{"id":8941,"date":"2024-11-24T10:49:27","date_gmt":"2024-11-24T15:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=8941"},"modified":"2024-11-24T10:49:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-24T15:49:27","slug":"arthur","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/11\/24\/arthur\/","title":{"rendered":"Arthur"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Arthur<\/strong> (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, vulgar remarks, a scene of violence, pervasive drunkenness)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Steve Gordon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Steve Gordon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Burt Bacharach\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Fred Schuler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 17, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jill Eikenberry, Stephen Elliott, Ted Ross, Barney Martin, Thomas Barbour, Anne De Salvo, Lou Jacobi.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $95.4M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\n

\u00a0Can you believe it\u2019s been more than a decade since the awful remake of the classic Dudley Moore comedy Arthur<\/strong> unceremoniously came and went from theaters? Are you even aware there was a remake? You\u2019re not alone. Some folks don\u2019t even recall there was a sequel in \u201988. Me, I\u2019m wondering what was going through the makers\u2019 minds when they thought Russell Brand would be a good replacement for Moore who made the character of drunken millionaire playboy Arthur Bach distinctively his.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I have fond memories of seeing the original Arthur<\/strong> with my first girlfriend JB. I was 13, it was summer and I was in my happy place, the cinema. We both thought it was hysterically funny. It was my first theatrical experience with Moore whom I thoroughly enjoyed in Foul Play on network TV. What I didn\u2019t realize about Arthur at the time is that it was a throwback to the screwball comedies of the 30s and 40s. Sure, I subsequently read it in reviews, but I didn\u2019t become familiar with that particular genre until later in life, college specifically. It\u2019s a dead-on assessment of 1981\u2019s surprise hit comedy.<\/p>\n

Arthur lives the kind of life most of us only dream about. He\u2019s extremely wealthy and doesn\u2019t have a care in the world. Like the theme song says, he \u201cdoes what he pleases\u201d which typically involves drinking (a lot!) and carousing. He embarrasses his upper crust family to no end. Finally, his father puts his foot down and threatens him with disinheritance if he doesn\u2019t settle down and marry Susan (Eikenberry, L.A. Law), the boring-as-hell daughter of a brutish business acquaintance (Elliott, Beverly Hills Cop). With $750 million at stake, can you blame Arthur for acquiescing?<\/p>\n

\u00a0No life, not even that of a rich drunken playboy, is without complications. One day while out shopping at Bergdorf-Goodman with his loyal butler\/companion Hobson (Gielgud, The Elephant Man), he spots Linda (Minnelli, Cabaret) shoplifting a tie. Instantly smitten, he intercedes on her behalf when she\u2019s confronted by store security. He then asks her out on a date. Arthur soon realizes he\u2019s in love with Linda, a diner waitress who shares an apartment in Queens with her unemployed father (Martin, Seinfeld), despite their class differences. Now he faces a serious dilemma. Does he go ahead and marry Susan as planned or be with the woman he really loves and forfeit the family fortune?<\/p>\n

