Betsy, The (1978) - Widescreen - Harold Robbins - Laurence Olivier - H264

‘THE BETSY’ 1978

Laurence Olivier stars in director Daniel Petrie’s film of Harold Robbins super dramatic best-seller about a retired Southern auto tycoon who hires a very young Tommy Lee Jones to help him secretly produce a hi-tech, fuel-efficient car, ‘The Betsy’, named after his own granddaughter (the suitably beautiful Katherine Beller).

No point in trying to defend this film, it’s roots are unapologetically in 70s pop-trash - Dynasty on steroids - and for it to be anything else would probably have been a huge disappointment.

What IS disappointing, is that the entire production has been almost entirely forgotten. Sad when The Betsy is so indicative in style and substance of that changeover period between tv and film in the late 70s. One of a series of lavish big screen soaps - more usually the province of inane TV mini series - that saw major stars doing whatever was necessary to make a paycheck, and stay relevant.

Everyone looks great, however, from Tommy Lee Jones to Robert Duvall to Katherine Ross to an early glimpse of Paul (Antman) Rudd(!). Leslie Anne Down was never more damned sultry, and the lascivious visions of a young Katherine Beller probably kept many a young man up at night - especially the swimming pool scene.

There’s also an original score from the great john Barry, and exotic locations as beautiful and glossy as the characters that inhabit them.

But don’t be fooled by the dreamy PG look and feel of the piece. The sex, language, full frontal nudity and generally icky themes of the film all belong to the ‘R’ rating the film actually got.

You could call this a guilty pleasure. Or you could simply just call it nothing at all, and enjoy it for the ridiculously over-baked, ham-fisted, super colorful, sexed up, high powered, star-driven nonsense it all is.

Maybe no-one will ever download this. But I couldn’t find a copy of ‘The Betsy’ anywhere at all in KAT land, so here it is - for posterity - in all it’s overblown, melodramatic, wide-screen, uncut, sweetness.

THE BETSY (1978)
Directed by Daniel Petrie
Screenplay by William Bast and Walter Bernstein
Based on the novel by Harold Robbins
Produced by Robert R. Weston
Associate produced by Jack Grossberg
Music by John Barry
Cinematography by Mario Tosi
Edited by Rita Roland
Production Designed by Herman A. Blumenthal

CAST
Laurence Olivier
Robert Duvall
Katharine Ross
Tommy Lee Jones
Jane Alexander
Lesley-Anne Down
Joseph Wiseman
Kathleen Beller
Edward Herrmann
Paul Rudd

COLOR
U.S.A.
125 MINS, 14 SEC (2:05.14)
UK: ‘X’ (original rating), ‘18’ (video rating) (1987). USA: ‘R’
1:85:1


VIDEO
CODEC: H264 - MPEG-4 AVC
DISPLAY RESOLUTION: 718 x 360
FRAME RATE: 24 fps
DECODED FORMAT: Planar 4:2:0 YUV
ASPECT RATIO: 1.85:1
RUN TIME: 125 MINS, 14 SEC (2:05.14)

AUDIO 1
CODEC: MPEG AAC
LANGUAGE: English
CHANNELS: Stereo
SAMPLE RATE: 48000 Hz
BITRATE: 256 kb/s

AUDIO 2
CODEC: A52 Audio (AC3 passthru)
LANGUAGE: English
CHANNELS: Stereo
SAMPLE RATE: 48000 Hz
BITRATE: 192 kb/s

SUBTITLES: English (soft)

If you enjoyed this movie, please consider supporting the artists by buying a copy from wherever you can find one.