Arthur at 40
Stephen Arnell
Broadcast/VoD Consultant for TV & Film, Writer/Producer (Bob Fosse, Alex Cox, Prince, Sinatra etc), Media/Culture Commentator (BBC Radio, magazines, newspapers) & author (novel The Great One published November 2022)
"I race cars, play tennis, and fondle women...BUT! I have weekends off, and I am my own boss."
Dudley Moore as Arthur Bach, NOT Boris 'vroom vroom brah brah' Johnson*, although both given to similar nonsensical rambling speeches...
The key difference being that Arthur's were actually amusing, for the most part.
The classic Dudley Moore comedy celebrated its 40th birthday this year; the movie that briefly cemented the diminutive multi-tasker's (musician, composer, actor, comedian) brief Hollywood ascendency after his success in Blake Edwards' 10 (1979) and star-making turn in Foul Play (1978).
Moore in Foul Play:
A (lousy) sequel released in 1988, but lightning couldn't strike twice, although Peter Cook cruelly said that he preferred Arthur 2: On the Rocks to the original movie.
Arthur made $96m on a $7m budget; the higher budgeted sequel raked in just $14.7m.
I preferred the Arthur 3 spoof in The Critic:
The less said about the Russell Brand remake (2011) the better.
Revisiting the 1981 picture, does it stand up?
Yes - in part, anyway, Moore is still funny and John Gielgud deservedly won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role as Arthur's cantankerous but actually soft-hearted butler Hobson.
But Liza Minnelli? not so much...at least in my opinion.
Another, very different motion picture about a fictional (?) Arthur was also released in 1981:
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Contemporary relevance?
Lets face it, there a more than few (considerably less charming) badly behaved scions of the rich, powerful and connected classes that we can name - Boris Johnson of course, Trump (Don Snr and Jnr), Hunter Biden and numerous Kennedy offspring.
George W Bush got religion; Jerry Fulwell Jnr was rumbled.
But, as said, all severely lacking Dud's unique charm.
"Deep in his heart, he's just
He's just a boy
Living his life one day at a time and showing himself a really good time
Laughing about the way they want him to be"
(Arthur's Theme - Christopher Cross, Burt Bacharach, Carole Bayer Sager & Peter Allen)
EXTRAS - Burt Bacharach tunes from the original Arthur soundtrack
Moving Pictures
Money
Touch
It's Only Love
*Crazy Frog - Axel F (Official Video)