oh, man, last night I was tired and depressed... I'm having trouble, along with everyone else, finding a normal routine in all this... I haven't gotten squat done at work for two weeks... there's nothing to just move past, because the "what-may-come" is as distressing as the "what-has-happened."
so I went to my local neighborhood crappy video store in search of something fluffy, and a copy of "bedazzled" (the 1967 version with Dudley Moore and Peter Cook) caught my eye. (everything else that caught my eye was trouble: 3 hour epic tear-jerkers about war-torn families in WW2, etc.)
When the remake of this movie (with Brendan Frasier, who is a cutie, but makes mostly bad movies) came out, someone told me that the original version was actually very funny. I was very put off by the photo of Raquel Welch on the cover, but thankfully she's only in it for a few minutes, and truly, the rest of it was hysterical. I don't know what else I've seen Peter Cook in, except as the priest with the speech impediment in "The Princess Bride." and I never cared much for Dudley Moore, but he's great in this. totally young and pitiful and adorable. (also- it's written by Moore and Cook, and directed by Stanley Donen. They must have had a blast making it.)
The plot is simple: Moore plays Stanley, a pathetic short-order cook, in love with waitress Margaret, who barely knows he's alive. Stanley tries unsuccessfully to hang himself when the devil (a.k.a. George Spiggott), played by Cook, comes in and makes him an offer: 7 wishes in exchange for his soul. (God and the Devil actually have a little competition going-- if the Devil can gather a hundred billion souls before God can, he'll be let back into Heaven.) Hilarity, etc., ensues.