So there I was, pulling the wings of the career of Blake Edwards, when it occurred to me to take another look at arguably his biggest solo success; 1979’s massive hit 10. Or rather, my second look was my first, because this is not the film I saw on tv in 1982; two version of the film were shot, one for tv, one for cinemas, and the full cinema version is the one I preferred to see on this occasion. For starters; this helps; even for the most dedicated voyeur, a sex-comedy with the sex edited out isn’t a great look, and 10 really does need to be enjoyed, oh er missus titter ye not, at the full, uncut length.
In a role written for Peter Sellers, cast as the late George Segal, and then abruptly recast as Dudley Moore when Segal walked, 10 is the story of composer George Webber (Moore) and his middle-age crisis. Unmarried, and in a mutually dependant, negative relationship with his girlfriend (Julie Andrews) Webber has an epiphany when he sees a beautiful girl Jenny (Bo Derek) on her way to her wedding; her husband is Sam Jones, on his way to Flash Gordon fame. Webber follows the couple to Mexico, and finds a way to inveigle himself into her affections before having a change of heart.
I find Edwards’ self-regarding tales of Hollywood melancholy resistible and tiresome; not here, where the screenplay is on point and packed with funny scenes; perhaps Sellers would have done it better, but Moore is no slouch. There’s an extended scene involving a telescope used to spy on a neighbour with a predilection for orgies; Webber tries to try surreptitiously, but knocks himself on the head with it, causing him to fall off the balcony of his house. Webber then unwisely allows Jenny’s dentist father to give him six fillings, is mistaken for an obscene caller by his wife, then thinks that the cops the appear at his house are arresting him for voyeurism; you cannot fault Edwards for developing and expanding his gags in ingenious ways, but he also sets up the idea of a world which send George Webber in a specific direction. From the traffic cops who know him well to the bee that causes him to interrupt Jenny’s wedding, it’s clear that nature is trying to teach the anti-hero a lesson, and the film’s bitter-sweet ending follows through on that.
10 was a trendsetter at the time, but fell out of fashion with its stars. It’s probably the writer/director’s best film outside of the Pink Panther movies, and the portrait of the artist as a dirty aging man is one that still resonates today. I saw Bo Derek at a NYC party years later, and should have said hello, or at least got the zip of my trousers caught in the doors of a lift or something in tune with the pratfall antics featured here.
Can’t believe you couldn’t do a pratfall not even just for coming face to face with a star like Bo. Maybe not a good idea to use the zip idea, however. This was a very enjoyable hit in the day and it would have been interesting to see what Sellers would do with it. Was this before or after Baywatch and that craze for women running along beaches? As I remember, like in Dr No, women previously emerged sedately from the sea.
I think there may be an illustrated book in writing about the evolution of women running along beaches, and I think it may well have started with 10. I guess seeing her wasn’t a game-changer for me in the way that it was for the protagonist here, since I’ve managed to avoid chasing her around the world.
There’s some groaners, but also a willingness to double down on Panther-style slapstick. In an decade of sex and comedy hybrids, I’m not sure there’s a better example of the formula working. As noted, the tv version is quite mystifyingly murky, so hats off to your cinema trip at 14! You win!
I was 14 when it came out, there was a ton of hubbub about it being TOO SEXY a film for the kids to go see. We managed to get in. At the time I thought Bo Derek’s name was Bo Decker. At the end we thought we saw a porn film, despite that most of the film really didn’t have that much going on. Loads of bad slapstick and clowning from Dudley. Your review brings back memories.
Great review and I don’t think I’ve watched this film before! Or maybe I have and it was a lifetime ago. I really admired and loved Dudley Moore, one of a kind and always makes me laugh. Have you ever watched Crazy People 1990. It wouldn’t fly in today’s climate but it is superb. Great read.
Now Crazy People has been on my wishlist for a good while, and I’m aware of the reasons it’s so hard to find. But I’ll redouble my efforts. 10 is surprisingly good, many films date badly, but this one kind of endures….
I can’t wait to read that one 😁 enjoy the rest of your weekend. I haven’t got a copy of Crazy People and I should really own it by now.
I love the Pink Panther movies, so may give this a watch.
It’s a bit more adult, but has the extended gags that made the Panther movies special.
Here’s a fun fact: did you know my grandad is actually in A Shot in the Dark?
I did not know that. Was he a nudist?
If only. No, a bigger part than that, but I can say no more, for the fear it will give away my real identity…
Oh, go on, are you related to Graham Stark?
In no way shape or form.
Are you Herbert Lom?
This guessing is nothing but pointless. I will say nothing.
Give us a clue?
‘Fraid not, Poirot. You’re going to have to work this one out by yourself.
You are Elke Sommer!
Ur… no.
Turk Thrust?
Jesus Christ. No.
George Sanders? We’ll get there by a process of elimination.
I refuse to reply to anymore comments from this point on.
I think I will be able to turn over a bulging folder to the authorities.
Really, that won’t be necessary…
My hands are tied now, the investigation must runs its course.
Cripes. Do you know if they have any cheap, five star hotels in Juarez, Mexico? Asking for a friend.
So what’s the point of all this subterfugious anonymity? You on the run from interpol? Hiding from some ladies huband you cuckood? What heinous crime have you comitted and not yet atoned for?
Cockood? Comitted? Wut?
Short version of cuckolded.
Are you comitted to that answer?
depends on what you mean by comitted.
Ha! That would be telling, wouldn’t it?
🙄
It was between that and “If I tell you, I’d have to kill you”, which didn’t feel appropriate under the circumstances.
