Class struggle is often used as a plot ingredient of romantic comedies, but seldom in such an explicit way as in Arthur, 1981 film written and directed by Stewart Gordon. Protagonist, played by Dudley Moore, is Arthur Bach, heir to one of New York’s richest families, who spends all of his life trying to spend parents’ money, usually on alcohol. With Arthur approaching the age of thirty, his father Stanford (played by Thomas Barbour) had enough and threatens to disinherit him unless he marries Susan Johnson (played by Jill Eikenberry), daughter of his business partner Burt Johnson (played by Stephen Elliott). The idea is that the wife would help Arthur abandon playboy lifestyle and finally grow up to become responsible member of its class. Hobson (played by John Gielgud), Arthur’s cynical but loyal butler, thinks otherwise although Arthur seems to be at peace with his fate. When Arthur, in a rare moment of sobriety, helps shoplifting waitress Linda Marolla (played by Liza Minnelli), he almost immediately falls in love with her. Hobson, who noticed this, actually begins to encourage Arthur to start relationship with Linda, realising that only the true love can transform spoiled man-boy, even if it means that he would have to renounce his wealth and live like ordinary working class people.
Arthur was one of the most successful films of its time, with great results at the box office and couple of prestigious awards like Golden Globe for Best Comedy and Gielgud’s Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. This could be explained with collection of remarkable talents in front and behind the cameras, including veteran songwriter Burt Bacharach who composed the soundtrack and collaborated on catchy “Oscar”-awarded theme song “Best That You Can Do”. Cast is very good, especially Moore whose comedic talent helps create sympathies for the character who would in any other film be hated as obnoxious drunk. Gielgud also gives great performance as a fatherly figure behind the facade of a cynic. Casting of Minnelli was, on the other hand, wrong. While undoubtedly having great comedic talent, she simply lacks chemistry with Moore and their “meet cute” in a clothing store is not very convincing. Stewart Gordon, who also worked mostly on television before this film, also has problem with pacing and consistency of humour, which is much better in the first half, when we meet Arthur and see his antics, than in the second half when the film succumbs to cliches and features one-dimensional characters of Arthur’s upper class peers. Anne De Salvo, who appears in the beginning in the small role of prostitute, leaves good impression and it is a pity that Gordon didn’t use her character instead of Linda Marolla. Arthur also in the second half takes strangely dark tone dealing with Hobson’s illness, which might look uncomfortably prophetic to those who know that it was Gordon’s only feature film, made a year before his untimely death of heart-attack. And there is still an unresolved issue of Arthur, despite being New Yorker, speaking with clearly British accent; Gordon’s script could have easily addressed this problem with a single line, but it didn’t. Such laziness is hardly forgivable.
RATING: 4/10 (++)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo Cent profile https://beta.cent.co/@drax Minds profile https://www.minds.com/drax_rp_nc Uptrennd profile https://www.uptrennd.com/user/MTYzNA
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
