Once is not Enough – 1975
Director
Guy Green

Writers
Julius J. Epstein
Jacqueline Susann (novel)

Cast
Kirk Douglas
Alexis Smith
David Janssen

Review by Wayne Malin

Once Is Not Enough–Oh yes it is!

Stunningly stupid movie. It’s been a while since I saw it but this is how I remember it–Young and beautiful January Wayne (Deborah Raffin) is crushed when her widowed father Mike (Kirk Douglas) marries rich Deidre Granger (Alexis Smith). It turns out that January has a thing for her father and hooks up with an older man (David Janssen). It also turns out Deidre is a lesbian and having an affair with the mysterious Karla (Melina Mercouri).

Wow–what a disaster! Jacqueline Susann’s book was hardly high art but it was a fun and trashy. This movie sanitizes the book–all the sex is either cut out completely or off screen. Despite the R rating there’s virtually no nudity–for some reason we only get to see is Janssen’s bare butt! What’s left is a boring, sleazy and stupid movie. It moves very slow (editing could have only helped this one) and is full of stupid lines. The love scene between Smith and Mercouri is especially bad.

Acting can’t save it. Raffin is pretty terrible–and she’s the lead. Douglas, Janssen, Smith and Mercouri do what they can with the lousy material. The only bright spot here is Brenda Vaccaro in an Oscar-nominated performance (!!!) as a very aggressive man chaser.

This film wasn’t a hit and disappeared pretty quickly. It’s easy to see why. Rates a 4 only for Vaccaro and the other actors (excluding Raffin). You’re better off reading the book.