S.O.B. (1981 film)
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| S.O.B. | |
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 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Blake Edwards |
| Produced by | Tony Adams Blake Edwards |
| Written by | Blake Edwards |
| Starring | Julie Andrews William Holden Richard Mulligan Robert Preston |
| Studio | Lorimar Productions |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures (theatrical) Warner Bros. (current) |
| Release date(s) | July 1, 1981 |
| Running time | 122 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $14,867,086 |
S.O.B. is a 1981 American film written and directed by Blake Edwards starring Richard Mulligan and Julie Andrews. Also appearing are Robert Preston, Robert Vaughn, Larry Hagman, Shelley Winters, Loretta Swit, Robert Webber and, in his last movie appearance, William Holden.
S.O.B. was originally released in the United States by Paramount Pictures on July 1, 1981.
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[edit] Plot
The story is a satire of the film industry and Hollywood society. The main character, Felix Farmer, is a phenomenally successful producer who has just made the first flop of his career, to the dismay of the studio and the loss of his own sanity. Felix attempts suicide several times:
First, he attempts to die of carbon monoxide poisoning in his car, only to have it slip into gear and drive through the side of his garage, down a sand dune and ending up in the Pacific Ocean.
Secondly, he turns on the gas in the kitchen oven, but is prevented from carrying out his intent by two house guests with other things on their mind.
Thirdly, he attempts to hang himself from a rafter in an upstairs bedroom, only to fall through the floor, landing on a poisonous Hollywood gossip columnist standing in the living room below.
Thereafter he spends most of the time heavily sedated while his friends and hangers-on occupy his beach house. The occupation leads to a party which degenerates into an orgy.
Finally, he tries to shoot himself with a police officer's gun but is prevented from doing so by the ministrations of a sweet young thing in a pair of panties, and experiences a revelation of what was missing from his movie - Free Love!
Newly energized, Felix resolves to save both the film and his reputation. With great difficulty he persuades the studio and his wife Sally Miles, an Oscar-winning movie star with a goody-goody image, to allow him to revise the film into a soft-core pornographic musical in which she must appear topless. He liquidates most of his wealth to buy the existing footage and to bankroll further production. If he fails, both he and Sally will be impoverished, at least by Hollywood standards.
At first the studio is keen to unload the film onto Felix and move on, but as it becomes apparent that it will be a success, they plot to regain control. Using California's community property laws, they get the distribution and final-cut rights by persuading Sally to sign them over. Felix then tries to get the movie negatives from the studio's color lab vault, armed with a water pistol, and is shot by police who think it is a real pistol.
Felix's untimely and violent death creates yet another crisis, particularly for his cronies Culley, Coogan and Dr. Finegarten, who plan to give him a burial at sea. They kidnap his corpse, substituting the body of a well-known but underrated character actor who died in the first scene of the movie, having a heart attack while jogging on the beach in front of Felix's home. Felix gets a Viking funeral, being sent out to sea in a burning dinghy, while the actor finally gets the Hollywood burial many thought he deserved.
The prologue later reveals that the revamped film was a huge success, and Sally won another Academy Award for her performance.
[edit] The movie within the movie
Little is seen of the movie which is the focus of the plot, except for an extended dream sequence and a brief shot taking place close to the end. The title is Night Wind, which provokes the headline "Critics break Wind" seen on a copy of Variety at the start of S.O.B. after the initial flop. The opening sequence of S.O.B. is the first version of the dream where Julie Andrews wanders through a room full of giant toys, reliving in sublimated form some dark episode from her character's childhood. Several of the toys come to life, including a group of toy soldiers, while the tune of "Polly Wolly Doodle" plays in the background.
Later Felix, having decided to rewrite the movie as soft-porn, reveals his plan to the studio heads on the set of the toy room, hiding at first while the executives wander around wondering where he is. Then in the re-shoot, the same set is used but the toys, including the soldiers, are dressed in various erotic costumes, and the "dream" features a mysterious man who tries to tempt Andrews' character.
