Bedazzled

London’s Swinging Sixties meets Faust. That’s a premise that seems like incredibly fertile ground for satire, and Peter Cook and Dudley Moore deliver the goods in Stanley Donen’s Bedazzled. While it is a hit-and-miss affair given the nature of the plot, Bedazzled charms and entertains far more than it bores.

Write that one off as the brilliance of Cook and Moore who play off of each other with the ease of a true friendship and partnership. Cook’s blasé devil is entertaining for how bored he frequently seems in his diabolical endeavors. His droll intonations of various comebacks make for a unique version of the devil. And once he starts to lose his favorite play-thing, he becomes desperate and needy for a close friend. I can’t exactly explain why, but I also found his magical words (“Julie Andrews” and “LBJ”) to be one of the funniest reoccurring gags in the film.

Moore for his part turns in an equally as engaging performance. He must go from neurotic, romantically inert wallflower to various characters as his wishes transform him into different variations of himself. But he most return to the neurotic core of his character after each of these transformation has proven unsatisfactory. He finds the right wave to surf along in this tricky role, or roles as it were.

While the bulk of the film is concerned with the seven wishes, some of which are far funnier than others, the in-between shot are no slouches themselves. Meeting the Seven Deadly Sins was a nice touch for these wrap around sequences. Raquel Welch makes the biggest impression as Lust, but who else could she possibly be? To say that she looks like the definition of a voluptuous movie star is an understatement, and the film can’t wait to undress her or have her dance around in a flimsy go-go outfit.

That dry British wit is on full display, and thank god for it. The terrible remake could have used more of it. Cook and Moore make like little impish boys taking the piss out of religion, pop culture and social conventions. Bedazzled may not be perfect, but it’s funny, intelligent and pretty fantastic. I think I’ll steal “You fill me with inertia” for use at a later time.