WORLD TOUR Day 27 - New York, NY
BEFORE: Once again into the breach, dear friends - I guess I've learned that I'm not really a big fan of Dudley Moore, after all. When I was a kid I saw the abysmal Biblical comedy "Wholly Moses", and that may have colored my perceptions - I mostly avoided his films until this project started, and except for "Crazy People", I haven't really found that any of his movies have appealed to me.
The best thing about "Arthur" to me was probably that Burt Bacharach song sung by Christopher Cross, which was stuck in my head all day. Linking's a snap tonight since all the leads carry over, which is the best justification I have for watching the sequel - that, and I bought a combo-pack of the two movies last year at the $5 DVD store.
THE PLOT: Arthur loses all his money, and his wife wants a baby.
AFTER: This is the plotline that really should have been part of the first film - the first film was just 90 minutes long, they could have worked it in. The repercussions of Arthur leaving Susan at the altar include Susan's father taking over the Bach family company, and cutting Arthur off. As a result he's forced to leave his mansion and live in stereotypically terrible New York apartments, quit drinking and get a job.
Someone was clearly going for a redemptive storyline - making the audience not hate Arthur by making him one of "us". And riffing off of a "Trading Places" or "Brewster's Millions" vibe seemed the way to do it. But the premise at heart makes little sense. If Arthur's such a drunk, arrogant screw-up, why the heck would Mr. Johnson even WANT him to marry his daughter? And forcing them together, despite the fact that he doesn't love Susan - isn't that going to make him resentful, which will make him drink more, which will make him a worse husband for her? And Mr. Johnson can't be doing this to get at the Bach family fortune, since the Johnsons are already rich. The motivation here seems to be simple revenge, of the most destructive kind, with the expectation of somehow producing a positive result.
Arthur, of course, is motivated by love, as evidenced by the cuteness of he and his wife telling similar jokes and finishing each other's sentences - see, if you're funny when you're drunk, you can also be funny sober. But the double-reversal also makes little sense, and several narrative threads get dropped along the way. (plus Susan is now played by a different actress, what's up with THAT? Jill Eikenberry wasn't available?)
We're supposed to believe in the end that Arthur has matured because he's (relatively) sober, and seems to have learned some valuable lessons. But what lesson does giving him his fortune BACK teach him? Wouldn't working for money have taught him even more? Nope, this was the 80's, the decade of excess and self-indulgence, of Donald Trump and Princess Diana, when we all celebrated rich people.
Filling John Gielgud's role as Arthur's butler here is Paul Benedict (last seen in "The Front Page"), who is perhaps most famous for playing a wacky neighbor, Bentley, on the TV show "The Jeffersons". He also made appearances on "Sesame Street" as The Mad Painter - a guy who would walk around town painting, say, the number 5 on things, so that the kids at home would learn the number. The segments were a throwback to the days of silent comedy, since the Painter never spoke. Looking back on it, watching him on both shows as a kid might have been the first time that I realized that an actor could be on two shows, which led to the awareness that what I saw on TV was fiction, merely people pretending to be. It also might have been the first time I said, "Hey, it's THAT guy!" while watching TV.
Nowadays, a lot of big stars do appearances on "The Street", but back then it was a lot less common. I guess they didn't want to sully the purity of the Muppet reality with a lot of Hollywood cameos. You might have noticed the voice of Joan Rivers or Mel Brooks in an animated segment, if you were a really hip kid into voice-overs, but more likely since you were 3 or 4 years old, you didn't recognize them.
The redemptive storyline is a slight improvement, but the Chris DeBurgh song is no replacement for the original theme, so the score tonight is a wash.
Starring Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Barney Martin (all carrying over), Kathy Bates (last heard in "Bee Movie"), Cynthia Sikes, with a cameo from Jack Gilford (last seen in "Cocoon: The Return")
RATING: 4 out of 10 stuffed animals
I confess that I never felt any motivation to add the sequel to my life list. It seems to me that they did something weak and obvious by taking away Arthur's money. Wouldn't it be more interesting to give him the challenge "Try to be a gazillionaire who ISN'T a colossal jerk"?
ReplyDeleteRe: "Sesame Street" - In the 70s, "Sesame Street" was the "Law & Order" of its day. It's where stage actors went to get some TV experience and re-qualify for SAG medical insurance.