Rich and Famous (1981)

Bisset and Bergen shine in sassy remake of "Old Acquaintance"

Legendary director George Cukor's final movie was a sassy and thought-provoking remake of "Old Acquaintance", based on the play by John Van Druten.

Old schoolfriends Liz Hamilton (Jacqueline Bisset) and Merry Noel-Blake (Candice Bergen) vow that whatever directions their lives take, firm friendship will hold them together. That sisterhood is pushed to it's limits when Los Angeles housewife Merry hits bestseller paydirt with her steamy romance novels; whilst Liz strives for literary greatness without the glory.

This 1980s update on the 1943 classic "Old Acquaintance" (which memorably starred Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins) succeeds largely due to the inspired performances of Ms Bisset and Ms Bergen. Both imbue their roles with lots of underlying pathos and depth. George Cukor shocked his contemporaries by including a very raunchy sex scene with Bisset and the much younger Matt Lattanzi. On viewing the film for the first time, Cukor's close friend Katharine Hepburn was quoted as saying "You've made some sexy movie!".

RICH AND FAMOUS co-stars Hart Bochner, David Selby, Nicole Eggert and also boasts the film debut of Meg Ryan. Watch out for some cameo appearances from the likes of Roger Vadim, Nina Foch, Ray Bradbury, Fay Kanin, Paul Morrissey and Christopher Isherwood.

The complete uncut 117 minute version of RICH AND FAMOUS is the one that's featured on this DVD. Extra features are limited to the vintage featurette "On Location with Rich & Famous", and the theatrical trailer. Highly-recommended. June 14, 2008

Rich and Famous

This movie is an old favorite and depicts the enduring friendship between two women whose lives have diverged over the years, but who find that their bond transcends all their differences. March 26, 2008

Dreary Sudser

What a tedious exercise this flick is. The decades long friendship between a writer of highbrow elitist woman's fiction(Jacqueline Bisset) and one of lowbrow pop romances (Candice Bergen) is not only uninteresting it's unbelievable. Bisset makes her character palatable but the makers of this dreck villify Bergen's character making her an unbearably shrill shrew. A more accomplished actress could have engendered sympathy for their character but marginally talented actress like Bergen is not up to the task. "Rich and Famous" commits the cardinal sin of not being quite bad enough but only being mediocre. November 23, 2007

Almost uncut

As a previous posting revealed, the opening scene is cut by a few seconds when Bergen & Bisset climb the stairs to the train platform. Why? A few words of dialogue that helped build the background of the story were therefore lost. Unless the master was damaged in that spot, Warner have no excuse for editing this film on DVD. Aside from that, it is a great DVD and the parts that many people, myself included, were worried may be cut are not. The two extras are nice, and if it wasn't for that stupid little edit by Warner, I would rate it 5 stars. November 15, 2007

DVD gets a "D"

In answer to recent and future reviewers: the new DVD version of "Rich & Famous" is NOT complete and uncut. Yes, the famous sex-on-the-airplane scene is there in all its turgid glory - but only minutes into the film there was an unexplainable cutting of a few seconds of scene and dialogue when Bisset and Bergen are running in 1959 for the train. Bergen explains that Doug was first Bisset's date, and then there's a sharp cut in the scene. I took out the DVD, popped in my old video version, replayed the scene, and sure enough Bisset explains, out of breath, that Doug was only a blind date. Not a pivotal moment, but still, I expect the entire film to be on a DVD. I was angrily reminded of DVDs of television shows (like "Laverne & Shirley") I've purchased that have similar cuts. Unfortunately there are probably other cuts in "Rich and Famous", and there should be none. A letter of complaint to the DVD-makers is probably in order. What a disappointment for long-patient fans of the film. November 13, 2007

More reviews at Amazon.com ...