Yes, the score is gorgeous as you hear it in the opening credits, profound and Grand, perfect for the atmosphere that it is setting up. But get used to it. It is heard throughout the movie from start to finish, and after a while, it will begin to grate on your nerves. So will the film that sets itself in two time periods, flashing back to the 1930's from 1975 (where there is a Squeaky Fromme reference), and having such a huge cast between errors that it will require a list of the cast and characters in front of you to remember who is who. At the center of it all is Laurence Olivier, playing an 86 year-old auto tycoon in 1975, who is still old in 1931. The legendary actor gives one of his most laughable performances, as if he was practicing looking already for the role of the Nazi hunter in the same year as "The Boys from Brazil" for which he would get an Oscar nomination. Olivier sentiment was all over the place that year as he also got a special Oscar for career achievement. Perhaps it was the academies way of forgiving him for this mess of a movie based on a Harold Robbins novel where you expect trash, and are upset when that's all you get.
One man's trash is another man's treasure, but I think even Blackbeard the Pirate would return this one to Davey Jones' locker. In both decades, everybody is sleeping with everybody, and Olivier's homosexual son in 1931 kills himself with his child witnessing the ACT, followed by a horrifying moment was the same tiled when he runs to get help. No wonder when that child grows up, give me Robert Duvall, they are messed up, and when Olivier makes an announcement that he is closing up his house because he had hoped his family would find happiness there and they didn't, you find out why as the film progresses and more absurd family secrets are revealed.
The Betsy is a lavish car to be named after Olivia's great-granddaughter, played by future "Dynasty" star Kathleen Beller who was the princess on screen here in every way but her acting ability. She's joined by a huge cast of talented veterans which includes Katharine Ross, Jane Alexander, Lesley-Anne Downe and Tommy Lee Jones, playing the man Olivier hires to design the Betsy for him. In smaller roles are Roy pool, Joseph Wiseman and Inga Swenson, sporting the same hairstyle she had on "Benson". There's plenty of family scandal, corporate Intrigue, greed and lust to fill every season of "Dallas" and "Dynasty" combined, and this film is just over two hours, so character development is tossed out in the process. Harold Robbins books worked better when they were made into TV mini-series, and this needed at least three nights to flesh everything out successfully. The movie ends up being a high pile of compost covered with flowers and frosting, but something about it still reeks.
One man's trash is another man's treasure, but I think even Blackbeard the Pirate would return this one to Davey Jones' locker. In both decades, everybody is sleeping with everybody, and Olivier's homosexual son in 1931 kills himself with his child witnessing the ACT, followed by a horrifying moment was the same tiled when he runs to get help. No wonder when that child grows up, give me Robert Duvall, they are messed up, and when Olivier makes an announcement that he is closing up his house because he had hoped his family would find happiness there and they didn't, you find out why as the film progresses and more absurd family secrets are revealed.
The Betsy is a lavish car to be named after Olivia's great-granddaughter, played by future "Dynasty" star Kathleen Beller who was the princess on screen here in every way but her acting ability. She's joined by a huge cast of talented veterans which includes Katharine Ross, Jane Alexander, Lesley-Anne Downe and Tommy Lee Jones, playing the man Olivier hires to design the Betsy for him. In smaller roles are Roy pool, Joseph Wiseman and Inga Swenson, sporting the same hairstyle she had on "Benson". There's plenty of family scandal, corporate Intrigue, greed and lust to fill every season of "Dallas" and "Dynasty" combined, and this film is just over two hours, so character development is tossed out in the process. Harold Robbins books worked better when they were made into TV mini-series, and this needed at least three nights to flesh everything out successfully. The movie ends up being a high pile of compost covered with flowers and frosting, but something about it still reeks.