Search - Chained for Life on DVD

On A Historical Note, This Film Runed the Hilton Sisters.

D. Perl | USA | 12/01/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The quality of the film "Chained for Life" is certainly among the worst that I have ever viewed. The picture is washed out and choppy. One may wonder why the time has not been taken to restore this bit of sideshow/vaudeville history. According to the excellent biography "The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton," this is the film that finally ruined them. The Hilton Sisters had high hopes that this project would make them superstars. They paid almost all of their own money to produce this story about one twin committing homicide and the legal problems the situation would cause. "Must the innocent be punished with the guilty, or should the guilty go free?" This idea lost focus even before the first day of its filming. After rewrites and reediting to please the censors of the day, "Chained for Life" became a blur of ideas with no real conclusion and unknown bad actors. It is an uneven film, with no real plot, and out of place musical performances by Daisy and Violet.



The film was locked in litigation, upon it completion, for a year (due to unpaid production bills). "Chained for Life" ended up with a very limited release in hick towns where small audiences hated the film. The Hilton Sisters traveled from cheap theaters to drive-ins across the country trying to promote their film. In the end, Daisy and Violet took a tremendous financial loss. This was the beginning of the final end for the Hilton Sisters. They would never recover from the financial loss caused by this venture and would end up living their remaining years in poverty.



The DVD "Chained for Life" is cheap label discount release(Alpha). It is a washed out, bad print of the high hopes that ended up being the final ruin of Daisy and Violet Hilton. It is a bad film, and a sad ending to the once famous vaudeville headliners whose lives ended in tragedy. Those who have read "The Lives and Loves of Daisy and Violet Hilton: A True Story of Conjoined Twins by Dean Jensen," may find the DVD interesting for historical reasons. Those who know nothing of the Hilton Sister will only see "Chained for Life" as a cinematic failure.





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I love bad movies, but this one was WAY too bad to see twice

Betsy | Cincinnati, OH | 01/30/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I love cult movies and this one is, by far, the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. The plot seemed interesting enough: one Siamese twin commits a murder, but what will happen to them? They can't put the innocent one in jail, but can't let the guilty one go free. However, there is really no conclusion and it was so slow that i almost couldn't finish watching it."

Wonderful Hilton Sisters EPIC!!!!!

Betsy | 06/10/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Well maybe not epic, but very amusing and CHEAP!!
The Hilton Sisters (looking considerably older than in FREAKS) star in this bizarre overly long murder film where one of the sisters commit murder, but no one can decide how to punish the murderess since her and her sister are attached at the hip.
Definately a fun old cheesy flick, filled to the brim with ancient vaudeville style acts that usually preceed the The Hilton Sisters singing some kind of schtick.
Some of the dialogue in this film is delivered so woodenly that you wonder what the heck Daisy and Violet were taking. Maybe it should be called "Dosed For Life".Also worth noting is that this DVD from ALPHA has the absolute worst SOUND quality I've ever heard. RHINO'S older VHS release sounds much better. The sound quality really is SO BAD that it can hardly be watched at all. Pure TORTURE."

No ending

Sandra with Highfunctioning Autism | Sweden | 05/29/2007

(2 out of 5 stars)

"There were two reasons I bought this DVD, one being that I'm very interested in "Sideshow Freaks", so I really wanted to see the sisters. The other that I really wanted to know how they would punish the other sister in the movie.

But there is no ending, there's just a man that simply tells you that you have to decide for yourself what you think the punishment should be.

Very dissapointing!



The acting isn't very good, especially not the sisters. The blonde one sounds bored when she should say "I'm so happy!".



The good parts were the performances on stage, I especially thought the guy on the bicicle was cool.

The sisters singing is good, it's so sad that the sound quality was so bad!

The plot was good, even though the sisters didn't act good, it did told how hard it can be to always be stuck together."