Jaclyn Smith is a decent actress; with no real acting experience at the time Aaron Spelling put her in "Charlie's Angels", she never embarrassed herself on that show (especially the early episodes where she actually showed some spunk). Unfortunately, no one has been able to tap that sassy side of her since. She has played all different types of characters, but the only TV-movie she's made that left an indelible impression on me was "Rage Of Angels", a decent potboiler with Smith doing B+ work. "The Users" presents her as a muse to a faded Hollywood hack, climbing the ladder of celebrity herself only to find Lotus Land full of backbiters. Is any of this new? No. It is enjoyable anyway? Occasionally, yes. It's a melodramatic soap opera with tatty, now-dated trappings. I didn't much mind the television budget or the sudsy dialogue. I did, however, want to see Jaclyn Smith give a stronger performance. When will Aaron Spelling work his magic on her again?
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dwr24625 April 2006Call this one a guilty pleasure. Everything about it is bad - the writing, the acting, the direction, etc. And yet, once you stop taking it seriously, it's a surprisingly entertaining movie.
The story centers on Elena Schneider (Jaclyn Smith), a pretty young woman stuck in a small town caring for an ailing mother (Joanne Linville). One day, aging movie star, Randy Brent (Tony Curtis) comes through town. He and Elena meet, fall in love, and suddenly her mother is urging her to marry Randy and head off to Hollywood, which she does. Once there, she gets caught up in the intrigue of trying to revive Randy's career, while trying to start her own. Along the way, she meets Randy's daughter, Marina (Michelle Phillips), who is involved in a dead end affair with Adam Baker (George Hamilton), discovers Randy's bisexuality when she walks in on him and a male lover, and drinks writer, Henry Waller (Darren McGavin) under the table in order to get Randy a part which will give him his comeback. Once Randy is established, she leaves him for dashing Reade Jamieson (John Forsythe), with whom she has somehow fallen in love along the way.
Silly story, and little was done with the writing to lend any credibility to it. It's just a Hollywood soap opera presented for the entertainment, and it doesn't pretend to be anything else. It is however, representative of its time in that its attitudes are both sexist and homophobic, but since it wasn't meant to taken seriously, it's a little hard to get too riled up about that.
The acting was okay. A good cast tries to rise above bad material, and is only partially successful. Smith's performance is reasonably good, and Forsythe does his usual excellent job. Curtis swishes his way through his part (rather ironic given his outspoken stance again Brokeback Mountain). Phillips and Hamilton both come off as stilted.
This is not film making at its finest. Nonetheless, as long as you don't expect that, it is campy fun. -
I remember when I first saw this I was high on the love of Charlie's Angels and anything that the actresses from that show did. I thought this was the best thing I had ever seen. And then a few years later I saw it again without the rose colored glasses and was not as enthralled with it.
I have also recently leaned or at least reminded of a lesson I have always known -- often these shows are not as good as the books they are based on. Now the book The Users by Joyce Haber is not the greatest book out there, but it is far better than the mini-series they based on her book. Watching the mini-series and reading the book now it is almost as if they took the names from the book and wrote them a totally different story.
