DVD Reviews

Arthur / Arthur 2: On the Rocks – Blu-ray Review

By Jeff Swindoll Apr 13, 2011, 15:10 GMT

Dudley does right! Dudley Moore is Arthur, the irrepressible, irresponsible playboy who faces marriage to a woman he detests to keep his fortune... and then meets the right woman (Liza Minnelli) from the wrong side of the tracks. John Gielgud won an Academy Award(R) (1981\'s Best Supporting Actor) as Arthur\'s acerbic valet. "I\'ll alert the media," he says when Arthur announces his intention to take a bath. The title tune ...more

“You spoiled little bastard! You're a man who has everything, haven't you, but that's not enough. You feel unloved, Arthur, welcome to the world. Everyone is unloved. Now stop feeling sorry for yourself… and incidentally, I love you.”

I tried to write this review drunk to get into the spirit of Arthur Bach.  Sadly, all I got was a bunch of gibberish and a keyboard that smelled of vomit.  Even worse, I had no manservant to clean up the mess… and then command to write the review.  Haaaaaa!

Arthur Bach (Dudley Moore) is a man worth 750 million dollars and has a haughty butler named Hobson (John Gielgud) to prove it.  Arthur spends his time consuming large amounts of alcohol and doing whatever he pleases. 

Arthur’s lugubrious lifestyle hits a snag when his father (Thomas Barbour) insists that he’ll cut off his funds if he doesn’t marry socialite Susan Johnson (Jill Eikenberry), the daughter of the volatile Burt Johnson (Stephen Elliott).  He reluctantly agrees to marry her. 

However, he meets up with Queens’s waitress Linda Marolla (Liza Minnelli) and it is love at first sight.  Arthur wants out of the arranged marriage but Burt will stop at nothing to make his daughter happy. 

Eight years later, Susan (Cynthia Sykes) is still pining over Arthur (Moore), but he’s happily, drunkenly married to Linda (Minnelli), who is wanting to adopt a child (from social worker Kathy Bates).  Burt Johnson (Elliott) rears his ugly head and stages a takeover of the Bach Corporation with the goal of separating Arthur from his money.  He is successful and Arthur and Linda find themselves penniless and homeless. 

Arthur is the film that catapulted Dudley Moore to stardom, not that Moore was an unknown quantity but he would definitely be more known after Arthur.  The film would garner a bunch of money and earn Oscars for supporting actor John Gielgud and one for best original song. 

It’s a fondly remembered film and Moore is indeed funny.  I’d argue that Gielgud’s dry delivery is funnier.  The Academy seemed to think so as well as Moore was nominated for his turn but lost.  Sadly, writer/director Steve Gordon would die of a heart attack a year after the film was released.  Perhaps even sadder in a way is that eight years later Moore and company hired director Bud Yorkin to held the reviled Arthur 2. 

I seem to remember disliking it and thinking that it was much less funnier than the first one.  That much is still true. but maybe I’ve softened over the year.  The sequel is ludicrous and wraps up far too happily, but it takes great pains to get the cast back together, minus Eikenberry.  Gielgud even pops up for a short time. 

I suppose you can rationalize that the sequel is included and that you’re buying this set for the original and not it.  Arthur 2 would go on to win awards too – some Razzies. 

One thing we must thank the remake for is that it spurred Warner Brothers to put out the original.  It had only been available in a pan and scan version and we even get a widescreen version this time out.  I’d give Arthur 4 stars and Arthur 2 2.5 stars. 

Both Arthurs are presented in 1080p high definition transfers (1.85:1).  The only special features are the film’s trailers in standard definition. 

Arthur still holds up for the most part, but Arthur 2 is a letdown.  Both look good on Blu-ray though and you can pick them up rather cheaply. 

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