film but still it's a touch on the "light" side, a little more black humor could have made it a bit better.


"Attack the Gas Station!" is not only the most entertaining film Korea has produced during it's recent industry boom, but one of the most fun, tongue in cheek, genre-aware action/comedies from anywhere since heck knows when. Serving as both a parody of siege/hostage films and a camp action extravaganza in it's own right, ATGS moves at breakneck speed, leaving not a dull moment as the quartet of luckless youths try to avoid detection and learn running a gas station isn't as easy as it seems.

Despite feeling like an effective throwback to American cult B cinema of the 1970s and 80s - namely the works of Walter Hill and John Carpenter, ATGS also has such a refreshing, contemporary feeling and a razor sharp sense of humour that I can't think how the film can possibly get boring or how anyone could not enjoy it.

If I had to watch one film on a loop for the rest of my life, this would be a strong contender. By the time the end credits rolled (and they came VERY quickly), I wanted to watch the film again, and again. There isn't anything bad I can say about ATGS, and my words cannot do it justice. I can't remember the last time I was this entertained by a film. If "Attack the Gas Station!" doesn't restore your faith in cinema, and the human race in general, I can't think what will.


ATTACK the GAS STATION is a very enjoyable movie from the koreans. The movie has a very different feel to it from most comedy i seen. The koreans has a very different aproach to comedy. When you see the title name it might sound retarded or something. What funny about robbing a gas station................Well when you watch the movie your going to fall in love with charaters i mean these Guy dont care about nothing. IT show us the past of each character on how they deal with society which is the paint guy, BULLdozer my favorite, the head leader and a guy with long hair.

These four misfits are just bored and they decided to rob the gas station for fun and they get into alout of trouble with gang members, with the police and you would be like man i wish i was there . This movie is just amazing. I really enjoyed when the hostages has to fight each other when bulldozer is feeling bored. JUst watch this movie if you want to have a good time. My friend who seen this movie loved it!!!!! track this movie down.

10/10


a riot. literally. there's little more that can be done to a gas station maintaining good taste. the single location of this film has thoroughly been put to use. every development only escalates the level of trouble the four antiheroes get themselves in, and its exhilirating to see them face every new challenge with the same bravura.


**SPOILER ALERT**

I don't know if ATTACK THE GAS STATION holds up to repeat viewings, but it's terrific fun once, at least. An adrenalized, ultra-stylized, comic-book-violent black comedy about a group of well-scrubbed but very alienated youth who rob a gas station out of boredom, before then deciding to return and run the place for a night, pocketing all of the sales, and then taking off. Of course, the plan goes a little awry...

The style is a deadpan blend of Kubrick, Tarantino, Peckinpah and maybe Suzuki, played for all the gleeful nasty humor and actually sharp social critique that can be gotten out of the premise; at the very least, this film energetically puts the 'slap' back into slapstick. A Peckinpah quote/homage becomes a running punch line, which as much as anything sums up the sensibility. The way, way over-the-top climax is quite well-orchestrated.

Tokyo Shock DVD is of good quality, not many extras (making-of featurette), though I don't know if this one really needs 'em.


To make a memorable mark in the comedy genre nowadays is quite a difficult thing to do. With movies that recycle the same tasteless toilet humour and clichéd teenage sex antics, comedy is a genre that has slowly been dying in the mainstream for the last decade. Korean comedy veteran Sang-Jin Kim's Attack the Gas Station is a hysterically different take on comedy that doesn't take itself too seriously, but comes through with some seriously entertaining comedy. Before seeing this film for the first time I didn't expect much, from the title and all, but I was very surprised on the humour and direction of Attack the Gas Station.

