Worth Winning

Plot synopsis:
Taylor Worth is a devastatingly handsome and charming weatherman for a Philadelphia television station. A confirmed bachelor, he sees a lot of women and gains the envy of his closest friends.
One of them, Ned Broudy, offers Taylor a wager, that he cannot get three randomly chosen women to fall in love with him over a three-month period of time and accept a proposal of marriage.
Taylor takes the bet, putting up his weekend cabin against a valuable painting that Ned and Clair Broudy own.
Clair knows nothing of the bet, so she is pleased when her husband fixes up Taylor with her friend Veronica Briskow, a concert pianist. Ned is sure that the haughty Veronica will have nothing in common with a shallow TV weatherman, but Taylor does find a way to attract her interest.
The remaining two women Taylor must persuade to fall in love with him are Erin Cooper, a sexy Philadelphia Eagles receptionist, and Eleanor Larimore, an attractive older woman. The choice of Eleanor is a dirty trick on Ned's part, inasmuch as she is already married.
Eager to teach Ned a lesson, Taylor quickly seduces Erin, then proposes marriage to her in front of a hidden TV camera. This causes jealousy in her protective friend Tarry Childs, who plays for the football team, but he wants Erin to be happy. And although Taylor doesn't have many scruples, he refuses to sleep with Erin after learning she is still a virgin.
His next mission is Eleanor. It turns out she is unsatisfied at home and a willing participant when Taylor flirts with her while posing as a shoe salesman, engaging him in dangerous sex in public places. She, too, accepts Taylor's secretly filmed marriage proposal -- two down and one to go.
Veronica won't be easy. She is career-minded and not eager for marriage. Plus the sex between her and Taylor is surprisingly disappointing so far.
The more time they spend together, though, Taylor realizes he doesn't want to lose Veronica after the wager is won. He proposes at his cabin and she accepts. Clair is delighted, Ned devastated.
Then the real trouble begins. Taylor first needs to break it off with Erin, disappointing her desire to start a family, which he does by pretending to be impotent. Eleanor, alas, is enjoying her improved sex life and brags about it openly to Clair and Veronica.
It becomes clear that three women are seeing the same man. Taylor is dumped by his fiancees. Erin finds solace in the arms of her football player while Eleanor takes pleasure in Taylor's humiliation at being exposed for what he really is, but Veronica is genuinely heartbroken.
A broken man, Taylor tells his friend Ned to forget the bet. As a grand gesture, he makes a public apology to Veronica at a benefit auction in a giant hall, expressing his love and his desire to be with her for everybody to hear.

Tags: romantic

Review:
So they go into it with their eyes and ears closed to all of the film's unique, quirky characterizations and undeniable charms, intent on hating it.
As an ensemble, the players exude a magnificent chemistry and the screenplay is both hilarious and romantic.
The film was scripted by two women.
Veronica's character is dynamic and intriguing, one of my personal favorites..
Beware the womanizing weatherman...and hold onto your Picasso!.
Taylor Worth (Mark Harmon) has a way with women, even beyond those who might like dating a TV weatherman.
They are all married, yes, but they never scored like Taylor and its too late now.
Can Taylor get engaged to three different women, all of THEIR choosing, or is he just not up to the task?
With a Picasso painting as part of the bet, Taylor decides to go for it.
The women turn out to be, in turn, a virginal sports promoter, a snooty concert pianist, and a married beauty wed to a famous businessman.
What was Taylor thinking?
Harmon is quite good as the colossal womanizer who may just have a heart beating in his chest, somewhere.
The other actors are also successful, with Madeleine Stowe giving a rare comic performance that delights.
The script is pretty funny but has a definite raunchy edge to it, so the film is really not good viewing for any minors in earshot.
For those who can't get enough of those funny love tales, seek out this one, too.
It has some good laughs and, very importantly, some real romantic ideas, too..
Worth Watching!
One of my favorite movies.
The lines are sometimes cheesy but overall, the movie is very entertaining.
Love the soundtrack too.Synopsis: "Taylor Worth (Mark Harmon) is a local weatherman in Philadelphia who loves two things: gambling and women.
Ned (Mark Blum), his psychiatrist friend, believes that Taylor's behavior is an excuse from establishing permanent relationships.
To prove his theory to be correct, he made a bet with Taylor.
The bet: Taylor is to be engage to three women in two months.
