The Carpetbaggers poster & wallpaper

Alan Ladd, Anthony Warde, Archie Moore

The Carpetbaggers is the kind of trash classic most people are too embarrassed to admit they actually enjoy. But this Harold Robbins adaptation is so cheerfully vulgar, it's hard not to have a ...( read more  read more... )good time--especially given the thinly veiled portrait of Howard Hughes at its center. George Peppard plays the heel-hero, who founds an airline company in the 1920s and buys a movie studio in the 1930s, crushing friends and mistresses along the way. The high cheese factor is aided by the good-time cast: Carroll Baker as Peppard's hot stepmom, Bob Cummings (quite funny) as a cynical agent, and Elizabeth Ashley, who married Peppard, in her debut--uncharacteristically, as a good girl. The sad note is Alan Ladd, looking and sounding very end-of-the-line in his final role, as a man's man cowboy star. Elmer Bernstein's swaggering score helps goose the action along, but the rest is thick melodrama indeed. --Robert Horton

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75% liked it

890 ratings

PG, 150 min.

Directed by: Edward Dmytryk

Release Date: April 9, 1964

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DVD Release Date: April 22, 2003

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Stats: 33 reviews

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The Carpetbaggers (1964)
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Flixster Reviews (33)

  • mjgildea
    September 6, 2007
    mjgildea
    It would be so fucking awesome if TCM and my cable company could synchronize their watches so I won't miss the end of any movies my DVR records. Because of this I invested 2 1/2 hours of my life only to miss the last 2 minutes of The Carpetbaggers. This isn't to say I completely ...( read more)wasted my time because I really dug what I saw. Picture Russ Meyer making a cleaned-up, yet trashy mixture of Citizen Kane, Written on the Wind and The Aviator. George Peppard plays a megalomaniacal asshole, Carroll Baker plays the opportunistic slut trying to do right and Alan Ladd plays the leathery, alcoholic father figure. The score is good and you know you're in for some fun from as early as the sensationalist title sequence--because really, what can you expect from shots of clouds at 10,00 feet with oversaturated red lettering flying at you?
  • echeydecubillo
    January 10, 2007
    echeydecubillo
    One of my al times favorites

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