The original version of Bedazzled, starring Dudley Moore as a poor slob and Peter Cook as the Devil came out in 1967 and was absolutely a product of its era. The recent sequel, with Brendan Fraser and Liz Hurley in 2000, was also a reflection of the current milieu. The difference is that the first version was original and funny while the later was derivative and mean-spirited. Then again, when are remakes ever better than the original?
Stanley Moon (Moore) is a short order cook and desperately in love with the greasy spoons’ waitress Margaret (Eleanor Bron) but completely unable to get past his shyness to speak to her. Deciding that enough’s enough, he throws a rope over a water pipe in his flat and attempts to end his life but even that he cannot do properly. Or perhaps this failure is the work of George Spiggot, aka Lucifer, who happens to appear in the apartment at just that moment. Spiggot offers Moon seven wishes, an seven wishes he chooses, in exchange for his soul. A useless leftover, much like the appendix, according to Spiggot. Moon of course signs the contract for he sees it as the way to get next to Margaret. Indeed, each of the wishes is a different attempt to connect with her but since this is a deal with the Devil not one works as expected.
Comparing the two versions points to several reasons why the original is superior. Most importantly, Cook’s Lucifer is much more human and sympathetic compared to Hurley’s slick and uncaring portrayal. Cook’s fallen angel simply wanted a little adoration of his own after spending so much time as God’s favorite angel. He has no choice about inducing evil, big or little, as God’s compelled him to such behavior. And over the course of the film he actually grows to like poor Stanley and at the end voluntarily returns his soul; Hurley’s is forced to return Fraser’s due to a contract technicality which neither Fraser nor the audience is aware of before the crucial act. And in terms of sex appeal, well, Liz Hurley is a hottie but cannot compare to Raquel Welch in her prime.
Cook also wrote the original, which probably accounts for him getting so many of the good lines, and the comedy duo were able to attract Stanley Donnen to direct. Donnen was one of the top directors of the middle century (Singin’ in the Rain, Damn Yankees, Charade) and a terrific choice. The new version has some quality names involved (Harold Ramis as director, Peter Tolan and Larry Gelbart as writers) but they seem to have taken the easy paycheck on this effort.
Definitely Recommended
2001’s Gosford Park is a Robert Altman film, which means that it will be long (137 minutes), filled with quality acting, and that there will be much dialog and little action. Altman can be hit or miss: Dr. T and the Women, his previous film, sucked while ’92’s The Player was great; M*A*S*H and Nashville, from the early ’70s were terrific, all time favorites, but sandwiched in between was Elliot Gould as Phillip Marlowe in The Long Goodbye and you can’t tell me that any film with Gould as Marlowe could be worth seeing.
Gosford Park is the story of a shooting weekend in 1932 at the country estate (castle, that is) of Sir William McCordle (Michael Gambon). He’s invited an assortment of relatives and friends and they bring along a servant or two each who only add to the castle’s huge staff. The film explicitly parallels the servants and the nobility, cutting between the two, showing the nearly unconscious interactions, and the striking similarities of hierarchy and snobbery. Altman even uses one character, played by Ryan Phillippe, as a sort of joke: He arrives as the valet of a visiting American film producer, seduces one of the noble women and one of the servants, then is revealed to be an actor playing a part and crosses back to his ‘proper’ place. None of the English characters approves of this, of course.
This is one of those films where nothing much really happens to create real emotional peaks–even the murder that creates the only significant plot twist isn’t really shown–but instead tries to create an atmosphere (England just before the Empire crumbled, when one simply knew his proper place) and an interesting assortment of characters to bring out the difference between there and then and here and now. A movie length, movie budgeted version of Upstairs, Downstairs. In the end, the viewing experience was enjoyable but never created the type of excitement the best films, or evenly moderatley good ones like Bedazzled, do. Julian Fellowes, a veteran British actor, did win the 2002 Oscar for Best Original Screenplay although the competition wasn’t that strong.
Mildly recommended
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