The Betsy (1978)

The aging, retired founder of an auto giant comes out of retirement to try to develop a safe, fuel-efficient car.

Director:

Daniel Petrie

Writers:

Harold Robbins (novel), William Bast (screenplay)

Stars:

Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall, Katharine Ross

2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Laurence Olivier	...	Number One
Robert Duvall	...	Loren Hardeman III
Katharine Ross	...	Sally Hardeman
Tommy Lee Jones	...	Angelo Perino
Jane Alexander	...	Alicia Hardeman
Lesley-Anne Down	...	Lady Bobby Ayres
Joseph Wiseman	...	Jake Weinstein
Kathleen Beller	...	Betsy Hardeman
Edward Herrmann	...	Dan Weyman
Paul Rudd	...	Loren Hardeman Jr.
Roy Poole	...	John Duncan
Richard Venture	...	Mark Sampson
Titos Vandis	...	Angelo Luigi Perino
Clifford David	...	Joe Warren
Inga Swenson	...	Mrs. Craddock

Storyline

The patriarch of a family-owned corporation hires a young race car driver to help him design a fuel efficient car in secrecy. They face resistance from the president of the company (the patriarch's grandson), who wishes to eliminate the motor car division because of bad blood between himself and his grandfather. During flashbacks, a parallel set of problems is revealed in the family's past, problems that persist into the present, and the race car driver gets deeper into the web of deception and corporate intrigue.

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Plot Keywords:

assassination attempt | patriarch | flashback | kissing while having sex | sex scene | 

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Taglines:

The Harold Robbins people. What you dream...they do!

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

R

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

9 February 1978 (USA)

Also Known As:

Harold Robbins' The Betsy

Filming Locations:

Detroit, Michigan, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$17,685,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Harold Robbins International Company

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Did You Know?

Trivia

Warner Brothers had paid a six figure sum for the rights in 1971, and Harold Robbins was originally on-board as a producer.

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Quotes

Loren Hardeman: A whole new car from bottom up and bumper to bumper! A-ha! Wheeee! Damn, it's gonna be like the old days again! A-ha-ha-ha!

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Connections

Referenced in Joel King: Man with a Camera (2015)

User Reviews

plenty of rewinding and fast-forwarding...

As decadently bad as the book and premise of this movie is, there was something somewhat entertaining in this mawkish soap-opera put to film,which is why I bought this film once(that's right!). Maybe it was the sex scenes-Ms.Down and Mr.Jones' love scene was particularly well done and seductive-or the full body shot of Ms.Beller(I'm guessing full body shots,pubes and all,were somewhat rare in mainstream cinema in 1978),but the plotlines of conflict inside and outside of the Hardemann family over three generations were at least nominally interesting. Still,I found the pacing dreadfully slow and ,hence,the subject line of my review. I imagine why Sir Larry took this roll,as well as many others in the late 70s and early 80s(I'm surprised the guy from Cincinnati who reviewed the film didn't mention "Clash of the Titans"!)was because not too many dignified leading man roles were being afforded to stately older English theatre-trained actors at the time and he had to take what he could get. Five out of ten stars.