Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers

Looking back at the rash of TV miniseries that ran from the mid-1970s through the early 1980s, one can fondly recall classics such as Roots or Sh­ōgun. However, Arthur Hailey's The Moneychangers offers a reminder of what most of these productions were really like: overblown soap operas stuffed with down-on-their-luck stars working from overheated scripts. The core of The Moneychangers is a very old-fashioned story of two rivals—reckless but suave Roscoe Heyward (Christopher Plummer) and clenched-teeth good guy Alex Vandervoort (Kirk Douglas)—fighting to gain the top spot at a major bank. And while some financial subplots manage to seep into the plotline (embezzlement, insider trading, and credit card fraud), the main energy is generated by the romantic entanglements and emotional angst. Of course, the real fun here is playing “spot the star” as a parade of well-known actors elbow their way through the series. Helen Hayes, Anne Baxter, Joan Collins, Ralph Bellamy, Timothy Bottoms, Susan Flannery, Robert Loggia, Jean Peters, Patrick O'Neal, and Lorne Greene (among others) do their best to try to turn this silly work into something substantial. And if they don't quite succeed, at least they seem to be having a good time. A strong optional purchase. (P. Hall)