Too serious a matter for frivolity.
Was that King of the Monsters? I did see that. Wasn’t much good. I’d rather spend the time with Bo.
*sigh* Reply moved up here for some reason.
I’ve noticed they shift around, probably fault at your end, I suspect.
It was King of the Monsters, and it was dull, gloomy, and I have the kind of recollection of it that I have of a dream from four years ago. ie very little. Haud me back.
I remember this. Lots of girls went and had their hair plaited a la Bo after they saw it.
It was a sexy look, if you could pull it off.
Well she made a career out of getting her tits oot mostly due to her much older husband. Seen a picture of her from a couple of years ago and she still looks great.
She was at a party I was at on the Upper West Side five years ago, Tom Hanks and his wife were there too. She did look utterly amazing for her age, although she probably thought the same about me. Intimidating to breathe the same air as a legend, but she managed to hold things together.
Yes, Tom is definitely a legend, any soft porn actress would be intimidated by him and his classy wife.
No, I was the legend, and Bo did not seem intimidated by my ravishing appearance. Tom and his wife were just looking on in awe, like bystandesr at King Kong Vs Godzilla.
‘Was’ being the operative word in that sentence.
I was the legend on that occassion, and still am, as if it has to be said.
Actually Dix looked kind of cute in this tight sailor-suit get-up as he was carrying around trays of canapés. But nobody was really noticing him anyway. I was talking to Bobby and Marty at the time.
Dix and cute? I’ll take your word for it.
Getting a little up there in years for the toy-boy look, but he was game for it. You have to be to get work at those parties. I don’t know if Bo was interested in more than the canapés though.
Mmmm canapés! I’m with Bo!
You were not and neither was Alex. I was, so suck it, monkeys!
Didn’t say I was. It was a metaphorical ‘with’.
Well, I was at the party and didn’t see you, Alex or a metaphorical anything, so can the balloon juice!
can the balloon juice do what? Your fettle is having a short circuit I think.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=balloonjuice
The contents of a used condom. That’s it, I’m sending for the fettle fixers. Keep your door open.
Erm, that’s not what it says. For posterity, here’s the text.
balloonjuice
1. Insincere or empty talk, nonsense
2 interj. Nonsense!
Can the balloonjuice and get back to work.
I scrolled down.
Did I ask you to scroll down? DID I?
Nope. I am ambidextrous.
Hardly my fault.
True.
You dodn’t know because you were not there, Bunty! hahahah
Opening up a can of worms here.
You hungry?
Sigh. Thank u, next!
Alex is a fantasist. Ok, Alex, if you were there, date and time of the party, please?
Wrap party for Marty’s Kundun. Tribeca. Bo was with some dashing younger man. You were serving drinks and hors d’oeuvres with a disguised Ryan Phillippe, who was secretly studying your accent for playing a part in an upcoming Robert Altman movie.
Most of this is correct, but the information needs to be in the right order, so no points, sorry.
It’s totally correct, and I have photos of you and Ryan in your sailor suits so I get points.
How did you come by these photos?
Well, it’s a picture of me, Bobby, and Marty. You and Ryan are just standing around in the background.
Post it.
yes Alex, post it to me, could do with a giggle.
Post it! Post it! Or stand defrauded and discredited by your own hubris!
I haven’t got it!! Alex has.
I doubt that very much. It’s fake news! He has boxed himself into a corner…
Seen that done in Fight Club. Was so sad Brad Pitt wasn’t real and stupid Norton was just punching himself in the face. Pretty sure Alex isn’t doing that, he’ll be putting the bins out.
Brad Pitt is real. Alex has bitten off more than he can chew and will be hiding in his bin until he thinks the coast is clear.
He’s back. Happy to hear about Brad as I’ve seen him a few times since Fight Club.
Alex is attempting to blackmail me, had to get my mum to wear a wire. Feds involved.
You don’t have feds in SCotland.
They do where Alex is from.
Alex claims to be slavering over a picture of me in a sailor suit which he keeps as treasure in a shoebox marked ‘dyno mite’.
Just sayin’
and who can blame him?
poop that went to you not ALex. This page’s comments are all over the shop. Makes no sense to anyone else I think.
Can’t. It was a Polaroid. Cellphone cameras weren’t such a big thing back then. But rest assured it’s all going to come out some day.
Scan it in.
Oh there you are. The comments placement today is ooff the scale bonkers.
Yeah, I’ve got a scanner right next to my fax machine, dude.
I keep this photo in a shoebox in the basement along with other vaguely incriminating celebrity memorabilia and there it’s going to stay. For a while.
So, the takeaway from all this kefuffle is that you have nothing at all. Next!
You can always call Ryan and ask him. Just be sure and introduce yourself by saying “Ahoy, ahoy matey!” He’ll remember that night.
You seem to know a lot about it. More sailor suits than the Battleship Potemkin round your gaff. But if you can any ammo, you’d have used it, so I can cheerfully file you under ‘crackpot’.
File me wherever. That shoebox is filed under “Dyn-o-mite!”
If it’s pictures of me in sailor suits, I can see how that title would be apposite.
Still, am, Bunty!
Delusions of grandeur mon ami.
Not a manageable look, I suspect. A big deal at the time.
I think the uncut version is better too.
Did I tell you about the time Bo and I got together and dipped each other in honey?
Also: This isn’t Kong vs. Godzilla.
I don’t believe that you and Bo were ever on the same continent. She’s not big on Canadian public library remainder sections.
Did you see the last Godzilla film? Utter waste of time. Will address this one if and when I feel ready, but can’t say I’m rushing.