S.O.B.

cast: Richard Mulligan, William Holden, Julie Andrews, Rosanna Arquette

writer/director: Blake Edwards
year: 1980 rating: **

Before "The Player", a film which poked fun at Hollywood films, writers, producers, directors, and how films are made from behind-the-scenes, there was "S.O.B.", a wacky mesh of everything thrown into the pot. There are some good moments, like anything involving Richard Mulligan (as buried lead William Holden futilely attempts to protect him from his own bad choices) as a hit-making director who made a big budget disaster, losing his mind and becoming a suicidal maniac. Writer/director Blake Edwards is making a statement here and I'm still not sure what it is. He has his own wife, Julie Andrews, the queen of G rated musicals, playing an actress who is the queen of G-rated musicals... and she takes off her top in the movie-within-a-movie (being recut by Mulligan's character to redeem itself). Herein lies the parody of a parody, but things get too physical and eventually, though sporadically entertaining, it gets downright tiresome.