Brilliant on stage and ground-breaking on TV, Peter Cook and Dudley Moore couldn’t quite project their impressive array of talent onto the big screen. Bedazzled is a period piece of course and gets lots of points for style and substance but is a little too uneven to stand the test of time. That’s ungenerous of me as when we saw it as teenagers on the small screen the playground was full of it the next day including some of the best one liners, especially Cook’s remark that The Almighty was omni-present whereas he was just highly manoeuvrable.
The discipline of filmmaking would work against the improvisational talents of Cook especially and it’s interesting that Moore would later become so much more successful as a film star; more diligent, used to long hours of practice and discipline as an organ scholar and pianist and, it has to be said, palpably a better actor. There was always more of the devil in Peter and his eyes always betray more mischief and uncertainty than Dudley’s, so much more lost in the role is he. Moore would gain a Golden Globe and Oscar nomination for Arthur in 1981 whilst Cook followed a patchy acting career but contributed greatly to this nation’s sanity, founding Private Eye and his comically-vicious genius inspiring generations of comedians.
Together they were always dynamite and they are still winning here aided by old Footlights colleague Eleanor Bron as Margaret Spencer, the object of Moore’s character Stanley Moon’s desire. Bron and Cook had been in the Cambridge Footlights review of 1959, The Last Laugh and she was the first woman in the group. Well, there’s progress Cambridge! Here she provides the depth of character and technique to play variations on Margaret as each of Stanley’s chosen scenarios work out and she’s the perfect straight-woman with more than enough comic nuance to give the boys a run for their money.
Stanley has been driven to the edge after long years working as a short-order chef at a Wimpy fast-food restaurant during which time he has developed a romantic interest in waitress Margaret. It’s a love that dare not, indeed cannot, speak its name and at the film’s beginning he runs out of the café after Margaret and is unable to articulate his feelings once again as she jumps into a trendy bubble car* with a handsome man and drives off laughing. It’s the cinema of humiliation and Cooke just loves humiliating his in some ways more talented other half but Dudley can not only act it, he can take it and it wouldn’t work any other way.
Stanley goes home and attempts to hang himself only for the pipe he’s relying on to break sending him crashing to the floor as water sprays all over the pre-war wallpaper in his one bedroomed hell. He hears a voice who announces himself as George Spiggot, the most prosaic name for The Fallen One, Beelzebub, Lucifer… (Cook). Stanley soon finds a surprising amount of sympathy from The Devil for his plight as what seems like a good deal is offered: seven wishes and seven chances to secure the affection of the loveable Margaret in exchange for the paltry offering of his soul.
The deal with The Devil seem water-tight but Stanley soon finds that the details have plenty of devil in them and that no matter what kind of scenario he wishes to spark the romance with Margaret, there’s always a fatal flaw… Margaret is passionate but for poetry and not his person, he is even less effective transformed into a bee, he gains sisterly love but no more as a nun in a convent and then even when deeply in love the two cannot consummate their affection because of their guilt over the innocent and thoroughly decent man she has married (George again…).
Along the way, Stanley meets George’s Seven Deadly Sins with the standouts being Raquel Welch as Lilian Lust who – naturally tempts in George’s spare room – and then there’s the great Barry Humphries (another Footlights fellow) as Envy, relishing every nasty expression of human frailty. Perhaps we could have seen more of these Deadly Sins… especially as this is the last place you’d expect to find Raquel Welch on the rise?
Dusty Verdict: How can you not like this film even with the odd gripes, it’s of its time and a representation of two of our most talented comics in their prime in London when it was swinging. It’s also a call to follow your heart and to be true to yourself as all retellings of Faust would be, The Devil is in your betrayal of yourself as much as the arbitrary rules of man and deity… something Cook was always against. In the end both Pete and Dud followed their stars and we love them both for it. Anti the Establishment from which they came, rebels and rude boys at their best who left a lasting legacy and much love in their wake.
Directed by Stanley Donen (Singing in the Rain and many more!) in Panavision format, the film is very well made and offers a precious glimpse of the London as well as the unforgettable sight of the Order of Saint Beryl, or the Leaping Beryllians, glorifying their founder by jumping in unison on trampolines. Cook wrote the script and Moore wrote the music which is jazzy with psychedelic elements – some lovely use of phasing – with the repeated main theme sticking in your head. It’s quite collectable and well worth seeking out on its own.
* The Isetta was an Italian-designed microcar created in 1953 by the Italian firm Iso SpA, and subsequently built under license in a number of different countries, including the United Kingdom.
