FANTASIA OBSCURA: The Devil and Dudley Moore
There are some fantasy, science fiction, and horror films that not every fan has caught. Not every film ever made has been seen by the audience that lives for such fare. Some of these deserve another look, because sometimes not every film should remain obscure.
Sometimes, there’s a really good reason why they say, “Accept no substitutes.”
Bedazzled (1967)
(Dist.: 20th Century Fox, Dir.: Stanley Donen)
In the 1960s, Great Britain had more to export than just music. Comedians who came out of her universities and onto programs on the telly were embraced in much of the world. Their surrealist satires would go on to influence not only popular culture but also how we examine issues in our lives, adding a relatively healthy dose of skepticism to our examinations of these matters.
Two major stars of the movement, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, could well be considered the Beatles of the comedy wave that emerged from that time. The fact that one of the Beatles, John Lennon, made multiple appearances on Cook and Moore’s program Not Only… But Also certainly adds credence to the claim.
Having developed their material and a repartee with each other on Beyond the Fringe, Cook and Moore were at a creative zenith by 1967. It was then that Stanley Donen, who hung his shingle as an independent producer in England after making his reputation on such films as Singin’ In the Rain and Seven Brides for Seven Brothers for MGM, reached out to them to work on a project together.
Conceivably, they could have just strung a few sketches from past works together, ended up with something that looked like And Now for Something Completely Different would in 1971 and just called it a day. But Cook and Moore had a much, much more ambitious project in mind.
Yes, there are pieces of sketches from both Beyond the Fringe and Not Only…But Also interlaced into the film, but the main framework put together by Cook and Moore, with a script credited to Cook, is a retelling of Marlowe’s The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus. In the film, Stanley Moon (Moore) is a short-order cook working just off Piccadilly Circus with low self-esteem and barely any social skills. He pines for a waitress who works there, Margaret (Eleanor Bron), but Stanley’s frustration with being able to get her interested in him makes him attempt suicide, at which point the Devil, aka George Spiggott (Cook), shows up at his flat and offers him seven chances to wish a perfect relationship where Stanley and Margaret can be happy with each other.
In exchange for granting these seven wishes, Stanley sells his soul to George, who reveals in the conversations he has with Stanley that he is actively trying to get as many souls as possible in order to get back into the good graces of God. Having been cast out due to his pride, George reveals that he has a bargain with the almighty that if he ruins this world enough, George can come back into heaven and stay at His side.
It’s the discussions of how the universe works that’s actually the meat of the picture, as Stanley and George between wishes (which all go horribly wrong, as you’d imagine any bargain with the infernal are wont to do) strike up conversations that actually become the basis of a friendship of sorts, certainly the closest thing to a friend poor Stanley has ever had. The plot moves deftly along through pithy observations as we get to see Stanley work through his social inadequacies while George opens up about his own issues, including his complicated love-hate relationship with God.
While Cook’s script touches on cosmology and relationships with a biting deft hand, Moore’s score composed for the film is one of the better soundtracks ever made for a film from the 1960s. In addition to the incidental music, Moore also wrote two pop songs for one of Stanley’s wishes which were the film’s skewers on such programs as Ready Steady Go! and Top of the Pops.
Other than Bron, who is part of each wish fulfillment section as well as some of the linkage between set pieces, the film is essentially Cook and Moore riffing off each other. Their conversations are filled with barbs and lobs at religion and how the universe is supposed to work, and yet there is a genuine affection between the two that develops. While the thrust of the plot is supposed to be about Stanley getting Margaret, it’s actually the relationship between Stanley and George that blossoms more fully.
These discussions make up nearly all of the picture, although we also get scenes set at the club George runs while in London, the Rendezvous Club, where he has the Seven Deadly Sins working for him. Among the help that get some screen time are Anger (Robert Russell), Envy (Barry Humphries), and Lust (Raquel Welch).
While Welch’s Lust makes up less than five percent of the film, her role was prominently played up in promotions of the film in the US. Whether Fox felt she would be a bigger draw than Cook and Moore, or whether marketers were still skittish about discussions of religion in popular fare a year later after the reaction in the South to Lennon’s “Bigger than Jesus” comment, it was decided that a film that could have offended people on an intellectual level should be promoted with its more base elements played up.
In fact, Fox seems to have been so unsure what to do with Cook and Moore’s film after having gotten it, that they went and remade the film in 2000, with Brendan Frasier taking on the role of Moore’s character, while Elizabeth Hurley filled the roles that both Cook and Welch had.
To this day, most efforts to find Bedazzled available to watch are going to lead to the remake, which sold its own soul in forgoing challenging meditations about metaphysics in favor of cheap physical goofs and skin shots. Unwary viewers who try today to watch the original will need to take special care when looking for it, as most general searches will direct you to the remake instead.
One could almost say that in order to see the original and its sharp biting observations about good and evil, one needs to expand their search beyond the fringe…
NEXT TIME: You’ve heard of the band, now find out about the film that named them!
