''The American Success Company'' is a 1980 American
comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
film directed by
William Richert
William Richert (1942 – July 19, 2022) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. He is known for writing and directing the feature films '' Winter Kills'', ''The American Success Company'', and '' A Night in the Life o ...
and starring
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
Bridges comes from a prominent a ...
. It was written by
Larry Cohen
Lawrence George Cohen (July 15, 1936 – March 23, 2019) was an American screenwriter, producer, and director of film and television, best known as an author of horror and science fiction films — often containing police procedural and ...
. Re-edited versions of the film have appeared under the titles ''American Success'', ''Success'', ''The Ringer'', and ''Good as Gold''.
Premise
Harry Flowers (Bridges) is routinely humiliated both at home and at work (the German offices of an American credit card company). Fed up, he hires prostitute Corinne (
Bianca Jagger
Bianca Jagger (born Blanca Pérez-Mora Macías; 2 May 1945) ) to help him gain revenge on his quirky wife Sarah (
Belinda Bauer) and her father/his boss, the overbearing Mr. Elliott (
Ned Beatty
Ned Thomas Beatty (July 6, 1937 – June 13, 2021) was an American actor and comedian. In a career that spanned five decades, he appeared in more than 160 films. Throughout his career, Beatty gained a reputation for being "the busiest actor in ...
) — all while enriching himself financially.
Cast
Production
The film was based on an original script by
Larry Cohen
Lawrence George Cohen (July 15, 1936 – March 23, 2019) was an American screenwriter, producer, and director of film and television, best known as an author of horror and science fiction films — often containing police procedural and ...
. At one stage he was going to make it starring
Rock Hudson
Rock Hudson (born Roy Harold Scherer Jr.; November 17, 1925 – October 2, 1985) was an American actor. One of the most popular movie stars of his time, he had a screen career spanning more than three decades. A prominent heartthrob in the Golde ...
and
Vanessa Redgrave
Dame Vanessa Redgrave (born 30 January 1937) is an English actress and activist. Throughout her career spanning over seven decades, Redgrave has garnered numerous accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academy Television Award, two ...
, but this did not eventuate.
Peter Sellers
Peter Sellers (born Richard Henry Sellers; 8 September 1925 – 24 July 1980) was an English actor and comedian. He first came to prominence performing in the BBC Radio comedy series ''The Goon Show'', featured on a number of hit comic songs ...
wanted to star, for $100,000, but Cohen could not raise finance on Sellers' name — this was just prior to the release of the smash 1975 film ''
The Return of the Pink Panther''.
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine (born Maurice Joseph Micklewhite; 14 March 1933) is an English actor. Known for his distinctive Cockney accent, he has appeared in more than 160 films in a career spanning seven decades, and is considered a British film ico ...
came close to starring, but eventually Cohen sold the script.
Director Richert and stars
Jeff Bridges
Jeffrey Leon Bridges (born December 4, 1949) is an American actor. He has received various accolades throughout his career spanning over seven decades, including an Academy Award and two Golden Globe Awards.
Bridges comes from a prominent a ...
and
Belinda Bauer went to Germany and filmed ''The American Success Company'', whose distribution rights made enough money for Richert to fund the resumption of his oft-delayed 1979 thriller ''
Winter Kills
''Winter Kills'' is a black comedy novel by Richard Condon, exploring the assassination of a U.S. president. It was published in 1974. The novel parallels the death of John F. Kennedy and the conspiracy theories about it.
Plot summary
The nov ...
''.
[Axemaker, Sean]
"Winter Kills,"
Turner Classic Movies. Accessed Nov. 3, 2017. During production in Germany, ''The American Success Company'' was known as ''The Ringer.''
As a result of the executive at
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
who bought the film rights leaving the studio before its release,
the film never got wide distribution. (Cohen later claimed that Richert's changes to the script ruined the film.)
Writer/director Richert re-edited, re-titled and re-released the film as ''American Success'' in 1981 and then again as ''Success'' (with a new voiceover narration) in 1983.
[Harmetz, Aljean]
"WHEN INDEPENDENTS TRY TO RESURRECT MOVIES THAT FAILED,"
''New York Times'' (September 9, 1982).
The film has never received official home video distribution, but has appeared in
bootleg
Bootleg or bootlegging most often refers to:
* Bootleg recording, an audio or video recording released unofficially
* Rum-running, the illegal business of transporting and trading in alcoholic beverages, hence:
** Moonshine, or illicitly made ...
versions under the titles ''The Ringer'' and ''Good as Gold''.
Reception
Janet Maslin
Janet R. Maslin (born August 12, 1949) is an American journalist, best known as a film and literary critic for ''The New York Times''. She served as a ''Times'' film critic from 1977 to 1999 and as a book critic from 2000 to 2015. In 2000 Maslin ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' reviewed the 1981 re-release as a "nutty and appealing . . . curiosity. . . .
ough it periodically wears thin, ''American Success'' is a buoyant and enterprising movie more often than not, and what it lacks in coherence it makes up in dash." ''
Variety
Variety may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats
* Variety (radio)
* Variety show, in theater and television
Films
* ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont
* ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' wrote, "Although almost everything that happens on screen is done with considerable style and a morbid sense of humor, lack of overall point ultimately sinks the picture."
[Variety Staff]
"The American Success Company,"
''Variety''. Accessed Nov. 22, 2017. In a later review, however, ''Time Out'' called the film "a delightfully offbeat satire both on capitalism and on macho posing. . . .
e performances are superb, and Richert manages to keep the excesses of the script nicely under control. Disarmingly un-American in tone and message, it was perhaps not surprisingly shot abroad in Germany."
[GA]
"The American Success Company,"
''Time Out''. Accessed Nov. 23, 2017.
References
External links
*
at Williamrichert.com
Review of filmat Film Fanatic
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:American Success Company
1980 films
1980 comedy-drama films
American comedy-drama films
1980s English-language films
Films set in Munich
Films set in West Germany
Columbia Pictures films
1980 comedy films
1980 drama films
Films with screenplays by Larry Cohen
1980s American films