Customer Reviews

Poor Little Rich Girl - The Barbara Hutton Story [VHS]

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This video is the abridged version of the original mini-series that aired on NBC in the late 80's. The video is based on the life of Barbara Hutton, the heiress to the F.W. Woolworth fortune. At 18 she inherited over 50 million dollars from her mother's and grandfathers estate. Barbara's mother committed suicide when Barbara was very young, leaving her in the care of a father who never loved or wanted her. Barbara used her wealth to try and buy the love she never received. She married 7 times, spent lavishly on herself, her many husbands, so-called friends, and her only son. She died nearly broke in 1979. The original mini-series was over 4 hours long. A second showing was aired on Lifetime Cable TV in the mid-90's. That version has additional scenes that the original mini-series did not show. This video is the 90 minute version and unfortunately does not cover the complete life of the heiress. It is full of gaps that makes it hard to follow. If NBC or Lifetime Television were smart, they would re-issue the entire series on VHS and DVD.

This is an awesome tail of the granddaughter of F.W. Woolworth, Barbara Hutton who, after her mother dies, inherits one of the largest fortunes ever amassed making her one of the richest women in the world. As the story unfolds the viewer understands that this poor little rich girl feels perfectly alone and attempts to buy her way out of isolation as well as drink and drug herself to numb the pain of having everything she never wanted and nothing she ever needed. In the course of her search for emotional fulfillment she marries husband after husband including two different princes who abuse her and a marriage to the famed actor Cary Grant, Barbara Hutton is embezzled from and taken advantage of in every conceivable way. This movie is awesomely shot and directed. Farah Fawcett is tremendous in her portrayal and the score is beautiful.
Mark Matthews

I ORDER POOR LITTLE RICH GIRL. AND THOUGHT I WAS GETTINS THE ORIGNAL BUT I DID NOT.THE MOVIE HAS ALOT OF MISSING PART THEN I HAVE SEEN THIS MOVIE ON TV IN 1987 AND IT ON TV IT 4 HOUR ONE NIGHT IT WAS PART1 NEXT NIGHT PART2. IT WAS A MIMI SERIES 11-16-1987 WHEN IT FIRST CAME ON TV.PLEASE SEND ME THE ORIGNAL. IT IS 4HOUR MOVIE

This is not the entire miniseries, as was originally shown in 1987. I do not understand why it would be released in this horribly choppy manner. I feel ripped off. Don't buy.

I hadn't seen this movie since it was first shown on TV in the 80s and naturally expected the video to show the entire mini-series as it originally aired. I was very disappointed and irritated (and felt cheated) that the video version has been shortened/condensed and I don't understand why it was done this way! When other miniseries are released on video or dvd, they are presented in their entirety, so why wasn't this one?! If I had known in advance that the video was abridged, I never would have purchased it. Buyer Beware...

I also ordered the video and realized that it was not the entire movie. It makes the movie seem very choppy and hard to follow without these parts. I do not understand why it was done this way and would love to find an original copy.

As many people have noted, the version officially released on VHS in the US is only 98 minutes long. The IMDB entry for this film states that the miniseries was originally nearly 4 hours long. I have had the great good fortune to get ahold of a good-quality copy of the _uncut_ miniseries, which clocks at nearly 235 minutes, and anyone else who happens on this version on eBay or anywhere else should grab it and leave this - I have no other word for it - butchered - version alone. The full-length version contains a whole 2 1/2 hours of footage that gives great depth to Farrah Fawcett's performance as Barbara Hutton, which the butchered version makes a mess of but still can't totally obscure. In fact, if I remember correctly, the butchered version hardly covers her childhood and adolescence at all while the full-length version devotes its first half-hour to the life of young Barbara. If this miniseries is ever re-released on DVD in the US, I hope and trust that the full-length version, not this abortion, will be the one that is released. I give this version 2 stars solely because of the strength of what survives of Fawcett's acting after the cuts; the full-length version would get at least 3 to 3 1/2 stars.