Once Is Not Enough Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		1.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.0

Once Is Not Enough Blu-ray Movie Review

A father simplex.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman July 22, 2013

Say what you will about Joseph E. Levine, this pint sized dynamo had few pretensions when it came to his properties. When he produced the film version of Harold Robbins’ trashy bestseller The Carpetbaggers, Levine knew he was making trash and didn’t try to hide that fact, and actually in his own way seem to exult in offering such unadulterated garbage to a paying public (and that glee paid off—the film was a huge success). Jacqueline Susann might be thought of as the heiress apparent to the landfill which was Robbins’ oeuvre, writing gigantically successful novels which tended to dabble rather liberally in drugs, sex and, just for good measure, lots of risible dialogue. Susann hit the big time with Valley of the Dolls, which became one of the most camptastic films of its generation. Susann continued to crank out bestseller after bestseller, though rather strangely only a few of those novels ever made it to the screen. The Love Machine was a spectacular failure in 1971, perhaps most remembered today (if it’s remembered at all) for its Bacharach-lite score by Artie Butler, which included two songs (actually produced by Bacharach and David) sung by Dionne Warwick(e), the last two singles she did for her longtime label Scepter Records, before leaving for her ill fated trek on Warner Brothers, a change which ultimately actually put the kibosh on her longstanding collaboration with Burt and Hal. Four years after that travesty, Once is Not Enough (or as it’s humorously declaimed on the film itself, “Jacqueline Susann’s Once is Not Enough”) appeared, making The Love Machine look like a neglected masterpiece in the process. A film with a rather mind boggling array of talent attached to it (more about that in a moment), including venerable producer Howard Koch who, unlike Levine, seemed unaware or unwilling to admit exactly what was being proffered, Once is Not Enough is trash that thinks it’s Art. Some may find that funny, but rather strangely, aside from one or two details, the film doesn’t even have much camp value to recommend it.

There’s a long, lingering shot of an Academy Award behind Once is Not Enough’s opening credits sequence, which might be seen as some deliberate wishful thinking, though truth be told Brenda Vaccaro did snag an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress for this film, which—not to take anything away from Vaccaro’s wonderfully hilarious performance — may have been a tip of the hat to the film’s producer, Howard W. Koch, who was at that point also producing the annual Academy Awards telecast (Koch's son "Hawk" is the current President of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences). Koch himself might have felt a certain companionship with the film’s lead character, a film producer named Mike Wayne (Kirk Douglas), who saw himself being replaced by young “bearded” (in Mike’s words) upstarts. Koch had a very long and distinguished producing and/or executive producing career (including everything from the 1962 The Manchurian Candidate to Airplane!), but Wayne seems to be a relatively recent transplant to the film world, albeit one who experienced considerable success— and some Oscar wins, hence that opening shot—early in his career. Now, however, he can barely “take a meeting”, and is instead relegated to selling off the rights to the one property he still has an option on.

Mike may have once loved the film business, but what he’s really devoted to is his pampered daughter January (Deborah Raffin), who is recovering from a devastating motorcycle accident which has left her with some undefined but evidently serious injury (she was wearing a helmet, so we evidently can’t blame Raffin’s zombiefied performance on brain damage). Mike, in an attempt to keep January in the style to which she’s become more than accustomed, decides to woo a wealthy divorcée named Deirdre Milford Granger (Alexis Smith, looking surprisingly great in a variety of skimpy swimsuits early in the film), the “fifth wealthiest woman in the world” (but who’s counting). Deirdre actually has eyes for for foreign actress (yes, actress) Karla (Melina Mercouri), in one of the film’s supposedly most shocking developments. Deirdre also decides that January should marry her nephew, a womanizer named David Milford (George Hamilton). January instead revels in her Electra complex (actually a simplex considering this film’s mind numbing stupidity) and has a relationship with a much older journalist named Tom Colt (David Janssen). January receives some salacious advice along the way from Linda Riggs (Brenda Vaccaro), a woman who has seen and done it all and has lived to tell the tale, which she does with few inhibitions.

As will hopefully be evident from this general précis, Once is Not Enough is not exactly a nuanced drama of subtly shifting interrelationships. It’s a sordid little exposé of a bunch of unhappy characters, few if any who have significant redeeming characteristics. Rather unbelievably, the film was adapted from Susann’s novel by the legendary Julius J. Epstein (Casablanca), who at that point in his career may have been happy to simply have found work, but who seems spectacularly ill suited to write a trash-fest like this. Similarly, Guy Green was an odd choice as director. Green, who came up under the legendary David Lean as a cinematographer (winning an Oscar for Lean’s film of Great Expectations), had a rather varied career as a director, with some admittedly pretty standard potboilers mixed in with some notable achievements (1965’s A Patch of Blue is one of Green’s most solid achievements). But a reserved, well mannered Englishman would seem to not have the requisite sliminess to really delve into the down and dirty ethos of a project like this.

Considering the behind the scenes talent (which also includes composer Henry Mancini) and at the very least the participation of Douglas and Smith (who at that point was enjoying something of a career renaissance after her Tony winning turn in Stephen Sondheim’s Follies), someone somewhere obviously thought that Once is not Enough could be a “serious” film. What ends up happening instead is the cinematic equivalent of a well meaning custodian spraying oodles of air freshener over a rotting pile of garbage. At first whiff, it may seem to smell like gardenias, but after really inhaling, it’s obvious exactly what a steaming heap of excrement this film is.

Once Is Not Enough Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Once is Not Enough is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Olive Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. Director Green and cinematographer John A. Alonzo favor soft focus and diffuse lighting throughout vast swaths of this enterprise, as if a pretty image will distract from the trashy story. The elements here are in very good condition, albeit with some expected minor damage from time to time. The colors look generally quite accurate if not especially robust, with ruddy pink flesh tones (aside from George Hamilton, who is his usual dark brown). The image is never overly detailed, partly due to a dearth of extreme close-ups. There are no stability issues here and as with virtually all Olive releases, no digital tweaking in evidence.

Once Is Not Enough Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Once is Not Enough features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix which is quite narrow, even in the busy urban scenes, but which nonetheless supports the dialogue quite well, which, considering this particular dialogue, may not be such a good thing. Henry Mancini's sweeping if treacly score is also very well represented on this lossless track. There's no damage of any appreciable kind to report on this track.

Once Is Not Enough Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

No supplements are offered on this Blu-ray disc.

Once Is Not Enough Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

There are some pricelessly hilarious moments scattered throughout this film, but almost willfully and defiantly, Once is Not Enough resists being pure, unadulterated camp and instead is just a lethargic, turgid mess. This is one sleazy little film that pretends to be serious but it's an unconvincing masquerade. Some of the performances, notably Raffin's, are just laughably bad, but Vaccaro is an absolute hoot chewing through her unbelievable lines with relish as if to say, "Damn you, Jacqueline Susann! You can't defeat me!" In fact Vaccaro is probably the single greatest reason to watch Once is Not Enough, but even her contributions are probably not enough to warrant doing anything other than renting this.