Bedazzled (1967 film)

2023-03-08T01:56:40Z

45.30.23.225: /* Plot */

{{short description|1967 film by Stanley Donen}}
{{for|the 2000 remake|Bedazzled (2000 film)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2014}}
{{Use British English|date=October 2014}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Bedazzled
| image = Bedazzled Original UK cinema release poster.jpeg
| caption = UK theatrical release poster by [[Tom Chantrell]]
| director = [[Stanley Donen]]
| producer = Stanley Donen
| screenplay = [[Peter Cook]]
| starring = Peter Cook<br />[[Dudley Moore]]<br />[[Eleanor Bron]]<br />[[Raquel Welch]]
| music = Dudley Moore
| cinematography = Austin Dempster
| editing = Richard Marden<br />Mary Kessell
| distributor = [[20th Century Fox]]
| released = {{Film date|df=yes|1967|12|10|US}}
| runtime = 103 minutes
| country = United Kingdom
| language = English
| budget = $770,000{{sfnp|Solomon|1989|p=255}}
| gross = $1,500,000 (US/ Canada){{sfnp|Solomon|1989|p=231}}<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Big Rental Films of 1968 |date=8 January 1969 |magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]] |page=15}} Note that this figure is a rental accruing to distributors.</ref>
}}

'''''Bedazzled''''' is a 1967 British comedy [[DeLuxe Color]] film directed and produced by [[Stanley Donen]] in [[Panavision]] format. It was written by comedian [[Peter Cook]] and starred both Cook and his comedy partner [[Dudley Moore]]. It is a comic retelling of the [[Faust]] legend, set in the [[Swinging London]] of the 1960s. The Devil (Cook) offers an unhappy young man (Moore) seven wishes in return for his soul, but twists the spirit of the wishes to frustrate the man's hopes.

==Plot==
Stanley Moon works as a cook in a [[Wimpy (restaurant)|Wimpy]] restaurant and is infatuated with the waitress, Margaret Spencer, but lacks confidence and is too socially inhibited to approach her. In despair at his life, he attempts [[suicide]] by hanging but is interrupted by George Spiggot, a man claiming to be the Devil. When Stanley accuses George of being delusional, he offers Stanley a "trial wish". Stanley wishes for a raspberry [[ice pop|ice lolly]], and George takes him to buy one from a nearby shop.

George is in a game with God: if he is first to claim 100 billion souls, he will be readmitted to Heaven. He is also busy with minor acts of vandalism and spite, helped by his staff of the [[seven deadly sins]], especially Lust and Envy. In [[Deal with the Devil|return for his soul]], George offers Stanley seven wishes. Stanley uses these trying to satisfy his love for Margaret, but George twists his words to frustrate him. All of Stanley's wish scenes feature characters played by Peter Cook, George explaining that "There's a little of me in everyone." George tells Stanley that [[blowing a raspberry]] will free him from the effects of a wish if he changes his mind.

# Stanley first wishes to be more articulate. George turns him into a talkative, pretentious intellectual with a strong [[Welsh accent]]. Margaret becomes equally pretentious and enthusiastically agrees with all of Stanley's beliefs. Stanley stresses the importance of breaking free from one's social and moral constraints. When Stanley makes his move, however, she is horrified and starts screaming "Rape!".
# Stanley wishes to be a multi-millionaire with Margaret as his "very physical" wife. She ignores him and his lavish gifts, including the original [[Mona Lisa]], instead being physical with other men.
# Stanley wishes to be a pop singer. However, his fame is quickly usurped by a new band, Drimble Wedge and The Vegetation, whose lead singer performs the psychedelic rock song "Bedazzled" in a hypnotic, monotone voice about his disdain for anyone except himself. Margaret, one of many entranced groupies, screams with excitement as she and other fans mob Drimble.
# Stanley comments in passing that he wishes he were "a fly on the wall" and George turns them both into literal flies on the wall in a morgue, where a police inspector shows Margaret various dead bodies, hoping that she will identify one as Stanley. When the inspector invites Margaret to a [[vice squad]] party, Stanley launches an attack on him, only to be felled with bug spray.
# Stanley wishes for a quiet life in the countryside, with children, and Margaret making the anniversary dinner. It soon becomes apparent, however, that Margaret is another man's wife. While deeply in love, even the attempt to consummate their affection drives both Stanley and Margaret into emotional agony.
# Stanley attempts to frame a sixth wish that George cannot ruin for him. He wishes that he and Margaret loved one another, lived away from the big city with no other men around, and would always be together. However, George turns him into a nun of the Order of Saint Beryl, or the Leaping Beryllians, who glorify their founder by jumping on trampolines (expanding on a sketch that previously appeared in Cook and Moore's TV series ''[[Not Only... But Also]]''). Margaret is also a nun in the order, but refuses to consider consummating their love as they are both women. Stanley attempts to escape the wish by blowing a raspberry, to no effect, and he returns to London to confront George.
# When Stanley tries to use his seventh wish, George reveals he has already used it: his trial wish for an ice lolly.

