Flesh and Fantasy

This is a film that most fans of old movies are unfamiliar with.It isn't exactly a horror anthology film, although the stories deal with the supernatural and belief in fate and premonitions.The first story, about a mask, is perhaps the best. It feels like it inspired a famous Twilight Zone episode. The second story, with Edward G. Robinson, is darkly humorous and well done. The final story, with Barbara Stanwyck, is well-done but the ending needs more punch.Perhaps "Flesh and Fantasy" works best if you know not to approach it as a horror film.

I have been waiting quite a while for the release of 1943's FLESH AND FANTASY. The concept holding the film together is rather weak but the three stories are interesting. The third story with Barbara Stanwyck and Charles Boyer is a bit confusing. Why is she a wanted woman? Was it a dream? Makes no sense. The first story with Betty Field as an ugly woman who wears a mask and eventually finds her true beauty is rather moving. What a wonderful story. The second story is the showcase. Edward G. Robinson is told by a psychic that he will murder someone. Will he? Enough said. Tune in yourselves. Great story. Overall I would recommend this rare film. I've been noticing that Amazon is discontinuing most of the Universal Vault Series, so get this classic before it becomes unavailable.

In the early 1940's several studios released films containing short stories linked loosely by a central theme and performed by an all-star cast. "Flesh and Fantasy"is one of these films and it is welcomed back! It consists of three unrelated tales(a fourth tale was apparently cut out).First is Betty Field playing a homely woman during Mardi Gras who falls in love with Robert Cummings.She wears a mask of a beautiful woman to attract Cummings.Second is Thomas Mitchell as a fortune teller predicting that Edward G.Robinson will kill someone.Third is Boyer as a high-wire circus performer obsessed with a nightmare that he will have a fall and who is courting a woman(Stanwyck)who looks like the woman he has seen in his dream. Unusual and imaginative film.

I have the PAL release of the film (PAL meaning it's sped up to 25 fps, thus a shorter runtime - 89 minutes - and slightly higher pitched audio). I bought the Universal Vault MOD dvd because the Amazon description here indicates the correct film runtime of 94 minutes. I assumed it was a normal film copy.However, turns out it's the same runtime as the PAL (the Vault dvd insert rounds it up to 90 minutes), and same audio. I confirmed with software that they telecined the PAL video so it would play on USA dvd players. The video is less sharp than the PAL dvd, but you wouldnt know unless you had the PAL dvd to compare.This is unfortunately not an unusual practice. DVD company VCI frequently releases UK films in USA in this manner instead of using a normal 24 fps film source. This is a real disservice to dvd customers who are often diehard movie collectors who want the real thing. I emailed them a polite inquiry but never got a reply. But anyway.Many wont notice the slightly higher pitched voices, or will quickly get accustomed to it while watching. And will erroneously assume the average picture quality is just a limitation of the original negative or print. However, I'll be returning it rather than hear the actors speak with an odd pitch; having restored the PAL dvd to film speed, I know how the audio should sound. See the youtube clip below for a quick comparison.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCTvTjTo-o4

Rare film with interesting stories.

Leave it to Universal to dvd-r a classic film that deserves a Blu-ray release. This was, unless I'm badly mistaken, the first multi-story fantasy feature, beating out the justly famous DEAD OF NIGHT by several years. Only the third story is weak, letting the overall affair down a bit. The picture quality is liveable but should have been perfect, but then when has Universal been able to spell restoration?

I remember this movie from childhood and was always fasinated by it. Bob Commings is rather poor in the film, but still I liked all three stories, even though they were predictable in so many ways.

Always loved this movie, DVD plays fine and quality looks good. No complaints.

A very enjoyable film, with excellent soundtrack and picture quality. Only the first of the trio of short films really works, however. This part of the film remains as vivid as the day I first saw it over thirty years ago.