[edit] Cast
- Julie Andrews as Sally Miles, the star of Night Wind and the wife of Felix Farmer
- William Holden as Tim Culley, the director of Night Wind and Felix's friend
- Richard Mulligan as Felix Farmer, the producer of Night Wind and the husband of Sally Miles
- Robert Preston as Dr. Irving Finegarten, Felix's doctor
- Robert Webber as Ben Coogan, Sally's press agent
- Robert Vaughn as David Blackman, the president of Capitol Studios
- Larry Hagman as Dick Benson, a Capitol Studios executive
- Loretta Swit as Polly Reed, a Hollywood gossip columnist
- Marisa Berenson as Mavis, the actress-girlfriend of David Blackman
- Stuart Margolin as Gary Murdock, Sally's personal secretary and an aspiring producer
- Shelley Winters as Eva Brown, Sally's agent
- Craig Stevens as Willard, Polly Reed's husband
- Robert Loggia as Herb Maskowitz, Sally's lawyer
- Larry Storch as Swami, Sally Miles' spiritual guru, who officiates at the funeral.
- Jennifer Edwards as Lila, a teenaged hitchhiker picked up by Culley
- Rosanna Arquette as Babs, Lila's friend, also picked up by Culley
- John Pleshette as the Capitol Studios Vice-President
- John Lawlor as the Capitol Studios Manager
- Paul Stewart as Harry Sandler, Felix's agent
- Ken Swofford as Harold P. Harrigan, a Capitol Studios security guard
- Hamilton Camp as Lipschitz, an executive at Capitol Color Lab, where the negative of Night Wind is stored.
- David Young as Sam Marshall, a popular actor
- Benson Fong as Felix and Sally's personal chef
- Joe Penny as Officer Buchwald, a police officer called to the Farmer residence
- Erica Yohn as Agnes, the costume designer of Night Wind
[edit] Title
"S.O.B." (in the film) stands for "Standard Operational Bullshit" and refers to misinformation being the norm. The acronym also means "sexually oriented business" (if pertaining to strip clubs) and more generally "son of a bitch" (a ruthless person).
A Spanish dub of the film keeps the acronym S.O.B., claiming that it stands for "Sois hOnrados Bandidos" (You Are Honest Crooks). Notice that the second word begins with a mute H, not with an O. The Argentine title for the movie was changed to Se acabó el mundo (The World is Ended), having no relation to the original title.
Three years later, when Edwards had his name removed from the writing credits of 1984's City Heat, he was billed under the pseudonym Sam O. Brown. (S.O.B.)
[edit] Influences
When writing the screenplay Edwards drew upon several of his own experiences. The character of Felix Farmer is a person not unlike Edwards, while actress Sally Miles bears certain similarities to Julie Andrews (who plays her), Edwards' wife in real life.
The story of S.O.B. parallels the experiences of Edwards and Andrews in their infamous, but Academy Award-nominated failure, Darling Lili. Intended to reveal Andrews' heretofore unseen wicked and sexy side, that film had a troubled shoot, went significantly over budget, and was subjected to post-production studio interference.
In S.O.B., Andrews's character agrees (with some pharmaceutical persuasion) to "show her boobies" in a scene in the film-within-the-film.[1][2] For this scene, comedian Johnny Carson thanked Andrews on his The Tonight Show for "showing us that the hills were still alive,"[cite this quote] alluding to a famous line from The Sound of Music opening sequence.
[edit] Reception
Critical opinion was sharply divided. In a remarkable contradiction, the screenplay was nominated both for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Comedy Written Directly for the Screen and a Razzie Award for Worst Screenplay. It was also nominated for a Razzie for Worst Director and a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture - Comedy/Musical.
[edit] Versions
Several scenes were shot twice, one version for movie theaters and one for television. The party/orgy was shot for television with no nudity, and the erotic dream sequence was shot in a much milder version than the cinema version. The most remarkable difference involves a scene where Robert Vaughn, as studio head David Blackman, receives a phone call while in bed with his mistress. In the television version he is simply seen naked from the waist up. In the cinema version he gets out of bed wearing a bustier, nylon stockings and other transvestite paraphernalia.
[edit] Home video
The original video release was made by CBS Video Enterprises in 1982, on both VHS and CED Videodisc, and was later reissued on VHS by CBS/Fox Video in the mid-1980s. Warner Bros. bought ancillary rights in 1989 with their purchase of Lorimar, and the film was released on Laserdisc through Warner Home Video in 1990. Warners released a DVD edition in 2002.
[edit] References
- ^ New York Daily News, "Nude scenes on the big screen". Accessed 20 December 2010.
- ^ Rooney, Andy. Public Affairs, 2003, Common Nonsense, p. 129.
[edit] External links
- S.O.B. at the Internet Movie Database
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