Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989)

Director:

Paul Bartel

Writers (WGA):

Paul Bartel (story) &
Bruce Wagner (story) ...

Release Date:

July 1989 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Plot:

The widow's houseboy and the divorcee's chauffeur bet on which will bed the other's employer first.

Plot Keywords:

Male Nudity | Male Rear Nudity | Gay Interest | Bare Butt | Erotica

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Jacqueline Bisset	...	Clare Lipkin
Ray Sharkey	...	Frank
Mary Woronov	...	Lisabeth Hepburn-Saravian
Robert Beltran	...	Juan
Ed Begley Jr.	...	Peter
Wallace Shawn	...	Howard
Arnetia Walker	...	To-Bel
Paul Bartel	...	Dr. Mo Van De Kamp
Paul Mazursky	...	Sidney
Edith Diaz	...	Rosa
Rebecca Schaeffer	...	Zandra
Barret Oliver	...	Willie Saravian
Jerry Tondo	...	June-Bug
Susan Saiger	...	Kelly
Michael Feinstein	...	Himself

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L (original rating) | Iceland:12 (video rating) | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:11 | USA:R | West Germany:16 | Australia:M

Company:

North Street Films

Trivia:

Juan says he wants to "make the crossover" like Rubén Blades. This is a reference to Blades's movie, Crossover Dreams (1985), in which a smalltime Latin musician makes the crossover into major fame (and back again).

Quotes:

To-Bel: [to Howard who's looking for suppositories int he fridge] Why dontcha try butterin' some nice corn-on-the-cob and stickin' that up y'ass?

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "The Simpsons: Scenes from a Class Struggle in Springfield (#7.14)" (1996)

Soundtrack:

Let's Misbehave

Rococo rondelay

Great title; and in its day Bruce Wagner's extravagantly purple dialogue made a lot of eyes widen. In his fiction, Wagner scales astonishing heights of cruelty and scabrousness, but writing a SHAMPOO-style rondo, he seems miscast; it's as if Terry Southern had ambitions of being Ernst Lubitsch. There are savory performances generously sprinkled: Paul Mazursky is the wistful shade of a TV producer, brought by lust back to this mortal coil, and Wallace Shawn makes a sumptuous entrance, flanked by two LAPD officers, telling his hostess, "These perverse gentlemen have made a slanderous assertion."