Ultimately, George spares Stanley eternal [[damnation]] because he has exceeded his quota of 100 billion souls and can afford to be generous. George ascends to Heaven, where God's disembodied voice rejects him again; Saint Peter explains that when he gave Stanley back his soul, George did the right thing, but with the wrong motive. Thinking he can nullify this by reclaiming Stanley's soul, George tries and fails to stop Stanley from burning his contract, which causes Stanley to return to his old job and life, wiser and more clear-sighted.

Back at the restaurant, Stanley finally asks Margaret to dinner, and although she says she's already doing something, she suggests meeting another night. Stanley smiles, happy that he has found the courage to talk to her. George tries to entice Stanley again, but Stanley tells him he would rather start a relationship with Margaret his own way. Frustrated, George leaves and threatens revenge on [[God]] by unleashing all the tawdry and shallow technological curses of the modern age while God triumphantly laughs.

==Cast==
{{Cast listing|
* [[Peter Cook]] as George Spiggot / [[Satan|The Devil]]
* [[Dudley Moore]] as Stanley Moon
* [[Eleanor Bron]] as Margaret Spencer
* [[Raquel Welch]] as Lust / Lilian Lust
* Alba as Vanity
* [[Robert Russell (English actor)|Robert Russell]] as Anger
* [[Barry Humphries]] as Envy
* Parnell McGarry as Gluttony
* Danièle Noël as Avarice (as Daniele Noel)
* [[Howard Goorney]] as Sloth
* [[Michael Bates (actor)|Michael Bates]] as Inspector Clarke
* [[Bernard Spear]] as Irving Moses
* [[Robin Hawdon]] as Randolph - Harp Teacher
* [[Michael Trubshawe]] as Lord Dowdy
* Evelyn Moore as Mrs. Wisby
* Lockwood West as [[Saint Peter]]
* [[Valentine Dyall]] as the voice of [[God in Christianity|God]] (uncredited)
}}

== Soundtrack ==
Moore wrote ''Bedazzled''<nowiki/>'s soundtrack, which was performed by the [[Dudley Moore Trio]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/bedazzled-original-motion-picture-soundtrack-mw0001674279 |title=Bedazzled [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack] - Dudley Moore, The Dudley Moore Trio |website=[[AllMusic]] |access-date=15 June 2016}}</ref> The title track, Moore's best known song, was performed within the movie by the fictional [[psychedelic rock]] band Drimble Wedge and the Vegetation, featuring Cook's character as the vocalist. The piece has since been [[Cover version|covered]] widely, including performances by [[Tony Hatch]] and [[Nick Cave]]. Moore recorded several instrumental versions.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2015/apr/17/dudley-moore-from-film-scores-to-funk |title=Dudley Moore – from film scores to funk |last=Lewis |first=John |date=17 April 2015 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=25 June 2016}}</ref>

== Novelisation ==
In 1968 ''[[Sphere Books]]'' published a [[novelisation]] of the Cook and Moore screenplay written by [[Michael J. Bird]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wilmut |first1=Roger |author-link1=Roger Wilmut |date=2003 |chapter=Appendix: Chronology of Peter Cook's work |editor1-last=Cook |editor1-first=Lin |title=Something Like Fire: Peter Cook Remembered |publisher=Arrow Books |page=253 |isbn=0-09-946035-1 |quote=Novelization by Michael J. Bird of the film script by PC and Dudley Moore. Published 1968 by Sphere Books. }}</ref>