Attack the Gas Station is the wacky story of a "gang" of 4 Korean youths who have a bad case of boredom, so what better to do then rob the local gas station?! After the high of the robbery wears off, the 4 teenagers find themselves right where they were before the robbery, bored. The only solution they can come up with is to rob the gas station again! As the gang attends to the customers to keep all quiet, they realize that instead of just robbing the place, they can make even more money by keeping the money that the patrons give them for pumping their gas! Soon after, a group of high school wannabe thugs come to collect money from one of the gas station employees. After rubbing the robbers the wrong way, our main gang decide to teach the wannabes a lesson, and take them hostage too! Somewhere along the line, their antics lead them to taking a snotty pre-madonna hostage, who's boyfriend just happens to be in the yakuza, and pissing off a highly irritable delivery boy who decides that he isn't going to take it anymore! Aside from the hilarious action that takes place, the film has a nice underlying tone of the gang comically bonding with the now supportive gas station employees as they teach each other to stand up for what they believe in and cooperate to take down what soon will be slew of opposing gangs waging war on the gas station! Attack the Gas Station does not have any big name actors, no recognizable faces, but the acting is enjoyable. Sang-Jin Kim is known for his knack of directing new talent. The feel of the movie is real enough, given the crazy premise, and the ride you go on with the cast is highly enjoyable, and incredibly funny.

You wouldn't see Attack the Gas Station winning any Oscars or sweeping any film festivals, because that's not the aim of this film. Attack the Gas Station is a semi-serious comical ride of what some slightly confused youth do when they're bored, and nothing more. There is no camera art and no first grade performances, but I doubt that is what anyone going into this film expects. From the opening you understand what level to suspend your disbelief.

Attack the Gas Station is a refreshing take on comedy that finds a very original and comical way to entertain its audience, while not wasting their time. Its pace is swift and fluid. From a very comical opening to a final parking lot battle between our new found "heroes," some very scared high schoolers, the yakuza, and a group of angst filled delivery boys, Attack the Gas Station is a spin on comedy that shouldn't be passed up.


Some movies suffer from titles that overstate what the movie can deliver. _Attack the Gas Station!_ is certainly not one of them. Yessir, you'll see a gas station be attacked. By my count, the gas station is attacked four times in the film's first five minutes. The last gas station attack becomes much more involved and lasts an entire evening, during which the gas station attackers and their hostages all learn valuable life lessons from each other and grow as people. Also, they are able to unite against a common enemy: some guy who drives loudly. Completely morally bankrupt, but likable. A hell of a movie. See it if you have the opportunity.


other's have very nicely described what this movie is about, so I'll keep it simple. This movie got me hooked into watching other great korean movies like "chin goo(friend), my sassy girl....etc. it's was very funny and entertaining to me, who wasn't too exposed to korean cinema.


On the surface, this tale of a brutal gang who rob a gas station (hence the name!) and take the workers hostage appears to be just another been-there, seen-that Asian thriller, but underneath there's a soft centre waiting to be discovered - short vignettes give us clues as to how these thugs came to be this way, one of the hostages learns to stand up for himself, characters who are even nastier than the robbers end up worst off, and even the thugs themselves get a shot a redemption. OK, it's not especially profound, and like so many Asian films, it suffers from an inconsistency of tone (lashings of violence, swearing, slapstick comedy and musical numbers make for a strange mix) which might alienate some western viewers, but it's fast-moving, never boring, surprising in all the right places and a definite recommendation for a fun evening's viewing.


When i fist heard of this movie, I thought what stupid movie, how could someone name this move a horrible name. And i thought i was going to be disappointed. Boy was i wrong.

The plot is very Simple and easy, some guys rob a gaz station in the middle of the night, and then go back again to rob it, but find out the moneys not there this time. Leaving our 4 bad guys in a situation they must find and gather money in any means possible, while getting into some strange events , which turn out to be some great highlights for the film.

The movie is very fun and mixes the Action/Drama/Comedy together real well. While some parts are a little silly and cheesy, and there are still goofs this makes for a nice movie to watch and keep in the collection one you could watch over and over and still be able to laugh. I definitely recommend to anyone who is a fan of crime capers, like Snatch and Pulp Ficiton.


