Once Is Not Enough (1975) Review

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(More customer reviews)In the lexicon of bad film, there is surely a top spot for the delightfully skewed adaptation of Jacqueline Susann's "Valley of the Dolls." "Valley" is perhaps the most famous side of Susann's literary "trash trilogy" which includes "Love Machine" and "Once Is Not Enough." All the novels were fabulously popular in their day and all have been produced into movies with varying degrees of success. Sublimely ridiculous, "Valley" is beloved as a camp classic for so many terrific reasons. If possible, the film of "Love Machine" was even more preposterous--and much more of a "love it" or hate it" proposition. And then we've got "Once Is Not Enough." Easily the most subdued of the film adaptations, "Once" doesn't actually benefit from this distinction.

The film starts out promisingly enough with Kirk Douglas as a down and out filmmaker willing to do anything for the light and love of his life, his daughter January (Deborah Raffin, alternately charming and annoying). He marries a wealthy acquaintance, the terrific Alexis Smith, in a business arrangement to secure his daughter's future. Disturbingly, Douglas and Raffin are as close and co-dependent as any father-daughter team can be. A smarmy George Hamilton is on hand as a possible suitor for Raffin, and a man hungry Brenda Vaccaro camps it up as Raffin's friend and employer (although for the life of me, I could never figure out why she was getting a paycheck). I genuinely enjoyed the beginning and set-up of "Once Is Not Enough," but when Raffin meets David Janssen--its all over. Raffin romances Janssen (an older man--she does have daddy issues--that despises her father) and the film turns a bit too earnest for its own good.

I didn't hate "Once Is Not Enough." However, when the picture changes its focus to this May-December pairing, it loses much of its vitality. In the end, only Vaccaro maintains a pleasing sense of absurdity and unpredictability. Spouting terrific one-liners and unabashedly over-the-top, Vaccaro was actually nominated for an Oscar! Yes, as hard as it is to believe, "Once Is Not Enough" is an Academy Award nominated film for, of all things, its campiest element. Still, I loved Vaccaro. It's hard to really recommend "Once Is Not Enough." It's not serious enough to be moving but not funny enough to be a guilty pleasure. For me, the nicest Susann adaptation, therefore, is the one I enjoy the least after all these years. KGHarris, 9/10.

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