The catch: Ned will pick the three women and the engagement has to be videotaped." "What happens next is wild roller-coaster ride as Taylor plots, schemes and executes plan after plan to beat his friend." What strikes me about the story is how Mark Harmon played his character.
He used more finesse rather than the egotistical "God's gift to women" attitude.
The supporting cast is excellent.If you like a light-heart sexual comedy movie, then this is for you..
One of the Funniest Romantic Comedies from the 80's.
The wolf Taylor Worth (Mark Harmon) is a handsome man that is the weatherman in television.
He has a great salary, a BMW, a fantastic apartment and a countryside house and has no difficulties to win the girls over.
One day, his best friend and psychologist Ned Broudy (Mark Blum), who is married with Claire Broudy (Andrea Martin) with a three year-old girl, proposes a bet to Taylor: his countryside house per Claire's Picasso.
Taylor shall propose three women chosen by Ned and they must say yes to him.
Ned chooses the sexy fan of American football Erin Cooper (Maria Holvöe), who is always surrounded by her friend Tarry Childs (Tony Longo) and other football players; his wealthy friend Eleanor Larimore (Lesley Ann Warren), who is unhappily married; and his demanding and intellectual friend, the classical pianist Veronica Briskow (Madeleine Stowe).
Taylor accepts the bet, but when he wins, he calls it off since he is in love and proposed for real one of the selected women.
What will happen when the other two women discover the truth?The delightful "Worth Winning" is one of the funniest romantic comedies from the 80's and maybe the best role of Mark Harmon's career.
He plays a confident wolf that accepts any challenge to have a woman.
But the plot point is when he really falls in love with one woman and is rejected by her.
This comedy has a great cast with beautiful and sexy actresses and is a highly recommended entertainment.
Don't ask me why but this movie is one of my favorites.
It's always entertaining, in a comedy, when the main character talks to the audience as if you are right there as a silent cohort.The idea is Taylor Worth is a batchelor with a great job, great car, great condo, and dates the best looking women in Philadelphia.
His friends, especially the excellent role playing Mark Blum, are married and it is the contention of Blum that as great a life as Worth has he secretly wants "the pain and heartache of true love".His friends have a plan...a bet...Worth is to date and get engaged to three women, of Blum's choice in 90 days.
The catch here is that each has bet something they do not, under any circumstances want to lose.The women are great, the acting is very good, the timing is superb and the story plays out nicely.
I rated this film (FG) for "Feel Good"!
It's not a classic but it'll go quickly, it'll make you laugh...just don't see it with any woman that is hungup on traditional ways men view women...Your gal may not stay long enough to see how things twist and turn.A good one to rent when you want to just lay out on the couch with some popcorn, and the kids are over their friends houses.
One other note for me...I was so taken by the car they gave Harmon to drive in the movie that I got one myself!.
Well Worth Watching With Women.
Yes, this is a boy meets girl formula story, which starts off stereotypically in many respects.
However, as the main characters start to develop and take shape, they become quite charming and actually fairly well rounded.
There are several witty scenes and for an essentially fluffy romantic comedy it is better than most.
I give it the highest rating for excellent casting, 1st class ensemble work and top-notch entertainment.
All the ladies look gorgeous and Mark Harmon does, too.
This engaging confection is beautifully rendered, skillfully performed and although not of hard hitting significance a classic of the light "feel good" genre..
Women are mean spirited.
Here we have a good old boy who makes a simple little bet with the boys that he can sweet talk 3 broads into marrying him within 3 months.
We then see what vindictive, ugly creatures women can be when things don't go exactly as they demand.
Cool comedy with Harmon doing a super job playing the sophisticated, yet downtrodden, weatherman with a heart of gold.
Loved the way he kept addressing the camera with his views on the way things were progressing..
Bland 80s romantic comedy is only watchable because of the cast.
Bland 80s romantic comedy about weatherman Make Harmon betting his friend that he can get three different women to accept his proposal of marriage, on camera no less.
That's not really all that funny or clever of a plot set-up, but I suppose it's serviceable enough.
The women Harmon pursues include Madeleine Stowe, Lesley Ann Warren, Andrea Martin, and Maria Holvoe, so three of the four actresses are quite respectable, well known, and certainly better than this very unoriginal of material.
I think seeing the usually serious Stowe in such a light film was the most amusing part of the film.
