Film review no.9 - Arthur (1981)

10 Rich Facts About 'Arthur' | Mental Floss









Arthur - 1981

Rating - 12


Directed and Written by - Steve Gordon

Starring - Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, John Gielgud

Run time - 117 minutes


Arthur is a 1981 comedy about an extremely wealthy New York drunk who is forced to marry a rich heiress or will be cut off from the family's billions, but when he meets a working-class girl from Queens, he falls in love with her.


The film follows the title character Arthur Bach (Moore), a billionaire drunk who has had everything in life handed to him on a plate, lives in a mansion apartment with his valet Hobson (Gielgud). But he is set to marry upper-class woman Susan Johnson. He doesn't love Susan but his family thinks this’ll mature him as he is childish, irresponsible, and ignorant. While on a shopping trip with Hobson, Arthur witnesses a woman stealing a necktie, who he covers for when a security guard stops her while leaving the store. This woman was Linda Morolla (Minnelli), a waitress and cunning actress who Arthur falls head over heels in love with. Later in the movie, Hobson becomes ill and Arthur looks after him, staying completely sober throughout but several weeks later, Hobson dies which, of course, highly depresses Arthur as he’d been with him his whole life. So Arthur goes back to his old ways but still has to choose to stay a billionaire or marry the girl of his dreams.


This film is a breath of fresh air as a while ago, I watched the atrocious remake of this movie starring Russell Brand made in 2011, it completely flops compared to this rather charming and loveable movie. This movie was written and directed by Steve Gordon who died of a heart attack the year after its release. This film was showered with awards as it had 4 Oscar nominations and 2 wins and 5 Golden Globe nominations and 4 wins. I loved this movie there are fantastic lead performances from Liza Minnelli and the late John Gielgud and Dudley Moore in his breakthrough Hollywood movie. 


Score - 9/10


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