{"id":45631,"date":"2019-11-08T12:25:38","date_gmt":"2019-11-08T19:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=45631"},"modified":"2022-08-13T14:34:10","modified_gmt":"2022-08-13T21:34:10","slug":"s-o-b-1981","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=45631","title":{"rendered":"S.O.B. (1981)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;If you want to dramatize the evils of prostitution, corrupt a virgin &#8212; not a whore!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SOB-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SOB-Poster-197x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"197\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-45632\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SOB-Poster-197x300.jpg 197w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SOB-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SOB-Poster.jpg 656w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 197px) 100vw, 197px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA Hollywood producer (Richard Mulligan) despondent over the failure of his most recent kiddie musical must deal with his furious studio head (Robert Vaughn), a relentlessly shrewish gossip columnist (Loretta Swit), and his fed-up wife and leading lady (Julie Andrews). When Mulligan becomes inspired to turn his flop into a soft-core porn flick, he faces mixed reactions from everyone involved &#8212; including his director (William Holden), his best friend (Robert Webber), and Andrews herself.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Blake Edwards Films<\/li>\n<li>Comedy<\/li>\n<li>Hollywood<\/li>\n<li>Julie Andrews Films<\/li>\n<li>Paul Stewart Films<\/li>\n<li>Robert Preston Films<\/li>\n<li>Robert Vaughn Films<\/li>\n<li>Rosanna Arquette Films<\/li>\n<li>Shelley Winters Films<\/li>\n<li>William Holden Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nAn all-star cast rallies together for Blake Edwards&#8217; darkly satirical look at the vagaries of Hollywood, where a box office flop can lead to existential despair, and (in a running gag) people are too distracted to notice a corpse washed up on the shore outside their beachfront home. Edwards is cynical all right: purportedly this film was made in response to his own experience making <em>Darling Lili<\/em> (1970) with Andrews, and he spares no one in taking down the narcissistic excesses of the movie industry. Unfortunately, it&#8217;s simply not funny watching this crew of self-absorbed players going about their lives. Edwards had achieved success as a comedic director with his wildly popular Pink Panther series &#8212; including the <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=32736\">title film<\/a> as well as <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=32730\"><em>A Shot in the Dark<\/em> (1964)<\/a> &#8212; and he fills this film with every antic trope in the book, including foiled suicides, pesky corpses, potty humor, &#8220;boobies&#8221; jokes, wild car chases, sexual chicanery, and demeaning racial stereotypes. The film does have its fans: see Vincent Canby&#8217;s review for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1981\/07\/01\/movies\/blake-edward-s-sob-a-farce.html\">the New York Times<\/a>, for instance, or <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s517sob.html\">DVD Savant&#8217;s assertion<\/a> that &#8220;there&#8217;s wit to most of the characterizations, and the constant ribbing of Hollywood&#8217;s venality and lust for power and wealth is spot-on&#8221;; however, I simply found this a tedious chore to sit through.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Julie Andrews trying her best<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SOB-Andrews.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SOB-Andrews-1024x483.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"302\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-45633\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SOB-Andrews-1024x483.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SOB-Andrews-128x60.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SOB-Andrews-300x142.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SOB-Andrews-768x363.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/SOB-Andrews.png 1739w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nNope; you can skip this one unless you&#8217;re a diehard Julie Andrews or Blake Edwards fan. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0083015\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s517sob.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=7784&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1981\/07\/01\/movies\/blake-edward-s-sob-a-farce.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;If you want to dramatize the evils of prostitution, corrupt a virgin &#8212; not a whore!&#8221; Synopsis: A Hollywood producer (Richard Mulligan) despondent over the failure of his most recent kiddie musical must deal with his furious studio head (Robert Vaughn), a relentlessly shrewish gossip columnist (Loretta Swit), and his fed-up wife and leading lady (Julie Andrews). When Mulligan becomes inspired to turn his flop into a soft-core porn flick, he faces mixed reactions from everyone involved &#8212; including his&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=45631\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45631","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45631"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45631\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86138,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45631\/revisions\/86138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}