The Beautician and the Beast Movie Review 1997

Evita meets Lucille Ball when TV's "Nanny" enters Eastern Europe whining to conquer fictional "Slovetzia" royalty. Camp comedy casts Drescher as Joy, a beautician who becomes a local hero after a fire in her beauty class and is subsequently hired by a visiting emissary to tutor the children of despotic dictator Pochenko (Dalton). Overridingly well-known caricatures, loosely based on the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast," as well as a host of old-time, culture clash movies ("The King and I," "Sound of Music" ), where the humble nanny attempts to bring joy (get it?) into the life of a man who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Lensed in Prague inside a Gothic, 17th-century castle. Pleasant enough, if not original, time-killer.

Distribution

Paramount Home Video, 5555 Melrose Ave., 5555 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90038, Phone: (323)956-5000, URL: http://www.paramount.com, Remarks: Does not handle retail queries from consumers; contact your local video distributor.

Available on VHS
Running time 105 minutes.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Romantic Comedy, Mistaken Identity, Royalty, Peculiar Partners, New York, New York, The Help: Female, Cuttin' Heads

Screenplay

Todd Graff

Cast

Fran Drescher, Timothy Dalton, Ian McNeice, Patrick Malahide, Lisa Jakub, Michael Lerner, Phyllis Newman

Cinematography

Peter Lyons Collister

Director

Ken Kwapis

Music

Cliff Eidelman

Producer

Jr. Howard W. Koch, Todd Graff, Roger Birnbaum, Fran Drescher, Peter Marc Jacobson, Koch Company, High School Sweethearts, Paramount Pictures