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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Warner Home Video
Salesrank: 29032
Released: April 25, 2006 |
| Our Price: $30.00 |
| Used Price: $4.17 |
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MPAA Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Harold Robbin's sexy best seller stars Tommy Lee Jones as a racing driver drawn into the spider's web of a Detroit carmaking dynasty. Checkered flag support from Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall and Leslie-Anne Down. Year: 1978 Director: Daniel Petrie Starring: Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall, Katharine Ross
Description of The Betsy (Keep Case):
Adapted from a Harold Robbins potboiler, The Betsy offers power struggles, incest, adultery, gold digging, and car racing. Laurence Olivier plays a ruthless but fallible auto tycoon with a tortured family history including a weakling son (Paul Rudd), a daughter-in-law he loves too much (Katharine Ross), a resentful grandson (Robert Duvall), and a devoted great-granddaughter (Kathleen Beller) to whom he bequeaths most of his fortune. In the midst of all these family squabbles is racing enthusiast Angelo Perino (a very young Tommy Lee Jones) whom the old man hires to build a revolutionary, ecologically advanced car which will be called The Betsy after his great-granddaughter. Angelo builds The Betsy (the car), seduces Betsy (the great-granddaughter), and even has a fling with Duvall's mistress, played by the haughty Lesley-Anne Down. In order to boil down Robbins's plot-heavy novel to 125 minutes, some of the connecting tissue has been lost. But Olivier is a grand old ham and Jones shows early on why he was destined to be a star. Lavishly produced, The Betsy has been formatted for the small screen, which doesn't allow us to fully enjoy the elaborate sets. But it's a chewy two hours of pulp, nonetheless. --Richard Natale
The Betsy (Keep Case) Reviews:
I Paid For It, Never Recieved It! 
2009-05-05 - I ordered the movie in DVD. But...I never reiceved it!!!
Enough said!!! They probably sent it to my Landlady.
I never got it!
Can I finally get one sent to the right address? Is it going to ake 3 months to do this?
Not the item described or depicted
2009-05-03 - The DVD I received was in a keep case, not a snap case, and with a different cover than the one depicted, which I specifically wanted. Also, though this is not the fault of the seller, the transfer is poor, and image quality is no better or worse than the VHS I own of the same movie.
Great Service 
2008-10-20 - This film is a "guilty pleasure": the best flick ever from a Harold Robbins novel.
The Betsy is an Edsel...but like a car accident, its compelling to watch.... 
2008-07-17 - Despite the lavish costumes and fantastic sets used in this film and the all-star cast, Olivier, Jones, Duvall. Ross, Alexander, and Herman, the film will appeal to fans of shows like "Dynasty," "Knots Landing," and "The Colbys" all popular dramas from the 80's. The characters are rather interesting, yet it is a shame they are not given enough screen time to develop or be fully appreciated by the audience--Duvall's character in particular. In some cases they blend too easily into the background and are hardly noticed like the many props and set decorations used in this film.
Tommy Lee Jones, although an actor with tremendous range, is terribly miscast as Angelo Perino, the race car driver who wrests control over Olivier's auto empire via manipulation and outright seduction. With his Southern accent, and his gangly manner, he hardly seems the type the would sweep his sophisticated female castmates off their feet. And as a romantic lead he fails miserably. A writer of limited appeal today, Harold Robbins' novel deserves better, but this film dilutes too much of the novel's appeal--primarily the characters--but instead focuses on sex or the boundless sexual exploits of its principal chracters, and in many instances a mere excuse for a scene change, or a blackfash.
Seeing Olivier, an actor I have always respected, in a scene feverishly boinking a maid in his employ at his son's wedding reception and then seducing his own daughter in law (Katherine Ross), is a bit much. Despite a timely storyline, with Olivier, following Henry Ford's model, to design a fuel-efficient car (hybrids, anyone?) for the general population that gets at least 60 miles to the gallon and well-within the average American's budget, this entertaining and interesting plotline is pushed aside for a storyline that merely moves from boardroom to bedroom and back again.
Kathleen Beller, few remember today and of severely limited range would later appear on televison's "Dynasty," makes an auspicious debut into feature films in "The Betsy" in a scene with full-frontal nudity--not exactly what I expected for a feature film circa 1978. Sure, Harold Robbins might write what we consider "trash," but even his novels deserved better treatment than given in this film. At least, the musical score, by John Barry (James Bond), manages to raise this film from the usual drivel.
Best film based on a Harold Robbins book. 
2008-06-16 - With today's gas prices, who can argue with a film where Laurence Olivier plays an auto company mogul who's invented the perfect car (60 or more miles per gallon) and it's called The Betsy? Tommy Lee Jones will be the brave test driver to add some steamy love scenes with Kathleen Beller (including her big dark eyes) and Lesley Ann Down. We add the flashbacks: Olivier's not such a great guy after all having an affair with daughter in law (Katherine Ross) and hiring gangsters to murder his son's homosexual lover. Harold Robbins was a curse to filmland and two stars is rare for a review of any of his films. But the great cast including Robert Duval really makes this a top notch action drama with their performances. It's a pity we can give it a good rating now, since it played to empty theaters and bankrupted the studio when it was new.
