Directed by:
Daniel PetrieCinematography:
Mario TosiComposer:
John BarryCast:
Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall, Katharine Ross, Tommy Lee Jones, Jane Alexander, Lesley-Anne Down, Joseph Wiseman, Edward Herrmann, Inga Swenson (more)Plots(1)
THE BETSY, directed by Daniel Petrie and based on Harold Robbins's sordid potboiler about several generations of an American car manufacturing dynasty, stars Laurence Olivier as 90-year-old Loren Hardeman, who rules the family with an iron fist. The clan, nonetheless, is constantly involved in intrigues and affairs ranging from adultery to abuse of power. Although Loren has passed along the family business to his grandson, Loren Hardeman III (Robert Duvall), he has one idea that he is desperate to realize. The Betsy is Loren's dream car, named after his doting great-granddaughter (Kathleen Beller), and he hires Angelo Perino (a young and seductive Tommy Lee Jones) to help him secretly create the economical, efficient vehicle. Angelo is an injured race car driver who diligently works to design the car while seducing Betsy and having an affair with Loren III's mistress (a terrifically haughty Lesley-Anne Down). But the money-grubbing auto industry isn't too fond of Loren's secret pursuit, and their desire to sabotage him soon sets off more melodramatic action than a family can handle. (official distributor synopsis)
(more)Cast
Laurence Olivier
UK
Best movies:
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Sleuth (1972)
Hamlet (1948)
Robert Duvall
USA
Best movies:
The Godfather Trilogy: 1901-1980 (1992) (TV movie)
The Godfather: A Novel for Television (1977) (series)
The Godfather (1972)
Katharine Ross
USA
Best movies:
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969)
The Graduate (1967)
Donnie Darko (2001)
Tommy Lee Jones
USA
Best movies:
The Fugitive (1993)
JFK (1991)
No Country for Old Men (2007)
Jane Alexander
USA
Best movies:
Kramer vs. Kramer (1979)
The Cider House Rules (1999)
Brubaker (1980)
Lesley-Anne Down
UK
Best movies:
The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
The First Great Train Robbery (1978)
North and South (1985) (series)
Joseph Wiseman
Canada
Best movies:
Detective Story (1951)
Dr. No (1962)
The Valachi Papers (1972)
Edward Herrmann
USA
Best movies:
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
James Dean (2001) (TV movie)
A Foreign Field (1993)
Inga Swenson
USA
Best movies:
The Miracle Worker (1962)
North and South (1985) (series)
Advise and Consent (1962)
Kathleen Beller
USA
Best movies:
The Godfather: A Novel for Television (1977) (series)
The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Fort Apache the Bronx (1981)
Whitney Blake
USA
Best movies:
The Betsy (1978)
Richard Venture
USA
Best movies:
Being There (1979)
Scent of a Woman (1992)
All the President's Men (1976)
Read Morgan
USA
Best movies:
Back to the Future (1985)
Maverick (1994)
Rocky IV (1985)
Roy Poole
USA
Best movies:
Brubaker (1980)
Network (1976)
Sometimes a Great Notion (1971)
Clifford David
USA
Best movies:
Fort Apache the Bronx (1981)
Signs (2002)
Kinsey (2004)
Titos Vandis
Greece
Best movies:
The Exorcist (1973)
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask (1972)
How the West Was Won (1976) (series)
William Roerick
USA
Best movies:
The Harder They Fall (1956)
The Day of the Dolphin (1973)
Not of This Earth (1957)
Carol Williard
Best movies:
Pretty Woman (1990)
Overboard (1987)
Beaches (1988)