S.O.B. **** (1981, Julie Andrews, William Holden, Richard Mulligan, Robert Preston, Robert Vaughn, Robert Webber, Larry Hagman, Shelley Winters, Loretta Swit, Marisa Berenson) – Classic Movie Review 8,293

Julie Andrews, William Holden, Richard Mulligan, Robert Preston, Robert Vaughn, Robert Webber, Larry Hagman, Shelley Winters and Loretta Swit are among the choice cast in Blake Edwards’s biting 1981 Hollywood satire S.O.B.

Writer-director Blake Edwards takes his revenge on Hollywood in his 1981 black farce S.O.B. about a film producer’s ploy to turn a flop into a hit: get Julie Andrews to bare her breasts!

S.O.B. is splendidly nasty and funny too, with a choice cast – William Holden in his last film, Richard Mulligan, Robert Preston, Robert Vaughn, Robert Webber, Larry Hagman, Shelley Winters, Loretta Swit, Robert Loggia and Rosanna Arquette – relishing their opportunities.

Richard Mulligan plays Felix Farmer (a person not unlike Edwards), a producer whose $30 million musical is greeted as a flop, plummeting his career into the trash can. Oily studio boss David Blackman (Robert Vaughn) schemes to re-cut his film contrary to contract, but, in the middle of an orgy, Mulligan decides to reshoot the film as a porno, in which its family-friendly star Sally Miles (Julie Andrews) takes her top off.

Also in the cast are Marisa Berenson, Larry Storch, Gene Nelson, Joe Penney, Craig Stevens, Jennifer Edwards and Corbin Bernsen.

S.O.B. in the film stands for Standard Operational Bullshit, with misinformation the norm. Edwards drew on his own experiences as a film maker for the script, but he was to have more experiences. In 1984, Edwards had his name removed from the writing credits of City Heat and was billed as Sam O Brown (S.O.B.).

The film was shot between March and July 1980 in Los Angeles, Malibu, and Santa Monica. It was produced by Lorimar Productions and released by Paramount Pictures on 1 July 1981. It cost $12 million and took $14.8 million at the box office.

It runs 122 minutes.

Loretta Swit plays Hollywood gossip columnist Polly Reed.

Blake Edwards was born William Blake Crump on July 26, 1922. His second marriage, from 1969 until his death on December 15, 2010, was to Julie Andrews. He married his first wife, actress Patricia Walker, in 1953 and divorced in 1967. They had two children, actress Jennifer Edwards and actor-writer-director Geoffrey Edwards. 

Loretta Swit (November 4, 1937 – May 30 2025) is best known as Hot Lips Houlihan on TV’s M*A*S*H, for which she won two Emmy Awards. She starred in films including Freebie and the Bean (1974), Race with the Devil (1975), Beer (1985), Whoops Apocalypse (1986), and S.O.B. (1981),

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8,293

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