Once Is Not Enough (1975)* (out of 4) I really hope the all-star cast got a good chunk of change to bring Jacqueline Susann's trashy novel to the screen. A burned out movie producer (Kirk Douglas) marries a billionaire (Alexis Smith) so that his virgin daughter (Deborah Raffin) can lead a good life. The daughter, who has some weird thing for daddy, gets jealous and moves out on the advice of a girlfriend (Brenda Vaccaro) who just happens to be "easy". Soon the daughter is courted by a playboy (George Hamilton) but soon she finds herself falling in love with an alcoholic writer (David Janssen) who hates her father because he ruined one of his plays. Did you catch all of that? I'll be honest and admit that I've never read the novel that this is based on and I'll admit upfront that I'm not at all familiar with Susann's work other than the reputation that it's trashy. With an all-star cast it's nearly impossible to stay away from this film and while all of the actors give strong performances you still can't help but scratch your head and wonder why such a talented cast would want to be involved with a film like this. The entire thing is just downright bizarre and it never really makes too much sense. The entire incest relationship between Douglas and Raffin is just downright creepy and it gets even worse when the "friend" suggests to the daughter that she should ask daddy to sleep with her. I can understand a girl saying that her daddy is her best friend but this film takes that a tad bit too far. The two love affairs that the daughter has are just as silly and the amount of melodrama thrown in makes me wonder what adult in their right mind would buy into it. It seems like not even a naive teenager would believe anything going on here so who exactly this film was meant for is beyond me. Clocking in at 121-minutes, this film goes from slow to slower and it just keeps getting worse. There's not a bit of pacing going on and the film just seems to go off in one direction after another. We start off thinking the film is going to be about Douglas but then it skips to the daughter and we get countless other characters that come in and out. What really kills this film is that the entire group of characters are just ugly people and it's impossible to care for any of them. It's not that a viewer can't enjoy ugly characters but the ones here are just so fake, so idiotic and so boring that you don't want to care with them. The shocking thing is seeing the cast give it their all and turn in fine work. Vaccaro picked up a Golden Globe win and she was nominated for an Oscar and she clearly steals the film and beings the only energy to the picture. Raffin is believable as the confused young woman and both Douglas and Smith are good in their parts. The supporting cast is strong but it really doesn't matter because the story is just so stupid and worthless.

There are some movies that just aren't good and I can't even recommend them, even if I like them in some strange way. I was 18 years old when I first saw this movie and David Janssen was an old man of 44. Now he looks like a young man of 44 since I'm coming rapidly up on 53! Anyway, not a lot to disagree with any of the critics. This is a boring film considering its subject matter, but hey, it was 1975. There are two things that stand out in the film that I remembered all these years. When Kirk Douglas drags Janssen out of bed and slugs him, the drywall cracking behind him, and the silent TV set dispensing the movie's climax while January is having an unrelated discussion with the Janssen character. I just finished watching a faded 16mm print of this movie, and realized quickly that it was a TV edit with all of the cussing gone, and even Janssen's butt. The cussing was the best part - especially Brenda Vaccaro's tirade at the end. But would I... bother to hunt down an uncensored VHS or DVD and sit through it again just to have the missing pieces? Probably not. Deborah Raffin is absolutely beautiful, she has 1990s supermodel skinny and complexion, which was a real rarity in the 1970s. Most of the time she's in sweaters and ankle-length skirts. There is one scene of her in bra and panties almost worth the whole movie, but blink and you'll miss it. But basically, the only likable character in the whole movie is Janssen, and he's a heavy-drinking grump. The thing that stands out about him is he's the only character who acknowledges what he is... he has some speck of self-honesty through the booze and the haze. The rest are shallow beyond even most 70s fare... even 70s TV fare. George Hamilton - maybe one of the first people ever to be famous for being famous - is in this movie, although blink and you'll miss him too. Brenda Vaccaro has a somewhat sympathetic role but in the end, she's a phony too. I can't imagine what possessed me to buy this 16mm print more than a decade ago, but it was the desire to keep my 16mm projector warm and make sure it still works that possessed me to drag it out this evening for my wife and I to enjoy. Enjoy for its campiness, a few good scenes. And if you have the 16mm its on three reels so you get two rewind/bathroom breaks! I think one of the reasons this film fails is because it's too serious. It has no laughs. In fact, when I saw it in the theater, the only time anybody in the whole place laughed was at the lesbian scene. And I laughed again because I remembered it just before it came along and was laughing just at the memory. Some things maybe are better off left in memory. For a movie supposedly about sex, it contains virtually none. And I guess that's why you can still get Cheri Caffaro movies on DVD newly remastered... but not this dull little gem. I'm being very kind to give it a 4 only because it was one of the first "adult" movies I ever saw. And because I have indeed suffered through far worse.

I guess no one was able to turn out how quality camp in the 60's better than Jacqueline Susaan and every one of her novels that reached the big screen became a camp classic and this one was no exception. ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH is a camp classic from the Susaan library that induces numerous giggles along the way as it follows the adventures of a rich girl named January Wayne (the wooden Deborah Raffin)who is the daughter of a washed up of movie director (Kirk Douglas), with whom she has a semi-incestuous relationship with, who resents her father's marriage to a wealthy matriarch (Alexis Smith) and retaliates by having an affair with an alcoholic writer (David Janssen) who is her father's biggest enemy. This movie has it all...sex, drugs, lesbianism...all the makings of a camp classic, delivered by campy cast which also included George Hamilton as an aging playboy, Melina Mercouri, as an aging lesbian movie star, and Brenda Vaccaro as a man-crazy magazine editor (Vaccaro actually received an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress). It's not as funny as VALLEY OF THE DOLLS, but there are definite laughs to be fund here.

Jacqueline Susann's glamorous, emotional, highly personal novels always lost something in their translation to the screen. Once Is Not Enough is another prime example. But it doesn't have the unintended hilarity of Valley of the Dolls, nor the compelling sleaziness of The Love Machine. The most outrageous and memorable elements of the book are excised completely, and the result is two hours of sudsy romantic nothingness. Without the pills, vitamin shots, wild sex (including an acid-fueled orgy), and disturbing violence that infused the compelling novel, the story is as flat as week-old ginger ale.It's a slick production with an all-star cast, including the engaging Deborah Raffin as January, but the material is awful. The filmmakers' were obviously trying for a "respectable" approach, and the results are just plain boring. Case in point: Jackie provided the book with a surreal, escapist conclusion that's wholly amazing, whereas the movie just...ends. The book was about a naive girl trying to deal with life, and the movie is about--say it with me now!--LOOOOOOOVE! And it's like every other mediocre movie on the subject.However, things are brightened by Brenda Vaccaro in her Golden Globe-winning, Oscar-nominated turn as uninhibited magazine editor Linda Riggs. She's the perfect realization of Susann's character (albeit with toned-down material) and provides a lot more spirit than this tepid production deserves. Her performance alone merits a viewing, but everything else is a daytime-TV-style mess. About as shocking as a trip to the supermarket--perhaps even less so.