Arthur (1981)

A wealthy spoiled alcoholic (Dudley Moore), who's never grown up, is looked after by his valet (John Gielgud in an Oscar winning performance). He's pressured into an arranged marriage with the daughter (Jill Eikenberry) of his father's (Thomas Barbour) business associate (Stephen Elliott). But when he meets a shoplifting waitress (Liza Minnelli), it's love at first sight. While alcoholism in the movies is usually treated with somberness in movies like THE LOST WEEKEND and LEAVING LAS VEGAS, director-writer Steve Gordon's (whose only directorial effort this is, he died a year after this film) manages a balancing act of milking laughs yet still showing us the sadness underneath Moore's drunken veneer. While some drunks get mean when they drink, Moore's Arthur is happy and fun and it's contagious. At the film's opening, when the drunk Moore picks up a hardened street hooker (Anne De Salvo), we see her melt under his genuine kind nature. It's that sweetness that draws us to him rather than being repulsed by his alcoholism. Gielgud channels Clifton Webb superbly, tossing off barbed quips (he tells Minnelli, "One usually has to go to a bowling alley to meet a woman of your quality") while letting us see his concern and affection for the child man he raised and loves. The score is by Burt Bacharach and contains the irresistible Arthur's Theme (Best That You Can Do) which won the best song Oscar. With Geraldine Fitzgerald, Ted Ross and Barney Martin.