Rich and Famous

Bergen and Bisset! What a blazing combo! Only George Cukor could have created such an incredible double tour de force as he has here. The performances of Candice Bergen and Jacqueline Bisset are positively cosmic keeping the viewer at the edge of his seat every riveting moment. The dialogue is intelligent, witty and timeless and the men are ravishing. Boy does Cukor have an eye for the guys! It's amazing how much sex they were able to squeeze into such a literary story! I was amazed. And even when the sex was gratuitous I didn't mind in the least not when the package is as sublime as it is here. Oh brother! Hose me down!

In 1959, roommates Liz Hamilton (Jacqueline Bisset) and Merry Noel (Candice Bergen) are best friends in Smith College. Merry runs off to marry Doug Blake. Liz goes on to become a serious writer. Merry has a daughter, a large beach house in Malibu, and writes a trashy novel about her neighbors. Liz brings it to her publisher and Merry becomes an overwhelming success. Hey! It's Meg Ryan in her debut. This wants to be a serious movie about a female friendship but at times, it falls down into trashy romance novels. Candice Bergen is too flighty and she doesn't fit the role. As for Bisset, she's solid until the movie gives her a boy toy. It's not so much a meet-cute but rather a creepy stalking. For every step forward, this movie takes a step back. The potential for a great movie about female friendship is here. It has two solid actresses. It needs more scenes with them together. They could show the changes in their relationship with those scenes. It also needs to cut out some of the more pulpy elements and clunky dialogue.

This was the last film that George Cukor directed, and the subject matter - looking at how a friendship develops over time - is appropriate content for a swan song from a director who had made many very different films over the years. However, as fitting as the premise might seem, the film is certainly not a high note for Cukor to end his career on. It is uneven in tone, and jumps through time without giving the impression that it is doing so, as the characters hardly change or age. It is no help that the characters are hard to like either, or that Bergen is an annoyance to have on screen. Bisset handles her part fairly well on the other hand, and she is able to pull through despite the excessive sexual antics given to her character. The film suffers from being too talkative too, but the dialogue does contain some wit, and there are some amusing moments in the mix. Overall, it is not a strong end to George Cukor's career, and it is not even a particularly good film. Still, for Bisset and Cukor completists, there will enough of interest here to be worth a look.

George Cukor is and always will be one of my favorites. The unsung hero of his generation. Nobody mentions Cukor in the same breath as John Ford, Howard Hawks, William Wyler or Billy Wilder and yet, look at his filmography. From sparkling comedies "The Philadelphia Story" "Adam's Rib" "Holiday" Psycho melodramas "Gaslight" "A Double Life" a great semi western "Heller in Pink Tights" not to mention "My Fair Lady" or "Travels with my Aunt" He was at the service of his actors, he never put himself in front of the camera. I feel a certain tenderness watching "Rich and Famous" flashes of the old master still very much in evidence. Candice Bergen gives us for the first time in her career glimpses of the wonderful comedian she was about to become. Jacqueline Bisset is a throwback to the days of Greer Garson and Loretta Young and Hart Bochner steps in, teasing us, promising something spectacular that will eventually materialize in 1989 with "Apartment Zero", Meg Ryan, as Bergen's daughter is already Meg Ryan. As tired as the formula is, it remains a Cukor film and for what I gather one of Almodovar's favorite movies.

George Cukor is an actresses director.He told himself it was nothing but an old cliché ,probably as old as the hills ,as old as "gone with the wind" when Leigh and De Havilland went on rehearsing with him even after he was fired. But this cliché is completely true here.Every scene where Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen are together is riveting,dazzling,moving,funny all at once.but when the movie deals with Bisset's love affairs,it 's an awful bore.Doug's scenes are watchable at a pinch because the actor has a certain presence ,but the Rolling Stone guy's ones are almost unbearable,being bland ,pseudo-intellectual ;this is really a lightweight performance ,to put it mildly. But the two actresses work wonders when they share the screen.Two scenes highlight the movie:the first ,in Malibu,where the two women spend a whole night reading Bergen's writing prowess;the second in NYC,when they have an ultimate quarrel :Bisset tells her mate she's only one part of a woman:you easily guess which one. Of course ,it's a very uneven movie and inferior to Cukor's precedent work ("travels with my aunt",not counting his ill-fated "the blue bird") but the fast forward button is useful when the movie begins to drag on.

source: Rich and Famous

Trailer—Rich and Famous

Rich and Famous

Incredibly embarrassing final film for director George Cukor. His great career wheezes to a stiflingly bad conclusion in "Rich and Famous." I am guessing it is supposed to be an R-rated version of the popular "women's pictures" from times previous. But, instead, it lurches so uncomfortably with terrible dialogue that no one would EVER speak. The performances are rudimentary, at best, with Bergen's terrible come-and-go attempt at a southern accent the most egregious. I only watched it on TCM because: 1.) There was nothing else on, and 2.) To see how bad this trainwreck would be. Conclusion: Pretty bad! ** (2 Out of 10 Stars)

Okay, it is not the most upbeat movie ever shot, but it is for sure one of the smartest and deepest pictures about friendship. Candice Bergen and Jacqueline Bisset shine as two intelligent women who found wiseness, if not happiness, through the cracks of personal failure. Plus, this was Meg Ryan's first appearance, in a small role as Candice Bergen's daughter!