Bedazzled

If you happen to read the excellent Peter Cook: A Biography, you'll discover that Bedazzled played an integral part in the fall of Peter Cook, from icon to well-loved, self-loathing drunk. Bedazzled was to be the vehicle that launched him to become an international movie-star...and it certainly would have, except for one unfortunate fact: Peter Cook couldn't act. 

Bedazzled poster

Cook was debonair, dashing and frighteningly intelligent, with many of the characteristics to become the new Cary Grant but on-screen, he was flat. 

Further, while he and partner Dudley Moore had frequently collaborated on many of their sketches for TV and stage, Cook insisted, much to Moore's chagrin, that the movie be his alone. Unfortunately it shows, and Bedazzled is a linear script that sorely misses Moore's fine polish and sense of dynamic which so characterized their best work. 

That being said, there's plenty to recommend this Swinging Sixties version of Dr. Faustus, in which shy burger-flipper, Stanley Moon (Dudley Moore), is so infatuated with waitress Margaret (Eleanor Bron*)...and despairs so much that she'll never even notice him, that he contemplates suicide**.   

Enter the charming, debonair George Spigott (Peter Cook), who Stanley discovers much to his dismay, is more widely known by his biblical name, The Devil. George offers Stanley seven wishes in exchange for his soul, which Stanley, with some reluctance, agrees to...if that's the only way he can get beloved Margaret.

Unfortunately, George fails to mention that, as the Devil, he's intent on spoiling everything for everybody...

"...There was a time when I used to get lots of ideas... I thought up the Seven Deadly Sins in one afternoon. The only thing I've come up with recently is advertising..."

...and that includes poor bumbling Stanley, who becomes increasingly frustrated as every one of his plans to get Margaret going wrong, trumped by Stanley through the fine print every time. One such attempt is when Stanley wishes to become a pop-star, only to be upstaged by George as contemptuous Drimble Wedge***.

Drimble Wedge & The Vegetations. "Bedazzled"   

However, all is not bad, because along the way, Stanley actually starts to like George and they become, well, friends, even discussing some deep philosophical issues...

With Dudley Moore's jazzy-psychedelic score grooving in the background...

Dudley Moore: Bedazzled soundtrack

...Bedazzled is a wonderful romp. Moore, then a comedian desperately trying to prove he could act, does so superbly and Cook is er...charismatic. 

Harold Ramis remade Bedazzled in 2000 as a Yankee teen movie with Brendan Fraser & Liz Hurley...and I can see why, because Peter Cook's version is er...very Sixties! The modern version is, not meaning to sound too callous, seriously dumbed down (there will be no theological discourses in the new millenium) for contemporary teen audiences.

Me? I definitely prefer the original.  Cook's Bedazzled is clever, witty...and in its own way, wise. On a fan's note, it's Peter Cook and Dudley Moore almost at the top of their game, which is worth paying double for.

My suggestions are:

• burn some incense
• put on The Beatles' Revolver
• then Sgt Peppers
• pour yourself a glass or two of good wine
• slip Bedazzled into the DVD and enjoy  

As Austin Powers would say:

"...Swinging Sixties here I come, yeah baby, yeah!"

Bedazzled DVD 

"...One of my favourite films of all time. I hate when people say it's dated, what do you expect, it was made over forty years ago." Amazon UK reviewer Electricmiles

"...Most of the mysteries of the ages are explained:

• the Garden of Eden is revealed as a boggy swamp just south of Croydon
• Heaven turns out to be the garden center at Syon Park in Brentford
• God is naturally an Englishman
• and the key to success with women turns out to be - 'In the words of Marcel Proust - and this applies to any woman in the world - if you can stay up and listen with a fair degree of attention to whatever garbage, no matter how stupid it is that they're coming out with, til ten minutes past four in the morning...you're in..." Amazon UK reviewer Trevor Willsmer

...There are clear undertones of (Cook & Moore's) fiery off-screen relationship, but if don't look too deeply, you will enjoy this film for what it is - a wonderful snapshot of a great comedy partnership at their peak..." Amazon UK reviewer franco_drums

*Bron also play the female love interest in The Beatles' Help, 1965

**Cook was also satirising Moore, whose mid-1960s libido had him constantly bed-hopping, together with an increasing need for psychoanalysis to understand the needs behind his behavior

***Cook was again satirising Moore, comparing their different approaches to picking up women in real life