\u00a0Arthur<\/strong> is an extremely funny movie. It didn\u2019t need a remake because it\u2019s absolute perfection from start to finish. Drunks aren\u2019t always likable. More often than not, they tend to be sloppy, obnoxious and combative. They\u2019re only charming in movies like Arthur<\/strong>. Arthur is what you call a funny drunk. When he\u2019s in an inebriated state (which is almost all the time), everything that comes out of his mouth is a joke. Never mind that he\u2019s often the only one laughing. The truth is Arthur drinks to ease his loneliness. He\u2019s always looking for love, usually in all the wrong places. In the opening, he picks up a hooker (De Salvo, D.C. Cab) and takes her to dinner at the Plaza. At some point, he forgets what she does for a living and why she\u2019s with him. His reaction when reminded is priceless. In the role, Moore is flawless. He creates a character we come to love and care about like a mischievous child. In fact, he\u2019s very much like a child in that he needs to grow up. He wants the one thing his money can\u2019t buy; he wants somebody to love that will love him back in return. Granted, it\u2019s not wise to go about such a task while plastered for several reasons. Thankfully, none of them occur to Arthur or the writer. ANYWAY, the point is Moore is great as Arthur.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Top honors have to go to Gielgud who won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Hobson, a father figure who only wants for his boss to be happy in spite of his controlling father\u2019s efforts to the contrary. Theirs is NOT the traditional master-servant relationship. He has a sharp tongue and a sharper wit. He\u2019s not afraid to say exactly what he thinks. Upon meeting Linda for the first time, he dryly tells her \u201cusually one must go to a bowling alley to meet a woman of your stature\u201d. When Arthur says he\u2019s going to take a bath, Hobson dryly replies, \u201cI\u2019ll alert the media\u201d without missing a beat. It\u2019s all in the delivery; Gielgud\u2019s deadpan style suits it well. This is the stuff that classic comedies are made of. Minnelli does quite well as tough, gutsy Linda who doesn\u2019t give a hoot about Arthur\u2019s money. She sees somebody that needs taking care of. Deep down though, she does want the fairy tale happy ending. She\u2019ll never admit it, but it\u2019s true.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Not all is hilarity in Arthur<\/strong>. Drama comes in the form of Hobson\u2019s failing health. For the first time in his life, Arthur is faced with the prospect of being alone and having to take care of himself. It also means making his own decisions, something that he\u2019s ill-equipped to do. Writer-director Steve Gordon, in his one and only directorial effort (he died of a heart attack the following year), achieves a perfect balance of comedy and drama. It never once gets maudlin.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019d be remiss if I didn\u2019t mention Burt Bacharach\u2019s absolutely perfect score. The man is a musical genius. I knew it at 13 and it\u2019s still true 40+ years later. The theme song \u201cArthur\u2019s Song (Best That You Can Do)\u201d by Christopher Cross is still one of my favorites. His work on Arthur<\/strong> is among his very best.<\/p>\n

\u00a0When the original Arthur<\/strong> came out in \u201881, MPAA standards were a bit different. It received a PG rating even though it absolutely glorifies drunken behavior. In one scene, Arthur drinks scotch from a bottle while driving. The same scene today would automatically qualify it for a PG-13. And let\u2019s not forget the occasionally ribald humor. You wouldn\u2019t hear it in a PG movie today. As always, it\u2019s interesting to note how much standards have changed since the early 80s. Even with its PG rating, Arthur<\/strong> is intended for adult audiences. It\u2019s a great counterpoint to the juvenile fare that typically floods theaters during the hot weather months. It\u2019s a legitimately funny movie that doesn\u2019t pander to its audience. It has a great supporting cast that also includes Ted Ross (Police Academy) as Arthur\u2019s loyal chauffeur and Geraldine Fitzgerald (Easy Money) as the tough-cookie grandmother who can\u2019t bear the thought of any member of the Bach family living a working-class life.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019ll close my review of Arthur<\/strong> by pointing out Moore gets off his fair share of funny one-liners. When Susan tells him to take her hand at dinner, he replies, “That would leave you with one!” That\u2019s the only one I\u2019m going to share. There are too many gems to choose from. In any event, I think we can all agree that Arthur<\/strong> is an undisputed comedy classic. If you\u2019re ever tempted to watch the remake, I strongly suggest you revisit the original instead. Trust me, you\u2019ll be glad you did. If we\u2019re lucky, Russell Brand will go away and never come back.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arthur (1981)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Orion\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 97 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (language, vulgar remarks, a scene of violence, pervasive drunkenness)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Steve Gordon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Steve Gordon\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Burt Bacharach\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Fred Schuler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 17, 1981 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Jill Eikenberry, Stephen Elliott, Ted Ross, Barney Martin, Thomas Barbour, Anne […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-thats-some-funny-stuff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Arthur-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8941"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9081,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8941\/revisions\/9081"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}