Customer Reviews

Once Is Not Enough [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

In the lexicon of bad film, there is surely a top spot for the delightfully skewed adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's "Valley of the Dolls." "Valley" is perhaps the most famous side of Susann's literary "trash trilogy" which includes "Love Machine" and "Once Is Not Enough." All the novels were fabulously popular in their day and all have been produced into movies with varying degrees of success. Sublimely ridiculous, "Valley" is beloved as a camp classic for so many terrific reasons. If possible, the film of "Love Machine" was even more preposterous--and much more of a "love it" or hate it" proposition. And then we've got "Once Is Not Enough." Easily the most subdued of the film adaptations, "Once" doesn't actually benefit from this distinction.

The film starts out promisingly enough with Kirk Douglas as a down and out filmmaker willing to do anything for the light and love of his life, his daughter January (Deborah Raffin, alternately charming and annoying). He marries a wealthy acquaintance, the terrific Alexis Smith, in a business arrangement to secure his daughter's future. Disturbingly, Douglas and Raffin are as close and co-dependent as any father-daughter team can be. A smarmy George Hamilton is on hand as a possible suitor for Raffin, and a man hungry Brenda Vaccaro camps it up as Raffin's friend and employer (although for the life of me, I could never figure out why she was getting a paycheck). I genuinely enjoyed the beginning and set-up of "Once Is Not Enough," but when Raffin meets David Janssen--its all over. Raffin romances Janssen (an older man--she does have daddy issues--that despises her father) and the film turns a bit too earnest for its own good.

I didn't hate "Once Is Not Enough." However, when the picture changes its focus to this May-December pairing, it loses much of its vitality. In the end, only Vaccaro maintains a pleasing sense of absurdity and unpredictability. Spouting terrific one-liners and unabashedly over-the-top, Vaccaro was actually nominated for an Oscar! Yes, as hard as it is to believe, "Once Is Not Enough" is an Academy Award nominated film for, of all things, its campiest element. Still, I loved Vaccaro. It's hard to really recommend "Once Is Not Enough." It's not serious enough to be moving but not funny enough to be a guilty pleasure. For me, the nicest Susann adaptation, therefore, is the one I enjoy the least after all these years. KGHarris, 9/10.

Deborah Raffin is really worth seeing in ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH. I remember seeing this film when it first came out and thinking it ghastly, but now when I watch it, I'm in awe of Raffin. Okay, she's not much of an actress and will never give Meryl Streep any competition, but, well, I sound like a perve but she just exudes youth and beauty in the part of January Wayne, and her coltish, extremely thin clotheshorseness is so endearing, even when she gives out one of her questionable line readings I just love her.

She's great when she's obviously in love with her own father (but she doesn't realize this until the very last minute of the movie, and instead of a psychic shock, she evinces only a typically cat-like smile, as though a pleasant memory were running somewhere in her mind). I love her playing the newbie to Brenda Vaccaro's Manhattan media slut. She can't believe how vulgar Vaccaro is, and yet she seems to delight in it, Vaccaro's sex talk brings her alive in a way nothing else seems to.

I love her as the stepdaughter of the jealous, Lesbian stepmother "Dee," played by Alexis Smith with a small arsenal of oversized, elegant coups de theatre. Smith is ludicrous as Dee, and even though she not's young like Raffin, you manage to appreciate her performance in just the same way. It's as if both Smith and Raffin believe somehow they're acting in a Eugene O'Neill drama--they're giving it everything they've got, which in Raffin's case is "not much" and in Smith's case it's "everything but the kitchen sink." All Kirk Douglas can do under the circumstances is duck.

It sounds as though I'm ascribing an element of camp to these two performances, but I'm not. No one who has ever seen ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH would think Raffin or Smith capable of the camp gesture, not when you stand them anywhere near Melina Mercouri as "Karla," the Garbo-like actress who is dating Alexis Smith's son, George Hamilton, AND (spoiler) Alexis Smith too! Mercouri has got to be seen to be believed. Next to her, Raffin and Smith are as natural and real as Gena Rowlands and Geraldine Page might have been.

The whole movie is a trip, with one really good scene: Raffin and David Janssen quarrel sulkily, like Bardot in Contempt, in a hotel room in LA, while a silent TV plays a "special report" involving the death of two other major characters in the film. It's a strange scene, almost as if dragged in from some other, more contemporary 70s film, a Hal Ashby touch in a Mitchell Leisen soapfest.

For those hoping to see David Janssen nude, well, he's there, in the flesh, but oh my, the camera should have captured his butt a good fifteen years before this moment of unveiling. That ass is so big it deserves special billing. There's something creepy about Deborah Raffin having to deal with it, still a teenager, in her first major movie.

