S.O.B. (1981)

Dark satire about Hollywood; funny at times, but, as others have noted, uneven. A tune-up for Blake Edward's next movie, Victor/Victoria, but worth watching for Robert Preston's very amusing performance alone...

Fmovies: In this satirical look at Hollywood, a film producer tries to commit suicide after a big-budget flop, but then decides to reshoot it as porn. It has some very funny moments but runs out of steam long before its excessive running time. It boasts a terrific all-star cast, but Preston steals the film as a wise-cracking doctor. Andrews, playing a wholesome actress not unlike herself, flashes her breasts in an attempt to boost the box office of the reshot film. Mulligan plays her husband, presumably modeled after Edwards. In his final film, Holden plays a hard-drinking, hedonistic director. In a sad irony, the actor drank himself to death months after the film was released.

Next to Victor/Victoria, S.O.B. is probably my favorite Blake Edwards film. I'm not a great fan of his movies, but when his films are funny, they're usually hilarious. This movie has its fair share of laugh out loud moments that more than make up for some of the slow and less-well-scripted parts. It features a number of wonderful, if sometimes over-the-top, performances by many well-known performers. Most of the scenery chewing is very well in tune with the theme of this Hollywood harpooning. Given the ever-increasingly cynical nature of movie producing, some of S.O.B.'s elements even seem quaint.

The Viking send-off is one of my all-time most memorable movie scenes, and the fact that this is also William Holden's last role gives this section an added air of sadness.

S.O.B. fmovies. This is a Hollywood movie about Hollywood that was ahead of its time twenty years ago. For people who read their movie reviews from this site, it gives a nice behind-the-scenes twist to what it takes to get what you want in the motion picture business. There are many who felt it was too over-the-top when first released, but as the years go by, it becomes more and more a reflection of how real life is in the dream factory. Back in 1981, there was much less interest among the non-glitterati for what happened to get films made. With the advent of more and more movie magazines trying to dig up dirt on the cogs that turn to keep Tinseltown running, a housewife in Oklahoma can now know the grosses of the latest blockbuster and who stands to gain from them. All this can be gleaned while waiting to check-out at the grocery just by reading the headlines.

The studio owners and their investors are represented well in SOB. From the lowliest security guard to the producers, actors, agents, directors, writers, score composers, costumers and anyone else who is looking to improve their status in the movie biz. Everyone here has an angle, just trying to get through the film they are currently working on, making deals, selling out and generally living day to day and jumping from bedroom to bedroom in an attempt to hold on to what they think is happiness and success. The empty shell of reality is a theme we see throughout this Blake Edwards masterpiece.

The running story behind the main plot concerns an actor, past his marketable prime, who collapses while jogging on a Malibu beach. The callousness of the residents of this community is played for laughs but it is tinged with a knowing wink that this is what becomes of those former stars who have nothing more to give their public. A forgotten actor lay dead in the sand for days while hundreds of people walk by, enjoying the sun, oblivious to this shell of an old man who was once a well-known talent, but is now no longer one of the beautiful people. Yet on this very beach in a later scene, Felix Farmer, the director who is the center of the story tries to kill himself and ends up driving his Cadillac into the Pacific Ocean. Because of the grand spectacle of this possible death, the masses come to the rescue and save him. A quiet humble passing is contrasted with rousing flamboyant suicide attempt and who gets noticed?

The whole movie concerns a very serious frame of reference but the characters surrounding the situation are not playing it straight; they are silly and exasperated. This same plot could have easily been a humorless drama with almost an identical script. A movie costing $30 million, already a pittance by today's standards, flops at the box office and the major players try to turn it to their advantage as best they can. Everyone involved has an axe to grind and the motion picture in question almost becomes a character itself. It prompts greed, jealousy, lust, back-stabbing and even death. It is an evil thing which can engulf those who possess it, as it keeps getting bigger, more expensive and further out of control.

There are some really nasty people here and they do terrible things without conscience. Some do them to make money and fame; others do them for art's sake. But I can't think of a single character who is completely upstanding and righteous, despite their redeemable qualities. The ones we think are heroic and good are just less terrible in comparison with the others. Really thinking about what is being said in this story can make your s

"S.O.B.", which is Blake Edwards' masterpiece, is a masterful and wicked satire of Hollywood. This is Edwards' revenge for Hollywood's shallow treatment of him during his 1968-1975 "down" period in which he made a series of quite good flops which died at the boxoffice.

