Rich Little Rich Boy

BY THE TIME the '60's rolled around, filmmakers (and audiences) had grown a little tired of fun, harmless adventure and fantasy films; suddenly every movie had to have a point. Not only did the movies have to have points, the points had to be, like, relevant--remember that word? And it was very In to have a folk-rock group provide a soundtrack with songs that had little or nothing to do with the plot but somehow all fit together because everyone agreed that war and air pollution and middle-aged guys with brief cases were bad news. Then people got bored with war and air movies with points the nobody could figure out. along came 2001 and that was the coolest of all, because it had this really freaked-out ending that meant this movie not only had a point, it had a theory. . .

Then came the '70s, the tear-jerker sympathy decade for films, and everybody had cancer or leukemia or was eaten by a shark. Don't you feel sorry for Me? was the question they asked. The whole family would go to these movies and on the way back Mom and Dad would say we are lucky to have healthy bodies and a hibachi. (Unlike in the 60's, it was o.k. to live in the suburbs again.)

But people inevitably got tired of other people's problems, and then along came Star Wars, to pave the way for the movies of the 80's Just good guys and bad guys, nobody turned back into a baby at the end and nobody had leukemia. At last! an honest to god movie, instead of a film. Now you could have a war movie which wasn't anti-war (the Deer Hunter), a movie which wasn't anti-military (Stripes) and Raiders of the Lost Ark which wasn't anti-anything. And with the trend of fantasy-fullfillment movies usurping ticket sales, it was only so long until someone came along and glorified Wealth. That's where (at last) Arthur comes in.

THE TITLE character (Dudley Moore) is neither tall nor handsome. He does not have a job, and he is an alcoholic. But he is also worth an awesome amount of money, which means he doesn't have to be tall, handsome, sober or employed. This movie unabashedly explores the possibilities of money no social consciousness here, no contrast scenes to show rich versus poor.

The plot is straight out of P.G. Wodehouse. Arthur, the black sheep of a wealthy family, is a childish, irresponsible, alcoholic with-a-heart-of-gold. Steve Gordon, who wrote and directed the movie, had to give Arthur enough money so that even in these inflationary times he would be worth more money than he could spend. Seven hundred million dollars is the figure. The plot is a simple reworking of an age-old theme: rich young man is engaged to a woman he doesn't love, faces disinheritence if he fails to marry her. Meanwhile, finds first true love with (surprise!) poor girl (Liza Minelli) but family refuses to bend.

The best scenes in the movie come when Moore is sloshed out of his mind. A terrifically convincing drunk, he confronts both high and low society while hilariously smashed. Somehow, you're supposed to think that his drinking is bad and the result of an unhappy childhood, but his drunk scenes are so good-naturedly boisterous that you are swept up into his alcoholic bliss and wouldn't mind him staying that way forever.

The movie fails in its (fortunately rare) attempts at seriousness. When Moore sobers up, the movie loses its sparkle and falls flat. Gordon's writing talents end with the jokes--he lacks the necessary subtlety to convey real emotion. Minnelli. Moor and John Gielgud (brilliant as Arthur's paternal butler) utter lines to each other now and then that are supposed to mean things but actually don't, and the audience squirms in its collective seats and waits for Moore to go back on the sauce. When Gielgud has difficulties near the end, you want to feel sad, but you can't because the sequence is destroyed by melodramatic interchanges like this:

Gielgud: Oh, I want to be young again.

Moore: You can't it's you job to be old.

Gordon luckily seems to have realized that the serious stuff just doesn't click, and as soon as Gielgud is dispatched, Moore is back in the bottle again, right up until the decidely happy ending. The saved-by-the-bell wedding ending recalls The Graduate, except this is unequivocably happy. The Graduate rejected the Establishment, Arthur embraces it. Ban and Elaine rode off in a public bus, Arthur and Linda scoot off in a chauffeur-driven Rolls, gleefully content with their $700 million nest egg.