JACQUELINE SUSANN’S ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH

US, 1975, 121 minutes, Colour.
Kirk Douglas, Alexis Smith, David Jansson, George Hamilton, Melina Mercouri, Gary Conway, Brenda Vaccaro, Deborah Raffin.
Directed by Guy Green.

Jaqueline Sussan’s Once is Not Enough is based on a huge bestseller, the airport trash kind of bestseller which is very popular and was made into a big soap opera movie. The archetypal Jacqueline Sussan film was the 1967 Valley of the Dolls. There was a biography about Jacqueline Sussan, very favourable towards her and her personality – and she was played by Bette Midler with Dennis Farina as her husband, Isn’t She Great.

The film has a very strong star cast for this kind of spectacle. However, Deborah Raffin is the main young actor, all the rest being veterans of many years. It is obviously a film for the older generation who enjoys this type of intrigue and soap opera.

The plot summary on the Internet Movie Database is probably enough to indicate themes and treatment: “An over the hill movie producer (Kirk Douglas) marries a wealthy, spiteful woman and closeted lesbian (Alexis Smith) just to please his spoilt daughter (Deborah Raffin) who then, in an attempt to spite him, seduces both a wealthy playboy (George Hamilton) and a local screenwriter (David Jansson).”

Surprisingly, the screenplay was written by veteran Julius Epstein, famous for writing Casablanca and many films in the 30s and 40s with some prestige including Yankee Doodle Dandy, Mr Skeffington and adapting Arsenic and Old Lace. He continued writing films for another thirty or more years after his heyday at Warner Bros in the 40s. The film was directed by Guy Green, formerly a director of photography in Britain, who made such films as The Angry Silence and moved to the United States making such films as A Patch of Blue.

1. Audience expectations from the title? The focus on the novel's author and her kind of world?

2. What do audiences expect from this kind of best-selling blockbuster novel? The big soap-opera film? full of stars, sensational, contrived crises? Do audiences expect deep themes and vivid characterizations? What is the value of the blockbuster film? For entertainment? It borders near trash?

3. What values and feelings were presented in this film? How genuinely? The emphasis on thrills of the blockbuster or humane themes?

4. The title an indication of theme? January's reply and speaking of the title?

5. The use of Panavision, colour? California and New York locations, European background? What kind of world was being presented? A real world, the glamour world of the Jet Set? The wide audience's response to this jet-set world?

6. The value of the particular locations, mansions, clubs, restaurants, glossy homes, beaches? Audience response to these dream locations?

7. The film’s focus on January: how attractive a girl, how real and unreal in the characterization, her possibilities in life, the meaning of her name? The amount of love she had received? How spoilt was she? The visualising of the accident and her recovery? Their significance? What effect on her life? The glamour of her returning home, especially the balloon in the sky?

8. How much development was there in her character through the film? The nature of her relationship to her father, her dependence and possessiveness, comparing other men to him? Her disappointment in Deirdre and dislike of her? Her friend with Linda and reliance on her? Her putting into practice Linda’s advice? The emphasis on Linda’s advice on sexuality? The casual relationship with David in view of seduction or marriage? The continual going back to her father? The discovery of Tom and falling in love with him? How genuine was this? Tom as an image of her father? Trace the ups and downs of her character and development in values? How much did her real self emerge, by the final walking the streets of New York?

9. How credible a character was Tom? As a novel writer and prize-winner? As down and out? The quality of his relationship with January? The details of its development? Its breakdown? The intervention of Mike Wayne?

10. What kind of man was Mike Wayne? The Kirk Douglas hero? The world in which he lived, successful films, Oscars, the image of the Hollywood world? His devotion to January and doing all things for her, even courting and marrying Deirdre? The nature of his marriage to Deirdre? the work and the clashes? His hostility towards Colt? The irony of his death? How credible and interesting a character?

11. How credible a woman was Deirdre? Her being presented as one of the wealthiest women in the world, the significance of money and her way of life? Her need for love? Her need for possessing, and arranging people’s lives? The possibility of a happy marriage with Mike? The relationship with Carla? The significance of her death? Her funeral?

12. Was Tom just a stereotype for this kind of film? Was he meant to be a hero? A worthwhile character?

13. How interesting a character was Linda? Her verve and vitality compared with other characters? The go-getting type of New York? Friendship with January, her language and aspects of sexuality? What future did she have? What kind of life would she lead?

14. The introduction of Carla? Her relationship to David, the liaison with Deirdre? How real did this character and her intrusion into other people's lives seem? The melodrama of her presence at the funeral?

15. David as a callow New York character, society, security, his penthouse etc.?

16. What kind of a fictional fantasy world was this? Why do audiences like going into it? How valuable and healthy is it to enter into this kind of world?