The Betsy * (1978, Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall, Katharine Ross, Tommy Lee Jones) – Classic Movie Review 9917

Heavens to betsy, it’s esteemed septuagenarian peer Lord Olivier starring in director Daniel Petrie’s 1977 farrago film The Betsy, a tacky movie adaptation of Harold Robbins’s best-selling 1971 novel, as Loren Hardeman Snr, aka Number One, Detroit car tycoon and founder of an industrial dynasty, who comes out of retirement to try to develop a fuel-efficient car with the help of a young race-car driver.

The boardroom and bedside battles have a certain awful fascination and Harold Robbins International Company/ Lorimar/ Allied Artists Pictures certainly get their value out of the top cast, who at least seem to be enjoying themselves. But this shamefully amusing junk is more ham than Hamlet.

It attracted a remarkably classy and talented cast, who are game for it, but at best this time-waster could be seen as a trashy guilty pleasure.

Olivier was keen to make enough money to leave to his family to live in comfort, and his Sleuth co-star Michael Caine apparently urged him to take the money and run on the principle that his reputation was unassailable.

It was shot entirely on-location. It is Olivier’s 50th film.

Robbins thought it the best movie of any of his works. It is however listed among The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in THE OFFICIAL RAZZIE MOVIE GUIDE. Financially, if not critically, it was a moderate success, grossing $17,685,000 in the US.

Also in the cast are Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Katharine Ross, Jane Alexander, Lesley-Anne Down, Edward Herrmann, Joseph Wiseman, Kathleen Beller, Paul Rudd, Roy Poole, Richard Venture, Titos Vandis, Clifford David, Inga Swenson and Whitney Blake.

It is written by and William Bast and Walter Bernstein, based on Harold Robbins’s novel.

The character of Jake Weinstein (Joseph Wiseman) is loosely based on mob financier Meyer Lansky, aka Hyman Roth (Lee Strasberg) in The Godfather: Part II (1974).

The mild exclamation of surprise ‘Heavens to betsy’ has been in circulation since the latter part of the 19th century, primarily in America, although its use faded in the 20th century and it is now an anachronism. Was Betsy a real person and, if so, who? Alas the name was probably invented and the origins of the phrase are unsolvable.

Greek actor Titos Vandis plays Italian mob boss, Angelo Luigi Perino.

The Betsy is directed by Daniel Petrie, runs 125 minutes, is made by Harold Robbins International Company, is released by Allied Artists Pictures (1978) (US) and United Artists (1978) (UK), is written by William Bast and Walter Bernstein, is shot by Mario Tosi (Technicolor), is produced by Robert R Weston and is scored by John Barry.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9917

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