Bedazzled

Bedazzled

A Swinging 60s take on Faust.

Dudley Moore was a little like a British Woody Allen, a comedic actor who played sexually repressed intellectual characters and wrote and performed jazz music on the side. While he never reached some of the deeper philosophical depths that Allen did, he did swim the same waters as evidenced by Bedazzled.

Bedazzled, written by Moore and his partner Peter Cook, is a retelling of Faust, with Stanley (Moore) a lovelorn fry cook who makes a deal with the Devil (Cook), pledging his soul in exchange for seven wishes that he hopes will help him land the girl of his dreams.

The film has an interesting take on the Devil, though a lot of the tropes have since been swiped by other movies. It also boasts a great musical score by Moore, not to mention more than one scene of Raquel Welch as the demon Lust in skimpy outfits.

On the other hand, the film has not aged well. It definitely comes off as a relic of the psychedelic era, so much so that it seems to be a greater inspiration for the Austin Powers movies than any James Bond film ever was. The whole affair seems twice as long (or half as funny) as it could have been had they stuck to just three or four wishes.

Still its lightweight comedy fare that touches on some deep philosophical questions and doesn't insult your intelligence, which is more than can be said about a lot of modern comedies. Speaking of which, like so many other films, this one was remade in the 2000s, and by all accounts that version (starring Brendan Fraser) is wholly inferior.