They are in English as well

Piacevole film in tre episodi collegati (esilmente) da una simpatica conversazione tra due amici, uno dei quali la annaffia abbondantemente di buon (credo proprio così) scotch. Più modesto il primo episodio (dove però l'interprete, che dovrebbe essere brutta, è molto bella), migliori gli altri due. Buoni interpreti (e non potrebbe essere altrimenti, visti i nomi), buona la qualità del DVD.

It is good to see that Universal has put out Flesh and Fantasy, even if only on a DVD-made-on-demand basis.This edition runs 89 minutes and 31 seconds on my player. That is 4 to 5 minutes shorter than the time listed on the IMDb, but it does not seem that anything has been cut from the film. Perhaps this is a speeded-up version (as explained in an Amazon.com review which suggests that this DVD was made from a PAL transfer).Like other Universal Vault DVD-MODs, this one lacks any special features or scene menu. You just pop in the DVD and it plays. If you want to find a particular scene, you have to fast forward or rewind.I should add that I now own two Universal Vault DVD-MODs, and both have played perfectly well on my DVD player. I wish I could say the same about my Warner Archive DVD-Rs, which have all had skipping problems and have had to be returned for replacements (which themselves skip, if not quite as badly). Warner should find out how to do the job right from Universal.The print and sound of this edition of Flesh and Fantasy are reasonably good, for a movie from 1943 that has not been properly preserved and has had no restoration done on it. There are numerous small flaws in the image -- sparkles, vertical lines, etc. -- but none of them persist for very long, and most of the film can be watched without distraction. The sound, contrary to what the aforementioned Amazon.com reviewer says, does not distort Edward G. Robinson's voice, at least, not noticeably. It is not, as the reviewer suggested, youthfully high-pitched. It sounds like the normal Robinson voice to me.This is an anthology horror film by Universal, perhaps the first talkie anthology horror film (there was a German silent anthology, *Waxworks*); it predates the British *Dead of Night* by two years. The structure of these films is: an opening and closing framing scene, with free-standing episodes in between, and a bit of linking between episodes via a return to the framing scene. In this case, the framing sequence is two men talking in the library of a gentleman's club about dreams, fate, etc.; one fellow starts to read some creepy stories about fate to the other, and the stories that are read constitute the body of the film.The individual stories are all interesting; none of them is weak, and the middle story, with Edward G. Robinson, is quite strong. The atmosphere, thanks to the direction of Julien Duvivier (who rarely directed Universal films), is dark and moody throughout. There is great acting, as usual, by Barbara Stanwyck and Edward G. Robinson, and there are strong performances by Charles Boyer, Bob Cummings, and Betty Field in lead roles, with excellent supporting work by Thomas Mitchell, C. Aubrey Smith, Dame May Whitty, Charles Winninger, Robert Benchley and others.For those who associate Universal only with the great movie monsters -- Dracula, Frankenstein, etc. -- this film will come as a pleasant surprise. It is, in its own off-beat way, a good horror film. Credit goes to Julien Duvivier, of course, who was probably a better director than some of the in-house directors that Universal used for many of the second-tier horror films, but credit goes also to Universal for putting the feature together in the first place, using many non-Universal contract players from other studios.The price on this DVD-MOD is a bit steep, but when you consider that there is no other way of seeing this extremely rare film, and that it is still cheaper than, say, a Criterion DVD, it is acceptable. There are no special features -- which is to be regretted; there should have been a featurette on the relationship of this film to the Universal film *Destiny* (1944) which was originally to be part of the anthology and then split off into a film of its own (unfortunately not yet available on DVD or VHS). Nonetheless, this is a watchable and apparently complete version of a nearly forgotten and greatly underrated Universal film, and no Universal horror fan should be without it.I cannot give 5 stars to a DVD product which does not have even a scene menu, so 4 stars is all that this one earns.

Grande cast, ma banale oleografica riduzione di racconti vecchio stile anche se di autori famosi. La regia è anonima, il resto insignificante.