All Topics  
The Betsy

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

The Betsy
 
 
  Topics The Betsy Topic Home

The Betsy is a 1978
1978 in film

The year 1978 in film involved some significant events....
 film made by the Harold Robbins International Company and released by Allied Artists
Allied Artists Pictures Corporation

Allied Artists Pictures Corporation started life as a subsidiary of Monogram Pictures in 1946 as an outlet for films with bigger names and higher budgets than Monogram could boast....
. It was directed by Daniel Petrie
Daniel Petrie

Daniel M. Petrie was a television and Film director.One of his most famous credits was 1961 in film's A Raisin in the Sun , which was nominated for the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival....
 and produced by Robert R. Weston and Emanuel L. Wolf with Jack Grossberg as associate producer. The screenplay
Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing works....
 was by William Bast
William Bast

William Bast is an United States screenwriter and author currently living in Los Angeles. In addition to writing scripts for motion pictures and television, he is the author of two biographies of the screen actor James Dean....
 and Walter Bernstein
Walter Bernstein

Walter Bernstein is an United States screenwriter and film producer who was Hollywood blacklist by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s....
, adapted from the novel of the same title by Harold Robbins
Harold Robbins

Harold Robbins was an United States author.Robbins, born Harold Rubin in New York City, claimed to be a Jewish orphan raised in a Catholic boys home; actually, he was the son of well-educated Russian and Polish immigrants....
. The novelist considered The Betsy as the "best movie adaptation of any of his works."

The film stars Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, Order of Merit was an English people Stage actor, Theatre director, and Theatrical producer. He is one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century, along with his contemporaries John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft and Ralph Richardson....
, Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall

Robert Selden Duvall is an United States film actor and Film director who has won an Academy Award, two Emmys, and four Golden Globes. He has appeared in films such as To Kill a Mockingbird , The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, The Natural , Network , THX 1138, MASH , The Great Santini,...
, Katharine Ross
Katharine Ross

Katharine Juliet Ross is an Academy Award-nominated American film and theatre actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman, and her role as Etta Place in 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, opposite Paul Newman a...
, Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones

'Tommy Lee Jones' is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, Screen Actors Guild- and Emmy Award-winning United States actor and film director. He is perhaps best known for his appearances as Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive and U.S....
, Jane Alexander
Jane Alexander

Jane Alexander is an award-winning American actress, author, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. Although perhaps best known for playing the female lead in The Great White Hope on both stage and screen, Alexander has played a wide array of roles in both theater and film, and has committed herself to a variety of c...
, Joseph Wiseman
Joseph Wiseman

Joseph Wiseman is a Canada actor, best known for starring as the main antagonist of the first James Bond film, Dr. No . He was born in Montreal, Quebec....
, Kathleen Beller
Kathleen Beller

Kathleen Beller is an actress nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in Promises in the Dark ....
, Edward Herrmann
Edward Herrmann

Edward Kirk Herrmann is an United States television and film actor....
, Paul Rudd*, and Lesley-Anne Down
Lesley-Anne Down

Lesley-Anne Down is an English actor who is best known for her roles as Georgina Worsley in the ITV period piece Upstairs, Downstairs, Olivia Blake in the NBC soap opera Sunset Beach and Madeline Fabray LaMotte Main in North and South ....
.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'The Betsy'
Start a new discussion about 'The Betsy'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


The Betsy is a 1978
1978 in film

The year 1978 in film involved some significant events....
 film made by the Harold Robbins International Company and released by Allied Artists
Allied Artists Pictures Corporation

Allied Artists Pictures Corporation started life as a subsidiary of Monogram Pictures in 1946 as an outlet for films with bigger names and higher budgets than Monogram could boast....
. It was directed by Daniel Petrie
Daniel Petrie

Daniel M. Petrie was a television and Film director.One of his most famous credits was 1961 in film's A Raisin in the Sun , which was nominated for the Palme d'Or award at the Cannes Film Festival....
 and produced by Robert R. Weston and Emanuel L. Wolf with Jack Grossberg as associate producer. The screenplay
Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing works....
 was by William Bast
William Bast

William Bast is an United States screenwriter and author currently living in Los Angeles. In addition to writing scripts for motion pictures and television, he is the author of two biographies of the screen actor James Dean....
 and Walter Bernstein
Walter Bernstein

Walter Bernstein is an United States screenwriter and film producer who was Hollywood blacklist by the Hollywood movie studio bosses in the 1950s....
, adapted from the novel of the same title by Harold Robbins
Harold Robbins

Harold Robbins was an United States author.Robbins, born Harold Rubin in New York City, claimed to be a Jewish orphan raised in a Catholic boys home; actually, he was the son of well-educated Russian and Polish immigrants....
. The novelist considered The Betsy as the "best movie adaptation of any of his works."

