Dudley Moore Gives Me Another Arthur to Love

I’ve always had a soft spot for Arthur, the noble king of British legend, and I have nothing but affection for animated Erie icon Arthur the aardvark. I’ll also readily admit to an excessive fondness for golden-voiced Arthur Garfunkel and endearing Muggle-loving wizard Arthur Weasley in the Harry Potter series. One Arthur that has always eluded me, however, is the titular character in the 1981 romantic comedy written and directed by Steve Gordon. While he’s easily the most obnoxious of the five, I’m still happy to add him to my list of Arthur acquaintances.

Dudley Moore plays Arthur Bach, a swingin’ rich kid who never grew up. He’s well into adulthood now, but he still surrounds himself with toys and devotes his life to lavish pleasures, including a steady intake of alcohol that leaves him perpetually soused. When his father expresses his disapproval with his lifestyle and threatens to cut him off if he doesn’t enter into the marriage long arranged for him with socialite Susan (Jill Eikenberry), Arthur reluctantly agrees to his terms. Then he meets Linda (Liza Minnelli), and life gets a little more complicated…

The movie takes place over a short period of time as Arthur prepares for the wedding he doesn’t want while wooing sweet but street-smart Linda, who works as a waitress to support herself and her beloved father, who dreams of a better life for them both. When a multi-millionaire begins to take an interest in his daughter, his enthusiasm at the prospect is quite entertaining.

Arthur’s own father isn’t in the picture much; instead, Arthur spends his time with Hobson (John Gielgud), the elderly butler who has been both father figure and best friend to him throughout his life. Gielgud’s performance is my favorite of the film as he skewers Arthur, Linda and others with his withering Simon Cowell-esque wit but occasionally betrays flickers of his deep regard for this man who needs his mentorship so desperately. Arthur’s feisty aunt Martha (Geraldine Fitzgerald) also cares for him in her own peculiar way, and her shocking remarks are among the movie’s funniest, and his cheery chauffeur Bitterman (Ted Ross) brings a smile to the face while he’s on screen.

This is a charming coming-of-age film if you can get past Arthur’s perpetual drunkenness. It examines whether wealth or freedom is a more valuable commodity and shows the dangers of having too many resources and not enough ambition. Mostly, though, it’s just a movie with an entertaining lead and a story of mentorship that is just as heartwarming as the romance.

An Unlikely Pair on an Incredible Journey

Over the years my family has amassed a large collection of movies, many of them taped off of television. Unfortunately, our collection has grown too large at times for us to contain it. In such instances, many of the taped movies are weeded out and disposed of. Unfortunately, one such spring cleaning effort went a little overboard, and many movies we did not intend to rid ourselves of were tossed out by mistake. When thinking of the movies that fell victim to that great tidying effort, my brother Nathan recounts this particular movie as one of the most grievous losses.

The Adventures of Milo and Otis is a bittersweet tale that recounts the coming of age of a pair of unlikely friends: an orange tabby cat named Milo and a pug named Otis. The two meet on the farm where they are born, and the mischief-making feline is constantly getting the stoic pug into trouble. The movie begins with a series of humorous misadventures which the puppy and kitten have at home.

The mood turns more serious when Milo is swept away while playing on a boat in the stream and is carried far away from his home. Otis follows hot on the kitten's trail, but the world is larger than either of them can imagine and each time the two are reunited, something comes along to drive them apart once more.

A series of difficult trials see Milo and Otis through childhood, and the movie ends with them reunited once more, this time with families of their own. As the friends set off to brings their families back to their roots, we see the story come full circle. It is a bittersweet moment, for Milo and Otis' childhoods were all too brief. But now a new generation has arrived to begin its own adventures.

The cinematography here is wonderful, with lots of great shots of animals in all sorts of situations, ranging from the humorous to the desperate. I almost think that the movie would have been better as a picture book of sorts; that is, no talking. Let the action tell the story. Dudley Moore's narration gave the movie a nice storybook quality, but I found it rather annoying in the context of an actual movie for all of the characters to be played by one person. It's annoying enough on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. I guess the only place where I've found that technique to be entirely successful was in Disney's The Whale Who Wanted to Sing at the Met.

It's a fairly short movie, clocking in at only an hour and fifteen minutes, and while I wouldn't give it the highest marks for characterization, it's a cozy film about growing up and finding friends in unlikely places.