Within the first twenty minutes, Moore is looking through a telescope on his Beverly Hills back deck at his free-living neighbor's house. The neighbor and his girlfriend are playing pool. The girlfriend is naked. My sister and I begin sinking into our seats. I sense my parents' uncomfortableness. My sister stifles a giggle. Each of us is thinking, "Whose idea was it to see this movie?" Did my sister and I convince Mom and Dad to take us to it or did they mistakenly not do their homework on this film like they had when denying me to see JAWS (1975) or THE MARATHON MAN (1976). It was an awkward moviegoing experience that would get better as "10" turned out to be a great comedy with one caveat: it was an R-rated adult comedy with a decent amount of physical humor.
With "10", director Blake Edwards would return to more adult themed movies that began his career with films like BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S (1961) starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard or DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES (1962) with Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick. In the 1970s, Edwards would kickstart the return of Inspector Clouseau in three consecutive and successful THE PINK PANTHER movies with his comedic partner in crime Peter Sellers that began in 1964 with A SHOT IN THE DARK (you could count 1963's THE PINK PANTHER as the first Clouseau film but Edwards and Sellers remolded the character for A SHOT IN THE DARK). Edwards and Sellers would not collaborate again after THE REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER (1978). Sellers would pass away in 1980 from a heart attack at the relatively young age of 54. Edwards would find his new comedic muse for "10" with another slightly obscure British comedy actor who may have crossed paths with Sellers in the 1960s by the name of Dudley Moore.
Written and directed by Blake Edwards, "10" begins with Hollywood composer George Webber (Dudley Moore) walking into his Beverly Hills home at night where he's given a surprise 42nd birthday party thrown by his Broadway star girlfriend Samantha "Sam" Taylor (Julie Andrews, married to director Blake Edwards in real life) and his musical lyricist partner Hugh Fallon (Robert Webber). George is going through a mid-life malaise. He feels old age creeping up on him. George wants to be young again. His relationship with Sam seems tired and they keep fighting. He teases Hugh about his young boyfriend Larry (Walter George Alton). George envies his hedonistic neighbor (Don Calfa) who he spies on with his telescope having threesomes with young, naked women and throwing orgy parties around his swimming pool. While waiting at a stop light in Beverly Hills, a Mercedes pulls up next to him. A young bride Jenny Miles (Bo Derek) and groom David Hanley (Sam Jones) are headed to a nearby church to be married. George and Jenny make brief eye contact and George falls head over heels for the young, mysterious Jenny.
George visits his psychiatrist Dr. Croce (John Hancock). He tells his shrink that on a scale of 1 to 10, Jenny's an 11. George's infatuation leads him to the church where the musically challenged Reverend (Max Showalter) tells George who the newlyweds were. That clue takes George to Beverly Hills dentist Dr. Miles (James Noble), the mystery bride's father. Besides performing emergency fillings on six cavities in George's mouth, Dr. Miles reveals his daughter and new husband are honeymooning in Mexico. High on painkillers, George returns home and stumbles into one of his neighbor's naked pool parties. Sam, looking to make amends with George, shows up at his house and spies George through his telescope frolicking with nude women at the pool. She drives off furious before George can return to his house to explain he's not himself due to the drugs he's on from the dentist.
With his girlfriend and best friend furious with him, George (still in a stupor from novocaine) flies off to Mexico to find his mystery woman or maybe himself. George hits it off with the hotel bartender Donald (a boyish Brian Dennehy) at the bar. He begins to regret coming down to Mexico. He calls Sam from the bar, attempting to apologize to her when newlyweds Jenny and David show up. Sam won't take him back and hangs up. A pretty, slightly older than Jenny woman named Mary Lewis (Dee Wallace) hits on George at the bar. They go back to his room for a one-night stand but discover they don't have the right chemistry.
The next day George stumbles down to the beach, burning his feet on the hot sand, watching Jenny from a distance as she sunbathes. Her new husband David rents a surfboard and paddles out into the ocean. George fantasizes about rolling around in the surf, kissing Jenny. George gazes out at the ocean and notices David asleep on the surfboard, drifting out further to sea. George rents a Hobie Cat (sailboat) and manages to rescue David as a nearby shark circles. George becomes a hero, the news story even reaching Sam and Hugh back in Los Angeles. George's heroics encourage him to knock on Jenny's hotel room. Fresh out of the shower in only her towel, Jenny thanks George for rescuing her husband. They have dinner together, dance, and then return to her room. Jenny admits she's attracted to older men. She suggests they make love to Ravel's Bolero. Will George's dream girl be everything he imagines or will their differences in age and sexual morals get in the way?
With "10", director Edwards playfully and realistically skewers the stereotypical male fantasy of chasing the beautiful younger woman. It begins with George's spying on his sexually open neighbor with his telescope from his Beverly Hills back deck. George's neighbor represents what George thinks his middle-aged life should be. Stuck in his own male menopause, George's voyeurism leads him to believe life would be better and more exciting with threesomes and orgies with younger women than his steady, loving girlfriend Sam. When Sam catches George at one of Larry's orgies, George learns it's not as fun as it appears be on the other end of the telescope.