The film stars Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier

Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, Order of Merit was an English people Stage actor, Theatre director, and Theatrical producer. He is one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century, along with his contemporaries John Gielgud, Peggy Ashcroft and Ralph Richardson....
, Robert Duvall
Robert Duvall

Robert Selden Duvall is an United States film actor and Film director who has won an Academy Award, two Emmys, and four Golden Globes. He has appeared in films such as To Kill a Mockingbird , The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Apocalypse Now, The Natural , Network , THX 1138, MASH , The Great Santini,...
, Katharine Ross
Katharine Ross

Katharine Juliet Ross is an Academy Award-nominated American film and theatre actress. Trained at the San Francisco Workshop, she is perhaps best known for her role as Elaine Robinson in the 1967 film The Graduate, opposite Dustin Hoffman, and her role as Etta Place in 1969's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, opposite Paul Newman a...
, Tommy Lee Jones
Tommy Lee Jones

'Tommy Lee Jones' is an Academy Award-, Golden Globe-, Screen Actors Guild- and Emmy Award-winning United States actor and film director. He is perhaps best known for his appearances as Samuel Gerard in The Fugitive and U.S....
, Jane Alexander
Jane Alexander

Jane Alexander is an award-winning American actress, author, and former director of the National Endowment for the Arts. Although perhaps best known for playing the female lead in The Great White Hope on both stage and screen, Alexander has played a wide array of roles in both theater and film, and has committed herself to a variety of c...
, Joseph Wiseman
Joseph Wiseman

Joseph Wiseman is a Canada actor, best known for starring as the main antagonist of the first James Bond film, Dr. No . He was born in Montreal, Quebec....
, Kathleen Beller
Kathleen Beller

Kathleen Beller is an actress nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture Actress in a Supporting Role for her role in Promises in the Dark ....
, Edward Herrmann
Edward Herrmann

Edward Kirk Herrmann is an United States television and film actor....
, Paul Rudd*, and Lesley-Anne Down
Lesley-Anne Down

Lesley-Anne Down is an English actor who is best known for her roles as Georgina Worsley in the ITV period piece Upstairs, Downstairs, Olivia Blake in the NBC soap opera Sunset Beach and Madeline Fabray LaMotte Main in North and South ....
. *This actor is deceased and not the one who is now popular with the same name

The Betsy features music composed by John Barry
John Barry (composer)

John Barry, Order of the British Empire is a renowned Golden Globe Award and five-time Academy Award-winning English film score composer. He is best known for composing 11 James Bond movies and was hugely influential on the 007 series' distinctive style....
.

All the sex is so discreet that the movie never allows itself to get as trashy as a Harold Robbins bestseller should be.

The Betsy was filmed at Rosecliff
Rosecliff

Rosecliff, built 1898-1902, is one of the Gilded Age mansions of Newport, Rhode Island, now open to the public as a museum.It was built by Theresa Fair Oelrichs, a silver heiress from Nevada, whose father James G....
 mansion in Newport Rhode Island.

Plot


The plot involves a fading family-owned automobile manufacturer that pins its hopes for a return to profitability based upon a new model named for the granddaughter of the firm's founder. Intrigue within the book centers on corporate secrets and family betrayal. Several of the characters are based upon members of the Ford family; the most notable dynamic is between the character player by Olivier and that of Henry Ford
Henry Ford

Henry Ford was the United States founder of the Ford Motor Company and father of modern assembly lines used in mass production. His introduction of the Model T History of the automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry....
.

Assembly plant footage was filmed at the American Motors
American Motors

American Motors Corporation was an United States automobile company formed on January 14, 1954 by the merger of the Nash-Kelvinator Corporation and the Hudson Motor Car Company....
 (AMC) Kenosha, Wisconsin
Kenosha, Wisconsin

Kenosha is a city in and the county seat of Kenosha County, Wisconsin, United States. With an estimated 2006 population of 96,240, Kenosha is the fourth-largest city in Wisconsin....
 facilities. It shows 1978 Gremlin
AMC Gremlin

The AMC Gremlin is a subcompact car that was made by the American Motors Corporation for nine model years. During its manufacturing run from April 1970 through 1978, a total of 671,475 Gremlins were built in the United States and Canada....
, Pacer
AMC Pacer

The AMC Pacer is a two-door compact car automobile produced in the United States by the American Motors Corporation between 1975 and 1980. Its initial design idea was started in 1971....
, and Concord
AMC Concord

The AMC Concord was a compact car made by the American Motors Corporation starting with Model year 1978 and continuing to 1983. The Concord was intended to replace not only the similar AMC Hornet, but to some extent the aging mid-size AMC Matador that would be discontinued after 1978 in a market moving to downsized automobiles....
 models being built and painted.

Jones and Duvall would reunite a decade later in Larry McMurtry
Larry McMurtry

Larry Jeff McMurtry is an United States novelist, essayist, bookseller, and Academy Award winning screenwriter whose work is predominantly set in either the "old west" or in contemporary Texas....
's sweeping western epic, Lonesome Dove
Lonesome Dove

Lonesome Dove, written by Larry McMurtry, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning Western novel and the first published book of the Lonesome Dove series....
.

Reviews

.

External links