The Bitch ** (1979, Joan Collins, Kenneth Haigh, Michael Coby, Ian Hendry, Carolyn Seymour, Sue Lloyd, Mark Burns) – Classic Movie Review 11,364

Joan Collins’s performance as the insatiable ‘rich bitch’ Fontaine Khaled helped to revive her career and led her to play Alexis Carrington.

Writer/ director Gerry O’Hara’s 1979 film The Bitch stars the sexy 46-year-old Joan Collins, who vamps shamelessly as Fontaine Khaled in the follow-up to her 1978 hit The Stud, picking up from where it left off. It even got itself banned because its erotic adult content by Tameside Council (near Manchester),

Again based on her sister Jackie Collins’s novel, The Bitch is a fairly feeble, loud, steamed-up shocker, but with a lively disco soundtrack of 20 songs and a lusty, exuberant performance by Collins to sustain it. The plot? Beautiful, pleasure-seeking divorcee Collins gets involved with a gangster stud on the run from the mob, and joins diamond smuggling and horse-race fixing rackets to keep her ailing London disco alive.

Michael Coby co-stars as the handsome Italian gambler Nico Cantafora, a conman who owes money to the Mafia. He uses Fontaine to smuggle a stolen diamond ring through airport customs to sell to settle his debts in London. Kenneth Haigh also stars as Arnold Rinstead along with Ian Hendry as the amusingly named local gangland boss Thrush Feathers. One wonders if Bill Nighy has happy memories of his role as Flower Delivery Boy.

It was one of the most successful films of 1979 at the British box office and is popular on late-night British TV.

Also in the cast are Kenneth Haigh – Arnold Rinstead, Ian Hendry – Thrush Feathers, Pamela Salem – Lynn, Sue Lloyd – Vanessa Grant, Mark Burns – Leonard Grant, John Ratzenberger – Hal Leonard, Carolyn Seymour – Polly Logan, Doug Fisher – Sammy, Peter Wight – Ricky, George Sweeney – Sandy Roots, Chris Jagger – Tony Langham, Sharon Fussey – Sammy’s Girl, Maurice Thorogood – Paul, Bill Mitchell – Bernie, Alibe Parsons – Bernice, Mela White – Mrs Walters, Maurice O’Connell – John-Jo, Anthony Heaton – Luke, Timothy Carlton – Jamie, Jill Melford – Sharon, Peter Burton – Hotel Night Manager, Annie Lambert – Hotel Desk Clerk, Steve Plytas – Louis Almond, Graham Simpson – Mario, Grant Santino – Disco Dancer, Cherry Gillespie – Disco Girl, William Van Der Pye – Disc Jockey, Tai Ling – Mai Ling, Kari Ann – Marinka, and Bill Nighy – Flower Delivery Boy.

It was made relatively inexpensively (£450,000) but was profitable (earing £7.5 million in cinemas), and among the first hits in the emerging home video market (video rentals £1.5 million. Collins’s performance as the insatiable ‘rich bitch’ Fontaine Khaled helped to revive her career and attracted the attention of Aaron Spelling when looking for an actress to play Alexis Carrington in the TV series Dynasty.

The Bitch is Jackie Collins’s seventh novel, published in 1979. Jackie apparently gave Joan the rights to both The Stud and The Bitch free so they could be filmed. The films were co-produced by the sisters’ husbands (Oscar Lerman, married to Jackie, and Ron Kass, married to Joan).

When Fontaine and Nico sit next to each other on a plane in first class, the inflight movie is The Stud.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,364

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