Although I wasn't as disappointed with this film as the previous reviewer, it was quite a letdown after reading the book. The "vitamin shots" and other assorted goodies (gang rapes, Karla's secret retarded daughter, etc.) that didn't make it on screen severely lower the scandal and glamour level of this film, but the exotic locales and Deborah Raffin's innate charm are undeniably great. It's also fun to see some of the retro kitschy sets (especially George Hamilton's swingin' bachelor pad), and the disco sequence. The film's saving grace is definitely Brenda Vacarro as the unabashed man hungry corporate sleep around Linda Riggs. Her Oscar nomination for the role was well deserved, and I am disappointed she didn't win. The bottom line, however, is this: NOT ENOUGH DRUGS!!!

As a teen in the '70s, I devoured the three Jacqueline Susann novels--VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, THE LOVE MACHINE, and ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH--that were at the top of the bestseller lists. The last one was actually my fave of the three, and I remember the big brouhaha surrounding the "Search For January" when the film version was announced. It was like the search for a girl to play Scarlett O'Hara all over again. They finally chose Cover Girl model Deborah Raffin to play the role, surrounded by an impressive cast of stars. When the film opened in 1975, everyone in NYC piled into the (now long-gone) Loew's Astor Plaza movie theater to see the sexy, scandalous result.

Big surprise--it was not sexy or scandalous, except for some gossip column mileage about the "shocking" lesbian encounter between Alexis Smith and Melina Mercouri, which is pretty tame by today's standards. And most of the rumored nudity was apparently cut out before the film's release. Kirk Douglas, Alexis Smith, and the other stars were okay, considering the little they were given to do, and Broadway vet Brenda Vaccaro actually scored an Oscar nomination for her outrageous hamming in the part of January's foul-mouthed, man-hungry boss. As for Deborah Raffin, the girl behind the worldwide star search--well, she had lovely hair. To be fair, she might have been the next Katharine Hepburn, but we'd never know it from this. The script somehow managed to drain every ounce of fun from the original novel, and we're left with a routine tale of boredom and incestuous lust among the rich and privileged.

There isn't a single scene that stands out in this dull spectacle, and only Vaccaro manages to rise above the surrounding mediocrity. It's marginally better than the film versions of Susann's other blockbusters, but "better than VALLEY OF THE DOLLS" is barely a compliment. Still, there's a definite pleasure to be had from watching it now. It's like an old guilty pleasure from youth. In my case, that's exactly what it is. Recommended (sort of) for lovers of vintage trash.

Being afflicted with the father figure syndrome can be such a drag. Just ask Deborah Raffin's January character who seems unable to shake off her dad's imposing cleft chin presence (Kirk Douglas) however hard she tries. From hanging out with younger yet still tan-obsessed George Hamilton to sleeping with alcoholic and impotent David Jensen (in a pre-Viagra role), to butting heads with closet lesbian stepmother Alexis Smith or striking a friendship with magazine editor-in-chief and insatiably distraught Brenda Vaccaro, nothing works. The girl is hopeless with a capital H. Of course, rubbing shoulders with the elite and swimming in money sure help ease the pain. Well, sort of... Go get yourself a VHS copy of the guiltiest of pleasure that is ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH and see it all in action. In no time you'll be caught into the jetsetting world of the rich and the depraved, Jacqueline Susann style. For, yes, it is based on her best-selling novel of the same name, with all the cheese factor intact. O.K. perhaps a bit more sticky-stretched with its excessiveness, yet fun fun fun in all its campy flavor, thanks to Susann's hubby Irving Mansfield who acts as executive producer and scripter Julius J. Epstein who keeps the author's colorful dialogue essence. With slick production values and pretty decent performances to boost (specially from Vaccaro who was nominated for an Oscar), you've got yourself one lavish treat that high camp seekers will devour in no time, even more so if it ever makes it to DVD. Bon appetit.-----Martin Boucher

Being made in the 70's, I'm sure the film was considered fairly risque. I bought it because I'm a big fan of David Janssen and hadn't seen this particular film. I thought all the performances were good and found it held up surprisingly entertaining over the years. It did not, however, follow the book that closely. The ending was disappointing as you don't really have a clue what is going to happen to the Deborah Raffin's character. David Janssen has some absolutly wonderful moments on screen. If he had taken better care of himself and lived longer, I think he would have become a major film star (as he already was on television). Ladies...the film is worth it just to see DJ in the buff. Hit the rewind button, please...!