In fact, Edwards uses one of those flops, 1970's "Darling Lili", which I gave three stars, as the backstory of "S.O.B." Let me describe to you what happened with that film, as to give you the flavor of what this film is about: In 1968-1970, Blake Edwards made Darling Lili, his first film with his wife Julie Andrews. It cost over 40 million dollars and took 3 at the box office. It was also savagely panned by the critics. Anyway,an undeterred Edwards withdrew the film, edited it down from 145 mins to 113 mins, took out the comic relief and rereleased it;here it did well enough to break even.(Today, the 113 minute cut is the one most often shown on TV)Critics liked the new version.

In "S.O.B.", Edwards takes everything one step further to create a savagely hilarious comedy. Everything works here. Everything. The opening credits sequence, in which he see the "Darling Lili" surrogate Night Wind play out (it's supposed to be BAD, so relax), to the great slapstick sequences (Mulligan's suicide attempts are particularly funny) to the ontarget performances which include Andrews, cast against type as a rich bitch actress, William Holden as the director, Richard Mulligan as the Blake Edwards surrogate and especially the great Robert Preston as the local Dr. Feelgood (called Finegarten in this; preston should have received a nomination for his good work)There are also many other Edwards veterans in the cast such as Robert Webber, Craig Stevens and Stuart Margolin, just to name a few.

Seeing this film once is just not enough. It demands multiple viewings because each time you find something new to enjoy and laugh at. Most of all, it makes you think about what occurred. And in the age of asinine so called comedies such as "Tomcats", "Joe Dirt" and "Deuce Bigelow", finding a rare and distinctive comedy like "S.O.B" is a real treasure. It's a real shame that Edwards has retired from theatrical films, just think of what he could say today. Fortunately, "S.O.B." has remained fresh and original.

One of the curious things about S.O.B. is that while it has an incredibly good name cast, there is no real star of the film. Julie Andrews gets first billing because she's the director/producer's wife and after her William Holden has the biggest marquee name so he's second. But if there's a star in this film it's Richard Mulligan because it's on his troubles that the plot of S.O.B. turns.

Mulligan came in for a lot of criticism as the frantic film producer who after a string of hits, totally loses his mind. So much so that his movie star wife, Julie Andrews, is leaving him. The first half of the film involve some hilarious attempts at suicide, the best being when he falls through the floor of his beach house trying to hang himself and flattens nosy gossip columnist Loretta Swit.

Julie Andrews is basically cast as a movie star like Julie Andrews who gained her fame and popularity with wholesome entertainment like Mary Poppins and The Sound of Music. During an orgy/party that his good friend, cheerfully hedonistic director William Holden has at Mulligan's house while on suicide watch, Mulligan gets a brainstorm and decides to redo his last G rated film as soft core porn with Julie Andrews displaying her glockenspiels.

Mulligan gets crazier and crazier as the film now becomes a battle between him and studio head Robert Vaughn for control of the film. It all ends quite wildly indeed.

A lot of people say Richard Mulligan overacts and chews the scenery. But that's what the part calls for. He no more does it here than Robin Williams or Jonathan Winters at their zaniest. A little fine tuning in his performance might have helped, but the director who should have done this was busy elsewhere.

Instead of Blake Edwards doing it himself, he should have begged Billy Wilder to do this film. S.O.B. is the greatest Billy Wilder film that Billy Wilder never directed.

Besides those mentioned such luminaries as Shelley Winters, Robert Webber, Marisa Berenson, Stuart Margolin, Craig Stevens, Paul Stewart, Larry Hagman and Robert Loggia play various Hollywood types. But the best by far in the cast is Robert Preston as the Doctor Feelgood to the stars. It's a variation on the conman Harold Hill he played in The Music Man only he's far more cynical. When Preston is on screen, he dominates the film.

S.O.B. was the farewell performance of William Holden. Knowing the senseless way Holden died after completing the film, you twinge when you hear him cheerfully tell Richard Mulligan how he drank enough booze to kill a dozen healthy livers. Still S.O.B. was a good film to leave on for him.

I enjoy what Blake Edwards did with the talented bunch he assembled for this film. It would have been perfect if Billy Wilder had done it though.