THE BETSY

US, 1978, 125 minutes, Colour.
Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall, Katharine Ross, Tommy Lee Jones, Jane Alexander, Lesley- Anne Down, Joseph Wiseman, Kathleen Beller, Edward Herrmann, Paul Rudd, Richard Venture.
Directed by Daniel Petrie.

At the time of its release The Betsy was considered one of the great Hollywood examples of popular soap opera, the trash movie. Since it was based on a trash novel by Harold Robbins (The Carpetbaggers), it fulfilled all the expectations of high class trash.

The film is focused on a very rich family and its goings-on … The advertising highlighted sex, love, murder, betrayal. Added to that is its setting in the car industry and the politics of production of automobiles in the US and its history.

Where the film stands out is in its extraordinarily high-powered cast led by Laurence Olivier with Robert Duvall as his son. Tommy Lee Jones is the central character an Katharine Ross and Lesley- Anne Down supply the romance. Veteran Jane Alexander is also part of the cast.

The film was directed by Daniel Petrie who began working in television in the 1940s. He made his first film for the big screen almost thirty years later with Lifeguard. However, he continued making films for television until 2001 with Wild Iris (with Gena Rowlands and Laura Linney). Some of his later telemovies were quite significant including The Execution of Raymond Graham, My Name is Bill W., Inherit the Wind. In the early 80s he made interesting films like Fort Apache The Bronx and The Dollmaker.

1. An entertaining soap opera? The value of this kind of film - an entertainment, Americana?

2. The world of Harold Robbins? His melodramatic, pot-boiling seamy style? Cardboard characters, superficial and seamy situations? The critical attack on Robbins and his world and characters? How adequate the cinematic version of a Harold Robbins novel - content, character sketch, situations, problems and issues, style?

3. The film and the style of the seventies-slick, permissive, touching on controversial subjects in a glossy and sensational kind of way? Or not? The importance of the leading actors and their reputations, their being in a film of this kind? How strong the treatment of issues, tone?

4. The importance of the structure with the focus on the mid-seventies? A film of the seventies in exploring contemporary types, issues, big business, power struggles? The relationship with American industry, conservation, the energy crisis? The going back to the early thirties and the contrast of the Depression, power, the self-made man, the tycoons, the car industry and its subsequent history in America? The inter-play on the business level between past and present, on the family and emotional level? How satisfying emotionally for audience involvement was this structure?

5. How well drawn were the characters? Did they develop throughout the film? How real, contrived? Their dialogue as that of the best seller or of real life? The contrived situations and the way these were handled? The emphasis on power play, sexual problems, manners, morals?

6. The depth of treatment of these family situations, business situations?

7. The initial focus on Angelo - the modern young man? How attractive, callow? Seeing him driving and the symbolism of the racing car and what it represented to Angelo and his drive? The relationship between Angelo and the Hardiman family? The antagonism with Loren the Third? The attachment of Loren No. 1? The later revelation of the reasons for this interest? The old man's patronage, the Betsy in it? Angelo and his testing of The Betsy? His being drawn into the family, the patronage of the old man, the attraction of Betsy herself? The clash with Loren and his aides? The potential for a successful hero? How did he develop throughout the film? A new man but echoing and paralleling the ways of the Hardimans? Audience sympathy with him throughout the film? At the end?

8. The film's focus on Loren Hardiman the First? Seeing him in his old age, his role in the firm, spying on the family and on Angelo, his ways of control and his manner, way of speaking, his love for care and his interest in that angle of his industry, the patronage of Angelo, the Board meetings and his manipulation of votes, the people against him? His outwitting people, his being outwitted and yet winning? His attachment to Angelo, the gradual revelation of his despising of his son, the antagonism towards his grandson? The importance of Laurence Olivier's interpretation of this role?

9. Loren Hardiman as representing the 20th century American type? More sympathetic in his old age, giving up some of his power, the emphasis on power and sexuality and his liaison with the maid? The background of his memories? His wife, his son and his disappointment in him, his manipulating his friend's death? The way that he ran his son’s life, the trip etc.? His relationship with Sally and her presence in the family? The liaison with Sally? The antagonism towards Warren? The background of the Mafia connections at the same time and the connection with Angelo through these Mafia connections? Did audience response to the old man change in seeing him in his middle-age?

10. The film's portrait of Angelo as he moved within the Hardiman family - the new man, his relationship with the nurse, with Betsy and the flirtation? The reason for his taking up with Bobby? San Francisco, work? His manoeuvring of shares, the social life, the party sequence? The tests? The violence that he was subjected to? The gradual deepening of the motivation of revenge, the choices presented to him and his option of winning? Reflecting the seventies American tycoon type bent on success? The film's estimation of him?

11. The portrait of Loren the Second in the background of the 30's of the Depression? His growing up in relationship with his father, his father's attitude towards his weakness? The elaborate preparations for the wedding? Sally's personality and presence, the marriage, the failure of the marriage? The suggestions of friendship with Warren, the build-up of their liaison, the blackmail? The importance of the Depression and the strong issues of the strikers and the workers? His mishandling of the situation? His father's disgust? The inevitability of his suicide? The irony of Sally and her seeing the maid and the liaison with Loren, No. 1? The build-up and the overtones of incest in her liaison with the old man? Her departure from the scone? How well drawn and credible was the character of Sally?

12. The setting up of Loren the Third as the villain of the film? The slick and efficient businessman of the seventies? Seeing him at work, Board meetings, squash games, reliance on his advisors? His hardness, his attitude towards finance, towards control? His outplaying himself because of his antagonism towards his wife? Her vengeance towards him? The liaison with Bobby, losing her to Angelo? His spies, the party sequence? The build-up to his defeat and his place within the firm and family at the end? Being outwitted by the new man?

13. The character sketch of Alicia and the credibility of the neglected and hurt wife? Her growing hardness and her being on Angelo’s side for voting? Bobby and the fashionable English jet-setter? Her relationship with Loren the Third, with Angelo? The character sketch of Betsy as the potentially charming young girl, as the future Alicia or the future Bobby? The portrait of women including Sally in the world of Harold Robbins?

14. How authentic was the Detroit background of the automobile industry - in the thirties, the seventies? The sequence of the tour of the factory, the details of how the factory worked? John and the attention to detail on the car? The sequences with the building of The Betsy, the testing of it? Sabotage and the ugly reality of industrial espionage and death?

15. How well integrated were the Mafia themes - old Angelo and his relationship to Loren, doing his dirty work, being deported? Jake and his long memory and his hold over Loren, liaison with Angelo? The ugly complications of big business? Lack of scruple in the power game?

16. How enjoyable is this kind of complex pot-boiling plot, the audience carried along by the momentum of the plot, enjoying it? The standard of values explored and presented? A glimpse of an American genre of melodrama and soap opera, reflecting contemporary America?