Just perfect...

As Good As It Gets

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

I watched parts of this television mini-series long ago. I did like Lesley Ann Warren's role as Marja, later as Madame Marianne. Lesley Ann Warren is in fact the real one main character throughout the tv mini-series. The part I remember most is of Marianne as a young woman trying to make it on her own during the Great Depression. Jobs and opportunities for women are scant. Despite her best efforts, Marianne will find herself on the long road to becoming an escort agency madam. In the early days, Marianne takes up with a couple, the husband being the manager and his wife a burlesque dancer. For a while Marianne and the wife make a living doing burlesque dance shows as a team, from place to place. One day the couple suggest to Marianne that they make the burlesque dance routine more risqué which Marianne rejects. The morning after one of their nightly burlesque dance shows, Marianne awakes in their shared downtown hotel room to find that her partners have quietly deserted her, taking everything, including her clothing. All that's left is the red, cotton robe Marianne slept in and the unpaid hotel bill. The hotel manager shows up at the hotel room door to inform Marianne that her partners departed, leaving the room bill unpaid. Worse, Marianne learns that her male partner had lied about pre-paying the room bill. Marianne informs him of her misfortune and lack of money. The hotel manager, to his credit or maybe not, remains calm and cool, doesn't threaten her and doesn't force anything on Marianne, clearly she's broke and calling the police won't help anything. But Marianne is a beautiful shapely woman so the dodgy hotel manager offers her a deal. He'll overlook the unpaid hotel room bill and even give $20 to Marianne for sex. It takes Marianne but few seconds to understand her predicament has only one way out. She drops her red bath robe (she's naked underneath) and tells him, "You're the boss." The dodgy hotel manager rushes forward and hugs Marianne, kissing her on the side of the neck, as Marianne struggles to restrain her repulsion and humiliation. You may find yourself grossed out watching that scene. But I felt pity for the Marianne character. She had no other options and it was the only one she could take. It solves her predicament and in the next scene she's back home visiting her ailing mother. The $20 - a lot of money for the 1930 - allowed her to purchase a decent dress to wear.

Please,please,please if anyone knows how or where to purchase this movie I would greatly appreciate it if you will pass that information along so I can purchase it.It can be either DVD or VHS it doesn't matter to me because I absolutely love this movie as well as the book but I haven't seen the movie since I was a young girl and yet I still have not forgotten about this movie.I tell my children about it every time we happen to see Ann Margaret on television and I would like for them to see the movie that made me fall in love with Ann Margaret as a actress and rate her as one of the best actresses ever.Even to this day I rate her the same all due to 79 Park Avenue even tho I love everything she plays in.

It's been three decades since I saw this mini series, but recall how much I loved it at the time. The story is set back in the 1930's Depression Era and revolves around a poor New York tenement girl named Marja, accused of murdering her drunken step father who had in fact raped her. Through circumstance, she is forced into teenage prostitution and eventually becomes a famous, high priced Park Avenue madam, now know as Marianne. She is also a mob mistress, involved with a gangster named Ross, a Las Vegas high roller.Lesley Ann Warren is absolutely wonderful, both as the lovely young, abused Marja and later the gorgeous, elegant, sophisticated high class madam, Marianne. I note that she, quite deservedly, won a Golden Globe Award for her role. However, my favorite character and the one that has remained with me through these many years is Mike, the idealistic man of integrity and the cop who loves her. I fell a little in love with him myself back then! Mike is compellingly portrayed here by actor David Dukes. I don't recall much about Ross's role, I was so besotted with Mike, though seem to remember him as a fairly sympathetic character.It's been a long time, and I never read Harold Robbins' book, so have forgotten most of the details but I highly recommend this mini series about enduring love in the New York underworld of vice and prostitution. Personally, I would dearly love to see it again myself.

I first watched the mini-series back in 1977/1978 and bought the book to read straight after. Needless to say I couldn't put it down even though I should have been revising for my school exams! The T.V. adaptation was absolutely brilliant.The choice of the three major characters was outstanding.Lesley Ann Warren has a " je ne sais quoi" you don't find in many actresses today, t.v.or movie. David Dukes and Marc Singer were just superb. The translation of a story about vice and prostitution into a story of long lasting love and devotion was just breathtaking, for want of a better word. I would also be VERY interested in a DVD version, if there is one out there?