The movie adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's "Valley of the Dolls" is pretty much the gold standard when it comes to trashy tales of glamorous lives. It is the camp classic by which all other camp classics are judged. The 1970 film version of Susann's "The Love Machine" didn't quite reach the same heights, but with its cheap look, miscast leads and sloppy script - plus a wee bit more skin -- it's still a lot of fun. So I was quite excited when I got my copy of "Once is Not Enough" on DVD, completing the Susann trinity of trash. Nearly 25 years had passed since I read the book, but I remembered it being Susann's most frankly sexual novel, filled with some of her most outrageous dialog. I figured the movie version of "Once is Not Enough," released in 1975 when the production code had long been forgotten and porno chic was in full swing, would be the sleaziest of the Susann movie adaptations. Instead, it's the most tepid.

Are you kidding me?

"Once is Not Enough" should have been chock-full of sex, drugs, and still more sex, with copious nudity. Scenery should have been chewed up, regurgitated and lapped back up. The actual scenery being chewed should have been exceedingly excessive, the best of the worst of 1970s style (well, here the filmmakers came close). Instead, in the hands of director Guy Green and screenwriter Julius J. Epstein, "Once is Not Enough" is retooled as romantic slush, though the love story here is incestuous. When January (played by a simpering Deborah Raffin) returns to the U.S. after years spent in Switzerland recovering from a motorcycle accident, she discovers her hotshot movie producer father (Kirk Douglas) is now a Hollywood has-been married to Dee (Alexis Smith), the fifth wealthiest woman in the world. This development doesn't sit too well with January. She can cope with the evaporation of Dad's Hollywood career, but not the new wife, and it has nothing to do with Dee's lesbian tendencies. See, the man January is most in love with is Daddy. When she's all but pushed into the arms of Dee's womanizing cousin (George Hamilton), January resists, only reluctantly going to bed with him (or just going to his bed; this movie is vague about what exactly happened) when her sex-hungry friend and boss at Gloss magazine, Linda (Brenda Vaccaro), teases her about being a virgin. But when Norman Mailer-esque novelist Tom Colt (David Janssen)threatens her father in a bar, January finds someone with whom to act out her father fixation.

Keeping this movie from being a total disappointment are Alexis Smith and, especially, Brenda Vaccaro, who gets the movie's liveliest dialog. These actresses go for broke, taking over every scene they're in and bringing life to an otherwise lifeless movie. Melina Mercouri , looking like Charo's mother, and George Hamilton have little to do, and it's not readily apparent why Gary Conway is in the movie at all. Douglas is clearly just trying to get through this thing with his dignity intact, and Janssen seems to have a "what the hell" attitude that actually helps--and may be why he agreed to bare his rear, albeit fleetingly. Raffin is just irritating, though, to be fair, my issue is more with Raffin's character than with her performance. Two hours of January whining and pining for Daddy wears on the nerves pretty quickly. When Linda calls January on her daddy complex and urges her to just go ahead and sleep with her father, I thought: Yes, please do. Unfortunately, "Once is Not Enough" doesn't get that sordid, or that interesting.

I had been waiting for this film to appear on DVD for quite some time. I was forced to buy the video version, sometime ago and now I am very glad I can watch it in DVD quality.
I first saw the film in 1075 when it was newly released. I was really taken by Deborah Raffin at the time, who after all is the protagonist even though her name appears way down the list of credits. 36 years latter, I still like her, but in a very different way. The rest of the cast are all right, nothing special. The scenario is interesting and keep you going to the end, but with no great suspense. On the whole, a good film, worth viewing.

I bought this as David Janssen in it, and for that it was most definitely worth it. Story & some of the lines made me laugh more than a bit. Sure DJ had fun making it. I's very corny but really quite fun.Great for female David Janssen fans :)

This is just the WORST movie Hollywood has ever made out of a book!!!!!

If you loved Jackie Susann's novel "Once is not enough" then you will be very dissapointed by that piece of garbage.

Every pointes, every tention and most of all, the really catching end of this novel have been LEFT OUT and the movie made into a 2 1/2 hours of bore- dome and leaves you there as if you had taken a whole hand-full of "Dolls"!!! For example; the whole story about the A-shots have only been MENTIONED once, there's not one sleeping pill to be seen in the movie and neither is the final drug/sex orgy, which leaves you in the book like paralyzed. And as for the final end, you will only find, January walking smiling through Central Park. I couldn't believe when the end-credits were rolling over the screen and I thought that maybe there was something wrong with my VCR.

I don't know why this movie is still around on video and I can understand Susann's disappointment about that movie

If you love Jackie's books, then DO NOT buy this one. Go for "Valley of the Dolls" instead... Trust me! I'm still fustrated!!

If you watch that movie, you might end up with an overdose of fustration!!!!