Scenes from the Class Struggle in Beverly Hills (1989)

• 60%
• 1989
• Comedy
• Paul Bartel
• Jacqueline Bisset
• Ray Sharkey
• Robert Beltran

The story of this social satire and soap parody follows two rich white upper class families living in Beverly Hills, California. Recently widowed Claire is a once popular sitcom star, who dreams of a Hollywood comeback. She and her daughter Zandra are not very close, even though they live in the same house, so she turns to her best friend Lisbeth for comfort. Lisbeth is a socialite with her own set of problems. Her alcoholic husband Howard left her for another woman. Her son Willie is terminally ill and hopelessly in love with Zandra, who doesn't even notice him. Lisbeth's poor playwright brother Peter is in love with Claire, even though he just got married in Vegas to sassy To-Bel, a woman he barely knows. Meanwhile, Claire's houseboy Juan and Lisbeth's bisexual chauffeur bet on which of the two will seduce his cougar boss first. Several other plot points make things even more complicated. It turns out that To-Bel has a secret past. The ghost of Claire's husband Sidney starts haunting Claire. Juan keeps failing at his "mission", which terrifies him, because he has to sleep with Frank if he looses the bet. Lisbeth's ex husband keeps coming back into her life - when he gets too drunk to remember that they're divorced. Doctor Mo Van De Kamp shows up to ask for donations for his charity Hungry Drive in Africa, but his honesty is questionable. Mexican maid Rosa speaks in non-sequitur. A housekeeper is brutally murdered. The doctor's dog Bo'Jangles is attracted to To-Bel. A hypocritical wake is held and prejudice of both the upper class characters and the lower class characters is revealed. However, there may still be hope for some of these horrible people.