Arthur

The early 1980s saw a few worthy heirs to the sorely missed classic farce/screwball comedy.  1982's TOOTSIE and VICTOR/VICTORIA were confirmations that even in a new era of big event blockbusters and acne ridden teens looking to get in each others' jeans, Hollywood still knew how to produce a sophisticated and witty entertainment. 1981's ARTHUR was another such reminder, largely dispensing with crassness to tell its tale of a child in a grown up body.  A billionaire who can't seem to face even his own pampered, charmed life sober.

Arthur Bach is played by Dudley Moore in as perfect an embodiment of a character as I've seen in a comedy.  It's as if Moore arrived and left the set as this person, never having to drop his game face because that's who he was.  Arthur's nonstop drunkenness is played for humor, especially when he punctuates a line with that patented laugh.  But he's not merely an Upper East Side Foster Brooks.

The seriousness of the scenario is always present, though to his credit writer/director Steve Gordon (who died way too young, soon after this film's release) never sours his motion picture with abrupt melancholia or cheap sentiment.  The film has enviable comic timing and at least a few bits of dialogue that transcend pathos with uproarious observation - as when the prostitute with whom Arthur spends the night describes all the hardships that happened in her childhood from the time she was six. "At least you had five good years," he offers her.

The story follows Arthur's increasing interest in a working class girl from Queens named Linda (Liza Minbelli) who he meets outside of Bergdorf Goodman after she shoplifts a tie.  Not your typical meet cute.   Hobson (John Gielgud), Arthur's sharped tongue valet watches with some amusement and asks if they plan to knock over a fruit stand next.  Such cutting wit, like in the old comedies, where dialogue was erudite even (especially?) in its condescension, and far more than just vulgar torrents.

Anyhow, Arthur and Linda (despite the former's engagement to a debutante) begin a rocky romance that suffers all the usual rich boy/poor girl cliches, but the yesteryear sensibility of the film nonetheless feels original and fresh.  Very upper class society is more than gently taken to task.  There's even some choice, never overdone slapstick, as when a severely inebriated Arthur tries his damndest to put a napkin holder back together.   Gordon was a real talent.  That he was not around to deliver more intelligent entertainments such as ARTHUR is a tragedy.  He's almost like a more populist version of Whit Stillman.  It seems that both directors may have had the same influences.

The performances are tops.  Minnelli is actually believable as a streetwise New Yawker, and gets a few good lines herself.  Gielgud is both hilarious and solemn as the butler who harbors strong paternal instincts toward his charge.  There's strong support from Geraldine Page, Stephen Elliott, and even character actor Paul Gleason, who in one scene cements why he was cast as an asshole so many times in the 1980s.  Moore never had a role as fabulous as Arthur Bach, one he inhabits so naturally and comfortably.  He even gets to show his musical chops on the piano.

P.S. It goes without saying that you can safely pass on the sequel ARTHUR 2: ON THE ROCKS and the 2011 remake with Russell Brand.