Saturday Music to Bedazzle

Director Stanley Donan's Faust parody written by and starring the brilliant Peter Cook and Dudley Moore is one of THE FUTURIST!'s favorite dark comedies. If you are only aware of the Harold Ramis revolting CGI bloated remake with Brendan Fraser, well ... THE FUTURIST! wants to bitch slap you ... then he will embrace you and console you as you weep and fully realize your utter stupidity. The only way to atone is by queuing up your NetFlix and renting the surrealistic one and only BEDAZZLED from 1967.

The score to the film was written by Dudley Moore, who was a talented pianist and composer. Yes, he did make a series of bad films in the 80s, after he separated from his comedy marriage with Peter Cook, but he was a very funny man and musician. The two of them together were influential figures in British comedy and should be rediscovered by those not familiar with their sharp (mostly ad-libbed) dialogues. Please rent their recently released DVD of their early 60s British TV program. THE FUTURIST! tingled with pure delight while viewing it.

Below is a fantasy sequence from BEDAZZLED in which Moore's character wishes to be a great pop singer in order to attract the girl he secretly adores. Cook is Satan with whom he decides to sell his soul in order to achieve his most cherished dreams. Each of his wishes come to a bad end, due to Satan's knack for toying with happiness and, well, because he's evil. Satan allows Moore's character to fulfill the pop singing fantasy, but throws a malevolent monkey wrench into the dream by appearing as an even more alluring pop fantasy known as ... Drimble Wedge.

Listen:


BEDAZZLED
performed by Peter Cook
from the film BEDAZZLED (1967)