The First Wives Club ***½ (1996, Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton) – Classic Movie Review 1435

Bette Midler (as Brenda Cushman), Goldie Hawn (as Elise Elliot) and Diane Keaton (as Annie Paradis) star as middle-agers plotting revenge after being dumped and divorced by their hubbies in favour of younger wives in director Hugh Wilson’s tart, camp and often hilarious 1996 comedy The First Wives Club.

It is a good premise and there is a good script, delivered with plenty of nice, bitchy lines. Reunited after the death of a college friend, the trio come up with a clever and devious plan to hit their exes where it really hurts – in the wallet.

Only a few sags in Robert Harling’s generally spirited screenplay slightly let the show down. But nothing is going to stop the feisty, redoubtable ladies, who bash it home to victory.

The original source novel author Olivia Goldsmith made £5 million for her rights from the movie, but tragically she died on January 16, 2004, after never recovering from a coma with anaesthetic problems after a facelift.

Dan Hedaya (as Morton Cushman), Vincent Garber (as Bill Atchison) and Stephen Collins (as Aaron Paradis) co-star as the husbands, and Sarah Jessica Parker, Elizabeth Berkeley and Marcia Gay Harden play their lovers, with Maggie Smith, Stockard Channing and Bronson Pinchot also starring.

Jennifer Dundas, Eileen Heckart, Philip Bosco as Uncle Carmine, Rob Reiner, James Naughton, Debra Monk, Kate Burton, Heather Locklear, Edward Hibbert, Olivia Goldsmith and Hugh Wilson all also appear – it’s quite a cast!

And it is Timothy Olyphant’s first big-screen appearance in a two-minute bit part as Brett Artounian. Born: May 20 1968.

The First Wives Club became a surprise box-office hit, especially among middle-aged women, grossing $181,490,000 worldwide, helping to revitalise the stars’ careers.

Philip Bosco, Tony winner and much admired actor, died at 88 on 3 December 2018. RIP. He acted in Working Girl as Oren Trask, as Curly in The Money Pit and in the 2007 The Savages, among many other notable films.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1435

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