The Betsy (1978)

User Rating:

4.8/10   

Director:

Daniel Petrie

Writers:

William Bast (writer)
Walter Bernstein (writer)

Release Date:

9 February 1978 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

The Harold Robbins people. What you dream...they do!

Plot:

The aging, retired founder of an auto giant comes out of retirement to try to develop a safe, fuel-efficient car.

Plot Keywords:

Flashback | Bootlegger | Swimming Pool | Suicide By Gunshot | Gay Parent

Cast

Laurence Olivier	...	Loren Hardeman
Robert Duvall	...	Loren Hardeman III
Katharine Ross	...	Sally Hardeman
Tommy Lee Jones	...	Angelo Perino
Jane Alexander	...	Alicia Hardeman
Lesley-Anne Down	...	Lady Bobby Ayres
Joseph Wiseman	...	Jake Weinstein
Kathleen Beller	...	Betsy
Edward Herrmann	...	Dan Weyman
Paul Rudd	...	Loren Hardeman Jr.
Roy Poole	...	John Duncan
Richard Venture	...	Mark Sampson
Titos Vandis	...	Angelo Luigi Perino
Clifford David	...	Joe Warren
Inga Swenson	...	Mrs. Craddock

Also Known As:

Harold Robbins' The Betsy

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Netherlands:16 | Finland:K-16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:15 | USA:R | Iceland:12

Filming Locations:

Detroit, Michigan, USA

Company:

Harold Robbins International Company

Trivia:

This film is listed among The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in Golden Raspberry Award founder John Wilson's book THE OFFICIAL RAZZIE® MOVIE GUIDE.

Quotes:

Loren Hardeman III: [referring to Loren I] Look at him, the sonuvabitch! Thinks he's cock-of-he-walk again!
Dan Weyman: But not without a certain justification.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Ecstasy Girls (1979)

Whaddaya Expect from a Harold Robbin's novel?

One of the Star Trek sequels has Harold Robbins and Jacqueline Susann referred to as the "Old Masters." Personally, I'm betting that The Carpetbaggers or The Betsy will not be on a high school English class reading list in about 200 years.

The Betsy, by the way, refers to both Kathleen Beller's character and a newly designed car named for her by her great grandfather the patriarch of an automobile pioneer family. Said patriarch is played by none other than Sir Laurence Olivier, arguably the greatest actor the English speaking world has ever produced.

He was certainly thought of as that at the time The Betsy was made. He had nothing to prove as a player in 1978, but Olivier was concerned about leaving a nice sizable estate for his children. So he did take on projects like these that were guaranteed box office.

I have to say Olivier's Loren Hardiman was an offbeat part for him. Prominent in the Olivier bag of thespian tricks is a great ear for accents. Hard to believe that this is the same actor who gave us definitive film versions of Hamlet, Richard III, and Othello.

In filming one of Harold Robbins empire and scandal novels all you can do is ham it up. And following Lord Olivier's cue the rest of the cast hams it up big time. I'm surprised no one in television thought of this as a Dallas like series.

The Betsy has the usual business double dealing and sexual pecadillos that saturate a Robbins epic. If that's your taste you'll love The Betsy.

An errant thought just struck me. What if someone had thought to hire Sir Laurence Olivier as Jock Ewing in Dallas. I think he'd have done it for the right price and he could have pulled it off.