==Reception==
===Box office===
According to Fox records the film required $2,100,000 in rentals to break even and made $2,825,000.<ref>{{cite book|page=327]|title=The Fox that got away: the last days of the Zanuck dynasty at Twentieth Century-Fox|url=https://archive.org/details/foxthatgotawayt00silv/page/327|url-access=registration|last=Silverman|first=Stephen M|year=1988|publisher=L. Stuart|isbn=9780818404856}}</ref>

===Critical response===
The film was well received in the UK but had mixed reviews in the United States. Film aggregator [[Rotten Tomatoes]] gave it a 74% approval rating based on 38 reviews, with a [[weighted arithmetic mean|weighted average]] of 7.6/10.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/bedazzled_1967bedazzled_2000/ |title=Bedazzled (1967) |website=[[Rotten Tomatoes]] |publisher=[[Fandango Media]] |access-date=27 September 2022}}</ref>
[[Bosley Crowther]] of ''[[The New York Times]]'' called it a "pretentiously metaphorical picture" which becomes "awfully precious and monotonous and eventually ... fags out in sheer bad taste."<ref name="nyt">{{cite news |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9A00E7DB1631E23BBC4952DFB467838C679EDE |title=The Screen: Son of Seven Deadly Sins |first=Bosley |last=Crowther |author-link=Bosley Crowther |date=11 December 1967 |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=24 January 2019}}</ref> Crowther does, however, compliment Donen for his "colorful and graphic" ''[[Mise en scène|mise-en-scène]]''.<ref name="nyt"/> On the other hand, [[Roger Ebert]] compared the film's humour to that of [[Bob and Ray]]. He enthusiastically called ''Bedazzled''{{'}}s satire "barbed and contemporary ... dry and understated," and overall, a "magnificently photographed, intelligent, very funny film".<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/bedazzled-1968|title=Bedazzled |first=Roger |last=Ebert |author-link=Roger Ebert |date=30 January 1968 |newspaper=[[Chicago Sun-Times]] |access-date=19 January 2022}}</ref>

The unattributed and undated review in the ''Time Out Film Guide 2009'' describes the film as a "hit and miss affair" which is "good fun sometimes", but suffers from a "threadbare" plot.<ref>{{cite book |editor-first=John |editor-last=Pym |title=Time Out Film Guide 2009 |location=London, UK |publisher=[[Time Out Group|Time Out]]/[[Ebury Publishing|Ebury]] |date=2008 |page=82}}</ref> ''The Virgin Film Guide'' says "Cook and Moore brilliantly shift from character to character with just a change of voice (not unlike Peter Sellers), and the movie never flags".<ref>{{cite book |title=The Seventh Virgin Film Guide |location=London, UK |publisher=[[Virgin Books]] |date=1998 |page=52}}</ref>

===Remake===
In 2000, [[20th Century Fox]] released an American [[Film remake|remake]] by [[Bedazzled (2000 film)|the same name]], with [[Brendan Fraser]] as Elliot Richards (counterpart to Moore's role) and [[Elizabeth Hurley]] as the Devil.

==References==
{{reflist}}

===Bibliography===
*{{cite book |last=Solomon |first=Aubrey |title=Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History |series=The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series |location=[[Lanham, Maryland]] |publisher=[[Scarecrow Press]] |date=1989 |isbn=978-0-8108-4244-1}}

== External links ==
{{Wikiquote}}
* {{Amg movie|4563|Bedazzled}}
* {{BFI}}
* {{IMDb title|0061391}}
* {{tcmdb title|68325}}

{{Stanley Donen}}
{{Faust navbox}}

[[Category:1967 films]]
[[Category:1967 comedy films]]
[[Category:Films about wish fulfillment]]
[[Category:Films directed by Stanley Donen]]
[[Category:Films set in London]]
[[Category:Works based on the Faust legend]]
[[Category:British comedy films]]
[[Category:The Devil in film]]
[[Category:Seven deadly sins in popular culture]]
[[Category:20th Century Fox films]]
[[Category:1960s English-language films]]
[[Category:1960s British films]]

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Bedazzled (1967 film)