This is actually the first Korean movie i ever saw, and it was really hilarious. If this is Korean crazy comedy, I want to see more. Recommended if you don't hate "foreign" film.


This one brought back some unfunny memories (which I thought I'd share, though they have absolutely nothing, really, to do with this movie). I was working in a gas station, late one night, when a pair of would-be robbers tried to get the drop on me. I had a .38 on me and managed to get the drop on them, instead. They fled. About a month later, they returned, during the day, and robbed me at gunpoint in front of literally dozens of witnesses. The company for which I worked promptly fired me. "Standard operating procedure," they lied. (An assistant manager would get robbed twice in the following months and the gas station would eventually close down... but said assman never got canned.) I laughed my butt off when I saw ATTACK THE GAS STATION! I highly recommend it.


Nice movie, so funny. Recommended. (You may need to learn Korean culture to have the jokes in full effect)

My wife is Korean and she is explaining why the scene is so funny.

Get Korean friend and watch it together.

One Two Three Five Six Seven Eight Nine Ten

Cheers, SV

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'Attack The Gas Station' is a marvellous movie, and uncommonly difficult to describe.

It's what would result if you gave Quentin Tarantino a sense of humour and a sense of good taste. And improved his ability to direct. And gave him good actors to work with. And an impeccable writer.

The English subtitles are odd. At times their errors are amusing, and add something to the movie; at other times there has evidently been painstaking care taken to make the subtitles at least try to make sense - the attempt at translating a vocalised word-game is, while not perfect, a surprisingly good try.

I've never before seen a movie constructed of a montage of separate scenes that came together so well as a whole. If only it weren't so hard to find this one.


I've been on the IMDb since 2001 and have written very few reviews, but this movie was so bad that I feel compelled to warn everyone I can. I can honestly say that this movie has no redeeming features and is one of the worst movies I have ever seen.

You've already seen the plot outline, but it doesn't give tell you enough.

You've got 4 thugs who rob a gas station, then decide to stay and work there all night, presumably to make some money. Of course, given their violent carefree tendencies, they would logically just go rob some other business. Instead, they stay and willingly work a crappy service sector job that most people don't want.

Their staying there is mostly a vehicle to provide encounters with obnoxious customers, à la Clerks, but any comedic value in these is squandered.

The biggest flaw would be the characters. The protagonists are just violent and obnoxious thugs with no charisma whatsoever. The growing group of hostages consists of one-dimensional whimpering crybabies, which wears thin very fast. There isn't a single likable person among the whole cast.

After 45 minutes of pointless slapstick with nary a funny occurrence, the film takes a wild stab at character development, showing why these thugs are the way they are. But it's all very shallow and perfunctory.

The technical aspects of the film are also severely wanting. The camera-work is rough and jarring, the editing is mess and the lighting (or lack of it) is a disaster.

The "comedy" is repetitive and unfunny, the cast is totally unlikeable and the whole movie is an aimless mess. I watched the whole thing in hopes that it would improve. It doesn't. In the end, it's just a lame and boring disaster. There are many good Korean films. Go rent a different one.


Someone said: China's king of action, Japan's king of horror, and Korea's king of comedy. I said, what? and watched ATTACK THE GAS STATION. MY GOD WAS I WRONG! KOREA EARNS THE TITLE ALL THE WAY! I thought SHAOLIN SOCCER was hilarious. I thought, er, no Japanese comedies come to mind--oh, yes, SHALL WE DANCE was hilarious (back then), but nothing beats ATTACK THE GAS STATION in pure lunatic fun!! It's like watching JACKASS:THE MOVIE, with a plot that's really good and unpredictable!!

If you claim to be PUNK, watch this movie.

If you've got HOT BLOOD in your veins, watch this movie.

If you've got FRIENDS who'll back you ALL THE WAY, this movie's about you!

If you're an ANARCHIST, you're gonna wet your pants and scream with JOY!

IF Someone's p***ing you OFF right now in your LIFE, this movie is your THERAPY!!!

ATTACK!! ATTACK!!