Forget the series and read the book. -
This could have really been a tasteless wallow in glitzy sleaze, but, thanks to the fresh-scrubbed, earnest appeal of Smith, it comes off as a nearly chaste account of the behind the scenes world of Tinsel Town. Smith plays a small-town film extra and prostitute who is called into service by movie producer Hamilton in order to boost the ego and morale of his male lead Curtis prior to the filming of a big scene in his comeback vehicle. Smith is happy to oblige since Curtis is her favorite star and she knows all about him. They wind up falling for each other and moving back to Hollywood, but things get rough when the studio decides to cut the running time of Curtis's movie and release it at multiplexes and on network TV. Smith must immediately get to work, maneuvering around town to acquire a choice property for Curtis, but having to dodge various creatures like slimy agent Buttons and cantankerous writer McGavin in the bargain. She is aided by Curtis's grown daughter Phillips, wealthy investor Forsythe and the town's most skilled social maven Fontaine. Sadly, Curtis takes the news of his movie's failure so poorly that it may not matter what Smith accomplishes. Smith is quite good, despite being miscast. She could never convey the cold, common, hard qualities of a social-climbing hooker, so the film-makers wisely focused on her devotion to Curtis. She looks terrific, too, in an assortment of Nolan Miller gowns. Curtis is rather bad, actually. Certain aspects of his role seem to be either beyond him or uncomfortable for him to play. Still, he manages to invest some of his scenes with a nice amount of feeling. Phillips has a fairly colorless role, but brings some knowing attitude to it and a bit of flair. Hamilton looks great and would have looked even better without his ridiculous glasses. He gives as good a performance as this fluffy piece of shiny trash deserves. Chic Fontaine seems to be having fun, Buttons is appropriately cringe-inducing and McGavin does well in a cameo role. This may as well have been Forsythe's audition for "Dynasty", though he inherited that role from George Peppard. It's a glossy, soapy, skin-deep chunk of paste jewelry, the type of tele-film the late-70's and early-80's are noted for, but it's a decent time-waster. Jarre provides a neat score.
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Gives a clue to who wrote this, describing the daughter of veteran star Tony Curtis, played by Michelle Phillips. He's just married Jaclyn Smith, a former prostitute, on the spur of the moment, bringing her from Arizona to Beverly Hills, showing her the house of an Arab shiek (long torn down) and promising to introduce her to 'all of the beautiful people". What sounds like Harold Robbins or Jacqueline Susann isn't, basically a paint by numbers story of phony Hollywood glamour that only existed on Oscar nights. What starts off as a happy story quickly slides down the hills of Beverly as secrets are revealed, scandals ruin lives, and the fake pretetentiousness of the image of Tinseltown is revealed.
There's automatic camp with the sudden appearance of foggy voiced Carrie Nye as the possessive wife of movie producer George Hamilton who instantly is suspicious of Smith, yet repulsion with the overrated Red Buttons as a Harvey Weinstein like movie studio owner. Still glamorous 40 years after her own discovery, Joan Fontaine is equally as campy as Nye, her cheery presence as a famous hostess of the hills hiding acidic vinegar. Pre-"Dynasty", John Forsythe is more Blake Carrington than Charlie Townsend, dashing and commanding. The constant name dropping of the biggest stars of the time gives this a sense of nostalgia, coming when nostalgia of previous eras was in.
There's other assorted ridiculous cliches of social climbing wannabees/never-was's, all providing an inside scoop on how miserable these people are, covered in many other trashy novels, mini-series and even so called biographies of many real life legends whose box office power in real life didn't mean that they were happy. Everyone seems to be having fun here, another plus, and Curtis is touching as he realizes that his comeback did not succeed, causing his world to further fall apart with a shocking detail of his private life exposed. This seems tame 40 plus years later (not as cut throat as it really is today), but a tasty, colorful reminder that fake is fun to watch, but don't touch at the risk of being cursed. -
valstone5225 January 2020I read the book years ago, didn't even know it was made into a tv movie. Jacqueline Smith can't act, never thought Curtis was was anything but a pretty boy, and not even that really. Red buttons, needed a better toupee and Hamilton was just his usual tan self. Some books should never be made into movies, and this is one of them.
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MrDeWinter20 September 2021Don't expect quality from Spelling. That Jaclyn Smith cant act is widely known but did the established heavy weights not read the script?
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mls418210 December 2021Tony Curtis as a burnt out bisexual has been desperate for a comeback. Jaclyn Smith plays an extra who wants more. Joan Fontaine as a powerful Beverly Hills socialite. Add George Hamilton and Michelle Phillips.
The best scene is when Fontaine graciously greets Smith then tells her she never met a prostitute before.
This dumb, trashy film is what Iowans think Hollywood is.