Movie Review: Unfaithfully Yours (1984)

A revenge comedy, Unfaithfully Yours reaches for sophisticated laughs in high society, but rarely hits the right notes.

In New York City, celebrated orchestra conductor Claude Eastman (Dudley Moore) returns from a successful trip to London, and prepares for a performance featuring star violinist and ladies magnet Max Stein (Armand Assante). Claude is married to the much younger Italian actress Daniella (Nastassja Kinski), and his entourage includes manager Norman (Albert Brooks) and butler Giuseppe (Richard Libertini). 

Thanks to bumbling private detective Keller (Richard B. Shull), Claude stumbles upon evidence Daniella may be having an affair with Max. Enraged by jealousy, he plots an elaborate revenge for the night of the big concert. But while he imagines the perfect plan, reality will turn out to be much different.

A remake of the 1948 Preston Sturges comedy, Unfaithfully Yours has only a slight story to tell despite the involvement of three writers (including Barry Levinson). Director Howard Zieff delivers one good scene featuring duelling violins at a nightclub, then aims for the centrepiece sequence of Claude imagining his perfect murder while energetically conducting the orchestra, quickly followed by the reality of his best laid plans going quite wrong. It's a good final act aided by silly Halloween masks, but getting there gets a bit drudgerous.

At the appropriate comedic scale, Claude and Daniella do convey a sense of underlying love as two artists giving romance a whirl if for no other reason than joint inspiration and shared glamour. But then the film leans too heavily on the painfully slow process of Claude's jealousy building, followed by identifying Max as the alleged Lothario, then a series of more-irritating-than-funny communications breakdowns to stoke the flames of rage. 

The script lacks a cutting edge, and so Dudley Moore sputters and strides this way and that, caught somewhere between aspirations of worldliness and juvenile physical comedy. The surrounding cast is rich with talent, but every character is strictly confined to a single definition.

With enjoyable classical music and glitzy cinematography, Unfaithfully Yours exists in a classy milieu. Too bad the humour arrives poorly dressed for the occasion.

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Movie Review: 10 (1979)

A sex comedy about the mess men can create at the midpoint of their life, 10 achieves laughs but also dawdles for too long in obvious territory.

Beverly Hills-based music composer George Webber (Dudley Moore) arrives at a full-fledged mid-life crisis after his 42nd birthday. Neither his lover Samantha Taylor (Julie Andrews) nor his friend and co-composer Hugh (Robert Webber) can help. Things get worse when George stumbles onto the wedding of Jenny (Bo Derek), and is immediately infatuated with the stunning young bride, whom he rates as an 11 on a scale of 1 to 10.

George starts to drink excessively, abandons Samantha and follows Jenny to a Mexico honeymoon resort, where he befriends Don (Brian Dennehy) the bartender. George stalks Jenny on the beach, fantasizing about an unlikely romance and trying to work up the courage to conjure up a meeting. Meanwhile, Mary Lewis (Dee Wallace) is a lonely woman at the same resort, and she sets her sights on George.

Cast as the almost mythical subject of a middle-aged man's lust, 10 catapulted Bo Derek from obscurity to superstardom. Her braided cornrow hairstyle and skin-coloured one-piece swimsuit became instantly recognizable and much-copied, and she was immediately appointed as the newest Hollywood sex symbol.

With Derek dominating the headlines, the film itself is almost, but not quite, irrelevant. Director Blake Edwards does not help his own cause by flubbing the pacing, somehow contriving to extend the flimsy story to over two hours.

Almost every scene and idea is tediously stretched beyond what is necessary, the initial laugh always drowned in a chorus of prolongation. George walking across the hot sand is funny; but not after the first 30 seconds. George tumbling down an embankment and attempting to climb back up is maybe funny; but not after many minutes of panting and gasping. George and Samantha missing each other's phone calls is amusing the first couple of times; by the fifth round, the joke is truly spent.

And Dudley Moore is afforded far too much drinking time, with scene after scene of George chugging back the alcohol and stumbling around in a drunken stupor in a desperate attempt to reverse his age.

She may not know the first thing about acting, but here the better moments almost always feature Derek, whether running on the beach in slow motion or matter-of-factly exposing George to the generational gap that he will never be able to traverse. Edwards fully commits to the world of adults with plenty of nudity, and the bedroom scenes, once they arrive, carry the requisite awkward edge. Ravel's Bolero (Jenny's favourite lovemaking soundtrack) enjoyed a massive worldwide revival.

The rest of the cast members are capable but hampered by the excessive focus on George. Julie Andrews as Samantha is the grounding mechanism that George refuses to hold onto, but she disappears for long stretches from the second half. Brian Dennehy and Robert Webber provide robust support but both deserved more screentime, as did Dee Wallace.

The theme of middle-aged angst is run thoroughly through the wash-dry cycle, but Edwards appears oblivious to George's life of immense privilege. His emotional troubles are the embodiment of the ultra rich and comfortable finding something - anything - to whine about between trips in the Rolls-Royce.

10 enjoys its moments at the expense of the wayward male mind, but while Bo Derek may have briefly been the world's 11, the film scores a more mundane 6.

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Movie Review: Arthur (1981)

A perpetually drunk ultra rich playboy who never grew up has to decide, through the fog of alcohol, whether to follow love or money. Arthur is funny and poignant, with memorable performances by Dudley Moore and John Gielgud, and it makes no apologies for a central message promoting drunken oblivion as an alternative that is just a bit better than stuffy conformity.

New York-based playboy Arthur Bach (Moore) has all the money in the world, but his only friend is his butler Hobson (Gielgud). Arthur squanders his time on continuous drinking and picking up prostitutes, as he escapes from the inevitable demands of his family: his father and grandmother insist that he marry the sweet, rich but uninteresting Susan (Jill Eikenberry), otherwise they will cut him off from his fortune.

While shopping for clothes at a ritzy store, Arthur notices a shoplifter: Linda Marolla (Liza Minnelli) is a poor waitress who lives with her Dad, and Arthur is immediately attracted to her, saving her from being prosecuted. Arthur's marriage plans to Susan are proceeding as he is falling in love with Linda, while Hobson is serving his master while battling an increasingly serious illness. Choosing Linda over Susan means that Arthur will alienate his family and be forever poor, but with alcohol fuelling his decision making, everything will surely work out.

Dudley Moore had a few good years of stardom in the late 1970s and early 1980s, and Arthur was his defining role, and certainly his most celebrated. He goes though most of the movie acting intoxicated, speech slurred, walk askew, laughing hysterically and spewing jokes that are funny only to him. Arthur is an endearing character in a way that a helpless, lost pet evokes sympathy, and it is to Moore's credit that both Susan and Linda's attraction to Arthur is believable.

John Gielgud, at 77 years old, won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Hobson, the butler who is quite certain that he in fact runs the life of his master. As stiff and proper as Arthur is lubricated, the prickly friendship between Arthur and Hobson is at the core of the film. That Hobson is the only person in the world that Arthur can communicate with summarizes Arthur's sad state, and as illness takes Hobson away, it is only natural that Arthur is attracted to the down-to-earth Linda (a waitress) to fill the vacuum.

Liza Minnelli as Linda gets somewhat lost in the acting shuffle, unable to move too far away from just being a slightly subdued Liza Minnelli.

Arthur contributed a terrific song to the cultural landscape, Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) by Christopher Cross easily entering the hall of classic movie contributions to music, with it's catch line "when you get caught between the Moon and New York City" perfectly capturing Arthur's dilemma.

Arthur may not be a practically helpful guide for how to go about achieving success in life, but if being in the company of a drunk is necessary, he may as well be lovable.

 

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