Arthur *** (1981, Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud) – Classic Movie Review 1296

Writer-director Steve Gordon’s 1981 double Oscar-winning classic comedy film Arthur provided a second huge hit for Dudley Moore after his turn in Blake Edwards’s 1979 film 10, this time as Arthur Bach, a drunken New York millionaire playboy.

Arthur is the heir to the $750 million fortune of his father Stanford, who tells him that it will be his only if he marries the upper class Susan Johnson (Jill Eikenberry). Arthur reluctantly agrees to the arranged marriage to Susan whom he doesn’t love, but then he meets and is attracted to shoplifting Queens waitress Linda Marolla (Liza Minnelli). Now he has to choose between a big fat inheritance with Susan or penniless true love with Linda.

Dudley Moore’s drunk act and Liza Minnelli’s kooky act are both endearing, however it is hilarious Sir John Gielgud who steals all his scenes and eventually the film as Arthur’s beautifully spoken, yet foul-mouthed English valet Hobson. Gordon’s amusing 1930s-style screwball comedy script, with the addition of plenty of 80s salty dialogue, offers a good quota of big laughs, though the first half is much the better.

Arthur earned nearly $96 million in the US, making it the fourth highest grossing film of 1981. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards. Sir John Gielgud won Best Supporting Actor as Arthur’s butler and its title theme song won Best Original Song. ‘Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)’ is performed and co-written by Christopher Cross, with co-composers Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager and Peter Allen.

‘Arthur’s Theme’ won both the 1981 Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. It was written in collaboration between Cross, Burt Bacharach and Bacharach’s then-wife Carole Bayer Sager. A fourth writing credit went to Minnelli’s ex-husband, Australian songwriter Peter Allen, a frequent collaborator with Bayer Sager. The line ‘When you get caught between the moon and New York City’ was taken from an unreleased song written by Allen and Bayer Sager, dreamt up by Allen while his plane was in a holding pattern on a night arrival at John F Kennedy Airport.

The song is the second and last American number-one hit by Christopher Cross, following ‘Sailing; (1980).

First-time director Gordon died the following year of a heart attack, aged 44.  Arthur was his first and only film after working with advertising agencies in San Francisco and New York. Gordon planned to cast George Segal as Arthur, but after the success of 10 he was replaced with Dudley Moore, who had also stepped in when Segal withdrew from the lead role of 10. However, Barbra Streisand replaced Moore with Segal on her film The Mirror Has Two Faces (1996).

Director Bud Yorkin filmed an inferior sequel Arthur 2: On the Rocks in 1988, with all three stars returning. And a poorly received flop remake called Arthur starring Russell Brand and Helen Mirren, taking on John Gielgud’s part, was released in April 2011.

Burt Bacharach (May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023) composed hundreds of pop songs from the late 1950s through the 1980s, many in collaboration with lyricist Hal David. He was a six-time Grammy Award winner and three-time Academy Award winner: 1970 Academy Award for Best Original Song, ‘Raindrops Keep Fallin’ On My Head’; 1970 Academy Award for Best Original Score, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. and 1981 Academy Award and Golden Globe for Best Original Song and Best Original Song ‘Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)’.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1296

Link to Derek Winnert’s home page for more film reviews: http://derekwinnert.com/

Burt Bacharach (May 12, 1928 – February 8, 2023).