S.O.B.

Felix Farmer's (Richard Mulligan) latest movie flops -- and lots of Hollywood types spring into action. Agents are called. Lawyers are retained. Statements are issued. It's what master comedy director Blake Edwards calls "Standard Operating Bull," the subject of his gleefully satiric S.O.B. Julie Andrews is a wholesome superstar about to alter her image radically. Aiding and abetting the madness are William Holden, Robert Preston, Robert Vaughn, Shelley Winters, Loretta Swit and more. Dialogue crackles like fat in a fire, gags range from dead-on deadpan to comedic broadsides, insights bristle and sting. Nothing standard here: S.O.B. is extraordinary.

• musical