Product Details

• Actors: Jacqueline Bisset, Ray Sharkey, Mary Woronov, Robert Beltran, Ed Begley Jr.
• Directors: Paul Bartel
• Writers: Paul Bartel, Bruce Wagner
• Producers: Amir Jacob Malin, Bruce Wagner, Ira Deutchman, James C. Katz
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
• VHS Release Date: October 6, 1997
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6303004873
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,226 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Written by Bruce Wagner and directed by Paul Bartel, this smart, nasty little sex farce deals with the various comings and goings within the household of a show-business family in Lalaland. Who's sleeping with who--and who wants to sleep with who--are part of the door-slamming, bed-swapping escapades in this wild send-up of contemporary life among the wealthy and the people who work for them. No one's secret is safe in this house, and most of them are very funny--in a sick and twisted way. The terrific cast includes Ed Begley Jr., Jacqueline Bisset, Ray Sharkey, Wallace Shawn, and Paul Mazursky. Not for more demure tastes. --Marshall Fine

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Movie Is Hysterical!!...Please release it to DVD here in the States!!, February 7, 2006

By 

HE WHO FUNKS BEHIND THE ROWS!! (Seattle & San Diego) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Germany ] (DVD)

This is one of the most quirky, laugh-out-loud movies
that I have ever seen!
Back in 1990, when this movie came out on VHS,
a freind turned me on to it and told me
that I would love it's outrageous plot lines,
fiendishly clever humor and the expert acting of its
ensemble cast, and boy was he right!
I gufawed through the whole thing and almost
choked on my dinner at one point!---
It's just that damn good!
I don't know what studio created and distributed
this classic but please hurry up and re-release
it to DVD here in the states as soon as
possible because I have been waiting to add
it to my collection for the longest!
Again, this movie is TOOOOOOO FUNNY! (-:

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beverly Hills 9021-OH!, December 4, 2002

By 

Luis Hernandez (New York, New York, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scenes From a Class Struggle [VHS] (VHS Tape)

From the clever mind of writer/director/actor Paul Bartel comes this hysterical, yet screwed-up view of one weekend in the lives of two Beverly Hills households. Revolving around a fading British soap opera star, Clare (Jacqueline Bisett), her recently-divorced neighbor Lisabeth (Mary Woronov) and their butlers (Ray Sharkey and Robert Beltran), the story involves every major and minor character in subplots that intervene with one another.

Featuring an all star cast with such stars as Ed Begley, Jr., Wallace Shawn, Paul Mazursky, and Arnetia Walker, the film goes through many hysterical, yet wickedly delicious turns. The most memorable one is the twisted, diabolical film opening that involves murder (it turns out to be a dream). Arnetia Walker is wonderful as the trashy, yet funny Aunt Tobel who happens to be the mistress who ruined Lisabeth's marriage to her gynecologist husband (Shawn).

The film features one of the most beautiful piano scores I have ever heard. Along with Arnetia Walker's powerful, stirring renditions of two classic songs ("Natural Woman" and "Let's Misbehave"), the film's soundtrack is memorable. It is a great shame that it was never released.

With themes involving homosexuality, bisexuality, pornography, sado-masochism, this film will not be appealing to conservatives who can't enjoy a wonderful farce of life among the rich, snobbish community known as Beverly Hills. Paul Bartel who directed, wrote, and starred in the film did an superb job of poking fun at one of America's most recognizable communities. Like many present-day comedy directors such as the Farrelly Brothers and Keenan Ivory Wayans, Bartel pushed the limits of good taste and morality with this film. The results will have most rolling on the floor laughing.

On a sad note, two of the film's stars died shortly after the film's release. Rebecca Schaeffer who played Clare's daughter, Xandra, was murdered by an obsessed fan. Ray Sharkey, passed away from complications of AIDS. Their performances will live on on what I consider one of the best farce's of the 20th Century.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Too Funny for Words, August 5, 2006

By 

Regina McMenamin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Scenes From the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Germany ] (DVD)

Directed by and starring Paul Bartel of "Eating Raul" fame, SCENES FROM THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN BEVERLY HILLS is an outrageously funny comedy that will easily have you screaming with laughter if you have any sense of humor.

Set in a Beverly Hills mansion, this is an upstairs/downstairs story of a rich divorcee (Jacqueline Bisset) who temporarily moves in with a widowed friend (Mary Woronov) while her house is fumigated and two of their employees who have a wager on who will bed the other's employer first.

Co-starring Ray Starkey, Ed Begley, Jr., Wallace Shawn and the late Rebecca Schaeffer, the film boasts a colorful collection of eccentrics. One of my favorites is Dr. Van Kamp (Paul Bartel) who plays a Beverly Hills diet doctor who heads up a scam charity called the "Hunger Project" and casually utters one of the film's most famous lines: "When you get a bunch of rich fat people who are determined to get thin at any cost, some of them are going to die. It's a rule of thumb."

Another favorite is Aunt To-Bel, an African-American gold digger played brilliantly by Arenthia Walker, who meets Peter (Ed Begley, Jr.) in Las Vegas and takes an entire weekend "to really get to know each other" before visiting Peter's sister in Beverly Hills.

If this film weren't so absurdly hilarious, some could take offense at what at times is a pretty raunchy film, but because SCENES FROM THE CLASS STRUGGLE IN BEVERLY HILLS is so playfully funny, there is nearly no chance that it will offend anyone with a sense of humor. For this reason, I highly recommend this DVD.

-- Regina McMenamin