On the Mexican beach, Edwards shows us Geroge's daydreams as Jenny runs in slow motion toward the camera, every bounce and jiggle captured. Or George and Jenny rolling around in the sand and surf ala Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr in FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1954) kissing and embracing as waves lap over them. That's George's fantasy. But the reality comes in the bedroom. After initially thrilled to be sleeping with his "11", George is mortified when Jenny in the middle of lovemaking takes a call from David in the hospital. He's aghast that Jenny shows no remorse committing adultery a week into her marriage and while on her honeymoon. Suddenly, the gap between their ages, their generations, and their morals smashes George's adult figments of fancy. George is more old fashioned than he realizes.
To counter George's male mid-life crisis, Edwards provides us with a female version of George when he encounters Mary Lewis (Dee Wallace) in Mexico. Although younger than George, she's around ten years older than Jenny. Mary confesses she met George at a New York Truman Capote party a few years earlier. Mary seems like the perfect antidote for George's mid-life crisis. But there's no spark or fireworks in George and Mary's one night stand. George can't even perform. Mary blurts out her life story that she was married previously and wanted kids, but her ex-husband had no interest in creating a family with her. When the ex-husband remarries, he and his new wife have three kids. Mary's at a crossroads in her relationships just like George.
The success of "10" would propel director Blake Edwards into the third act of his directorial career. He would find new life taking on sex and sexuality in all its forms while still throwing in a nice dose of slapstick. SOB (1981) would be a skewering of Hollywood in which Edwards even convinces his wife Julie Andrews who plays a wholesome TV star in a film flop to go topless to save the project and find a bigger audience. In VICTOR/VICTORIA (1982), Andrews plays a struggling singer in 1934 Paris who pretends to be a man so she can play a female impersonator at a night club causing several gender conflicting issues for both sexes. Edwards would return to the men obsessed with beautiful women theme in THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN (1983) with Burt Reynolds and Kim Basinger and SKIN DEEP (1989) starring John Ritter as a womanizing writer.
The character of George Webber would seem like the perfect role for Peter Sellers who was Blake Edwards good luck charm throughout the PINK PANTHER films and a master at physical comedy. Sellers even played a concert pianist in George Roy Hill's THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT (1964). But Sellers was slightly too old to play the mid-fortyish Hollywood composer George Webber and turned down the offer. Edwards would tap another British actor/comedian by the name of Dudley Moore. Moore was not a household name although comedy fans would recognize Moore from the satirical comedy revue known as Beyond the Fringe where Moore would team up with his eventual comic partner Peter Cook. The only film before "10" that Moore was known for was Stanley Donen's BEDAZZLED (1967) in which Moore starred with another up and coming young voluptuous actress by the name of Raquel Welch. Moore not only was adept at handling physical comedy but he was a trained pianist (and a former child prodigy) as he demonstrates in a couple of piano scenes in "10." Moore's career would be revitalized with "10" leading to an even bigger hit two years later in Steve Gordon's ARTHUR (1981) co-starring John Gielgud and Liza Minnelli. "10" is still my favorite Dudley Moore film. Moore would work with Edwards one more time in MICKEY AND MAUDE (1984) in which Moore plays a bigamist married to both Amy Irving and Ann Reinking. Ironically, a cameo with Peter Sellers was shot for "10" in which he plays a jazz drummer in a band but the scene never made the final cut.
Surprisingly, when filming began for "10" the role of George Webber was played by George Segal (WHO'S AFRAID OF VIRGINIA WOOLF?) not Dudley Moore. Segel would walk off the film after a few days when he realized that director Edwards was expanding his wife Julie Andrews role. Luckily for us, Segel did leave. Moore is perfect as George and Julie Andrews as George's girlfriend Samantha is a nice breakthrough performance that nearly makes us forget Andrews squeaky clean image in THE SOUND OF MUSIC or MARY POPPINS. Andrews plays a contemporary adult with feelings. Edwards would continue to cast his wife Andrews in many of his films in the 80s including SOB where Andrews has her one and only topless scene, the critically acclaimed VICTOR/VICTORIA where Andrews got to reunite with her THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY (1964) co-star James Garner, and THAT'S LIFE (1986) with Jack Lemmon. One of the best parts of "10" is that Moore (composer), Andrews (Broadway star), and Robert Webber (lyricist) all play people in the entertainment industry. It's a nice angle to the film and shows that even famous, successful people have the same hang ups as regular, everyday folks.
