Product Details

• Actors: Laurence Olivier, Robert Duvall, Katharine Ross, Tommy Lee Jones, Jane Alexander
• Directors: Daniel Petrie
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: March 30, 1999
• Run Time: 125 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305308829
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,726 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Betsy (Snap Case)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Adapted from a Harold Robbins potboiler, The Betsy offers power struggles, incest, adultery, gold digging, and car racing. Laurence Olivier plays a ruthless but fallible auto tycoon with a tortured family history including a weakling son (Paul Rudd), a daughter-in-law he loves too much (Katharine Ross), a resentful grandson (Robert Duvall), and a devoted great-granddaughter (Kathleen Beller) to whom he bequeaths most of his fortune. In the midst of all these family squabbles is racing enthusiast Angelo Perino (a very young Tommy Lee Jones) whom the old man hires to build a revolutionary, ecologically advanced car which will be called The Betsy after his great-granddaughter. Angelo builds The Betsy (the car), seduces Betsy (the great-granddaughter), and even has a fling with Duvall's mistress, played by the haughty Lesley-Anne Down. In order to boil down Robbins's plot-heavy novel to 125 minutes, some of the connecting tissue has been lost. But Olivier is a grand old ham and Jones shows early on why he was destined to be a star. Lavishly produced, The Betsy has been formatted for the small screen, which doesn't allow us to fully enjoy the elaborate sets. But it's a chewy two hours of pulp, nonetheless. --Richard Natale

Product Description

Adapted from a Harold Robbins potboiler, "The Betsy" offers power struggles, incest, adultery, gold digging, and car racing. Laurence Olivier plays a ruthless but fallible auto tycoon with a tortured family history including a weakling son (Paul Rudd), a daughter-in-law he loves too much (Katharine Ross), a resentful grandson (Robert Duvall), and a devoted great-granddaughter (Kathleen Beller) to whom he bequeaths most of his fortune. In the midst of all these family squabbles is racing enthusiast Angelo Perino (a very young Tommy Lee Jones) whom the old man hires to build a revolutionary, ecologically advanced car which will be called The Betsy after his great-granddaughter. Angelo builds The Betsy (the car), seduces Betsy (the great-granddaughter), and even has a fling with Duvall's mistress, played by the haughty Lesley-Anne Down. In order to boil down Robbins's plot-heavy novel to 125 minutes, some of the connecting tissue has been lost. But Olivier is a grand old ham and Jones shows early on why he was destined to be a star. Lavishly produced, "The Betsy" has been formatted for the small screen, which doesn't allow us to fully enjoy the elaborate sets. But it's a chewy two hours of pulp, nonetheless. "--Richard Natale"

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I liked it quite a bit, September 27, 2006

By 

Alamo_guy - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Betsy (Snap Case) (DVD)

I always liked it. My son said it was flawed. That was so many years ago. I liked the story and I liked the actors. It kept me entertained flaws or no flaws. Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duval are standouts. They got John Barry to write the music so it can't be all bad. My days are numbered. This was one of the first DVDs that my son bought. He just found it in that pile of rubble he keeps in his room. I asked him for years to play it for me. Now I am too tired and it doesn't seem all that important. He put it in the player but the images seem to have lost the magic. The first time I saw it there was magic. I remember that it had a good story. The kind of story I like to see when I go to the movies. Well Tommy Lee and Duvall are still plugging away. Maybe there is magic in the world after all.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars First Rate Trash Wallow, January 27, 2006

By 

David Baldwin (Philadelphia,PA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Betsy (Snap Case) (DVD)

There are moments in "The Betsy" where you think you're watching something as profound as "The Godfather" before you pinch yourself and realize you are watching what is essentially schlock. Entertaining, well-crafted schlock but schlock nonetheless. It's Harold Robbins for goodness sake. Credit director Daniel Petrie and his scriptwriters for fashioning a film that is almost respectable. A first-rate cast is assembled to give the film some gravity led by Laurence Olivier as a scion of an auto empire who is as ruthless in the boardroom as he is in his personal relationships. A young Tommy Lee Jones impresses as an ambitious auto racer. Absolutely luminous are Lesley Anne Down as a gold-digging Brit and Kathleen Beller as Olivier's granddaughter. I've never read a Harold Robbins book the film feels like one of those page turners you read on a lazy summer day.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A So-Bad-It's-Great Classic, May 16, 2002

By 

"lothar-the-conqueror" (Lotharvania, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Betsy (Snap Case) (DVD)

There's so much awfulness to love in this movie, a camp classic done as straight as an arrow.

I have a hard time figuring out what's my favorite thing about this movie because there's so much to love -- the total miscasting? Olivier's "Americanish" accent which is frequently slurred? The complete lack of chemistry between any of the principle characters? That "Where's My Paycheck?" look on Katherine Ross' face? The way Tommy Lee Jones spits out his lines so quickly like he needs to leave the set early to go to the Coal Miner's Daughter audition? ... The heavily gauzed-lens flashbacks? The complete implausibility of Harold Robbins' story? Mansions decorated with whicker furniture? Sir Larry's parade of horrendous toupees?

If you miss Dynasty or The Colbys for any of the above reasons, or if you are just a connoisseur of So-Bad-They're-Great movies you can't miss this one. ...