Beer [The Selling of America] * (1985, Loretta Swit, Rip Torn, Kenneth Mars, David Alan Grier, Dick Shawn, William Russ, Saul Stein) – Classic Movie Review 13,548

The 1985 American satirical comedy film Beer [The Selling of America] satirises the advertising industry, and stars Loretta Swit as a cynical ad executive, Rip Torn and Kenneth Mars.

Director Patrick Kelly’s 1985 film Beer [The Selling of America] stars Loretta Swit, Rip Torn and Kenneth Mars, along with David Alan Grier, Dick Shawn, William Russ, and Saul Stein.

Beer is an abrasive and annoying would-be satirical comedy with Loretta Swit as B D Tucker, a cynical advertising executive selling Norbecker (Kenneth Mars)’s ailing company’s beer by making media stars of three very different men (David Alan Grier, William Russ, Saul Stein) in the street who make the news when they are drinking in a bar and stop a crook’s robbery there.

There are marks for trying, though. Everybody tries hard to be frothy (especially Loretta Swit, Rip Torn, Kenneth Mars and David Alan Grier) but the result is small beer in the cheer department, as the script by Allan Weisbecker is pretty idiotic and trades on easy caricatures and stereotypical situations.

After the general thumbs-down at previews, there was no UK cinema release for this production from the admirable, hard-working, now defunct studio Orion.

In 1997, Orion was acquired by MGM, who revived the Orion name for TV in 2013 and relaunched Orion Pictures a year later. In 2022, Amazon acquired Orion when it acquired MGM.

The cast are Loretta Swit as B D Tucker, Rip Torn as Buzz Beckman, Kenneth Mars as Norbecker, David Alan Grier as Elliott Morrison, Dick Shawn as Talk Show Host, William Russ as Merle Draggett, Saul Stein as Frankie Falcone, Peter Michael Goetz, David Wohl, Ren Woods, and William Mooney.

Loretta Jane Swit (born Loretta Jane Szwed; November 4, 1937 – May 30, 2025) 

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. Swit and Alan Alda were the only actors in both the pilot episode and the finale. She appeared in all but 11 of the total of 256 episodes.

She starred in films including Freebie and the Bean (1974), Race with the Devil (1975), Beer (1985), Whoops Apocalypse (1986), and Blake Edwards’s biting Hollywood satire S.O.B. (1981).

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,548

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