The discovery of newcomer Bo Derek who plays the object of Dudley Moore's obsession in "10" would make her a worldwide sensation. Not since Marilyn Monroe had the media and public gone so gaga over a new beautiful young actress. Add CrazyFilmGuy to the list who joined the Bo Derek Fan Club after watching "10", enamored by Ms. Derek with those long legs, tan body, and Mexican cornrows. To her credit, Derek's not just a pretty face as Jenny although for two thirds of the film that's all she's used for. But in her big scenes at the end with George, Derek shows she can act. Jenny becomes human. She turns out to be the anti-fantasy girl for George. She smokes pot. She's liberated. She has no inhibitions about sleeping with an older man right after her wedding and during her honeymoon. She makes George feel his age and realize Samantha is the right woman for him. If only Sam will take him back.
Bo Derek would capitalize on her stardom (pushed by her Svengali like husband John Derek, a former actor) and follow up "10" with photo spreads in Playboy and films like TARZAN THE APE MAN (1981) starring Richard Harris and Miles O'Keefe as Tarzan and BOLERO (1984) both directed by her husband Derek. Both films would be flops and faster than you could say "overnight sensation", Bo Derek had vanished from Hollywood's consciousness. Leave it to another comedy to resurrect Bo Derek's comeback. Of all films, TOMMY BOY (1995) with Saturday Night Live alums Chris Farley and David Spade would remind us, casting Derek as the woman marrying Farley's rich auto parts magnate father Big Tom played by fellow "10" co-star Brian Dennehy. Derek would make guest appearances in various TV shows like THE DREW CAREY SHOW among others.
Besides neophyte Bo Derek, two other young actors would receive good notices in "10" and go on to successful careers. Brian Dennehy who plays the friendly hotel bartender Donald would have bigger roles (often as the heavy) to come in films like Ted Kotcheff's FIRST BLOOD (1982) opposite Sylvester Stallone's first time as Rambo, Lawrence Kasdan's western SILVERADO (1985), Ron Howard's COCOON (1985), and Peter Segal's TOMMY BOY where Bo Derek plays Dennehy's bride-to-be. The pretty Dee Wallace who steals her scenes with Moore in "10" would forever be remembered as the struggling suburban single Mom with an alien in her house in Steven Spielberg's E.T. THE EXTRATERRESTIAL (1982). More fine Wallace performances can be found in Joe Dante's werewolf film THE HOWLING (1981) and Lewis Teague's CUJO (1983).
One of Edwards favorite actors Robert Webber (HARPER, THE DIRTY DOZEN) plays George's writing partner Hugh Fallon. It's one of the first gay characters I recall treated as a regular human being with the same neuroses and insecurities as the straight characters in "10." Webber would also appear in Edwards THE REVENGE OF THE PINK PANTHER and SOB. And I should mention Sam Jones who plays David Hanley, Bo Derek's fiance. Jones has no lines in "10" but his good looks were good enough to earn him the title role in Mike Hodges FLASH GORDON (1980) the following year.
Edwards had a fondness for small supporting roles. He even made an entire film starring (who else?) Peter Sellers as a hapless Indian extra who causes chaos on a film set and later a Hollywood party in THE PARTY (1968). "10" has several nice turns by bit players who are only in a scene or two but stand out. Max Showalter as the organ playing Reverend, Nedra Volz as the Reverend's ancient, flatulating assistant, James Noble as Dr. Miles, Jenny's dentist father, and Deborah Rush as Miles' enthusiastic dental assistant are all familiar faces from TV and commercials who give "10" that little extra with their small but important performances.
Some final "10" trivia tidbits. Blake Edwards and his wife Julie Andrews first worked together on the musical DARLING LILI (1970). All together, Edwards and Andrews would make seven films together with THAT'S LIFE the last one in 1986. Edwards longtime collaborators producer Tony Adams and composer Henry Mancini are with him again for "10." Mancini first worked with Edwards officially on BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S with its famous theme score. Mancini also created the popular theme for THE PINK PANTHER. And did you notice that Dudley Moore's character George Webber has the same last name as actor Robert Webber? Probably a nice compliment from Edwards to his actor friend.
The success of "10" would reinvigorate comedies, showing they didn't just have to be raunchy like John Landis's ANIMAL HOUSE (1978) or Ivan Reitman's STRIPES (1980). Comedies could be about sex. Comedies could have drama in them. Rob Reiner would make a "10" for the younger crowd called THE SURE THING (1985) starring John Cusack and Nicolette Sheridan. Later, Reiner's WHEN HARRY MET SALLY (1989) would be all the comedy rate ten years after "10." James Brooks would move from his classic TV show THE MARY TYLER MOORE SHOW to explore comedy and drama in films like TERMS OF ENDEARMENT (1983) with Jack Nicholson and Shirley MacLaine and BROADCAST NEWS (1987) starring Holly Hunter and William Hurt. Even teenage comedies could be smart and sophisticated and sexy like Paul Brickman's RISKY BUSINESS (1983) starring Tom Cruise and Rebecca DeMornay. But none of them had the slapstick, physical comedy element that Blake Edwards was a master at. With Dudley Moore in a breakout role, the return of Julie Andrews as a modern woman, and the introduction of a new screen siren in Bo Derek, "10" still holds up as a fantastic grown-up comedy about sex and mid-life predicaments both for men and women.