Overall, "Worth Winning" would be completely unwatchable if it wasn't for the cast and 80s nostalgia value..
Not 'Worth' Anything.
Regarding the story and the message, it was nice to see Mark Harmon's character change into a good guy at the end but for most the movie he, and all the other characters simply typify Hollywood and the low moral standards it holds.
I hope the rest of the U.S.A. doesn't think or act the way the people here do, but who knows?The movie is slick-looking but oozes the sleaze we saw in the 1970s.
Madeline Stowe, more of a '90s actress, would have been more 'appropriate' in those grimy '70s films apparently with a lot of the roles she seemed to play in the '90s, like this one in which her character has zero morals.
She's a pretty woman but that horrible, throaty voice of hers is brutal and loses whatever sex appeal she is supposed to have.
And who's the woman Harmon is going after?
A bad choice by him, and a bad one by me to waste time watching this fluff..
TV Weatherman takes a bet to get three women to say they will marry him.
This is a refreshingly entertaining and funny film with Mark Harmon playing Taylor Worth, a confident, not cocky or obnoxious, local playboy TV Weatherman who is challenged to yet another bet by his best friend, Ned Broudy, played by Mark Blum.
Taylor has apparently won every prior bet with Ned. In this bet, Taylor has to get three women to say they will marry him in three months.
If Taylor wins he gets Ned's wife's prized Picasso picture, if he loses he gives up his prized cabin in the woods.
Ned gets to choose the women Taylor will court.
Madeleine Stowe, Lesley Ann Warren, and Maria Holvoe play the three vastly different women Taylor woos.
Ned will not be beaten and will do anything to win.
This movie has no underlying social commentary; it's simply entertainment.
In my mind it succeeds as a good Saturday afternoon watch.
Lesley Ann Warren has a short scene in a negligee where she is as stunning as I've ever seen her (but it's not a nude scene, regrettably...).
Mark Harmon is certainly attractive, but his role does not exactly bring out the best in him.
Stowe is pretty, but not sexy, while Holvoe does not offer much of anything here, apart from her fancy dresses.
Joan Severance is gorgeous, on the other hand, but she only gets a walk-on part (apparently, she did not qualify for Holvoe's part because she's not a blonde)..
Lacks the Harmon Charm & Humor.
Worth Winning is one of those cliches about a group of guy friends making bets about women, with the one guy engaged in the bet falling in love with the women of his game.
In Worth Winning, hot shot playboy weatherman Taylor Worth's (Mark Harmon) buddies bet that he can't get three women to marry him within a given number of weeks.
This seems easy for a guy like Taylor because of his playboy nature, but the guys picks the three women, and he seems to be irked by some quality in each of them: Veronica Briskow (Madeleine Stowe), Eleanor Larimore (Lesley Ann Warren), Erin Cooper (Maria Holvoe).
And one is a pretentious artsy fartsy type who actually turns out to be one of the better of the characters--personality wise--as she seems to be the most 'real' of the three, and the most needed to break Taylor's overestimation of his power over women.
It proves no easy task, particularly the finale when he learns that he starts to fall in love with one and soon, must reveal his bet.
The movie isn't really that funny.
And for something with Mark Harmon in the leading role, it makes it a little less enjoyable.
Not Worth Winning A Loser **.
Mark Harmon in a ridiculous comedy about a swinging TV weather guy who bets with 3 friends that he can get engaged to 3 girls within a 3 month period.The lucky people in this inane foolishness are 2 of the 3 friends.
After the wager is made, they are rarely if ever seen for the rest of this dismal flick.You don't have to be a rocket scientist to realize that the three girls will eventually find out and plot revenge.
Madeleine Stowe is a concert pianist.
Moody, she appears the most difficult for Harmon to conquer.
There's also a female sports player and a bored housewife married to a millionaire.
The latter played by the reliable Lesley Ann Warren.The basic problem with this film is really who cares?There is of course the wedding scene where the intended lady says no at the last minute and you can readily guess who her bridesmaids are.
Then, Harmon will have to win her back in a raffle!Predictable nonsense.
Really more enjoyable than I expected.
Really more enjoyable than I expected.
I'm glad I saw it.Really more enjoyable than I expected.
The Mark Harmon character is a cad, but hey, he even made Ted Bundy somewhat appealing.
The Mark Harmon character is a cad, but hey, he even made Ted Bundy somewhat appealing.
The Mark Harmon character is a cad, but hey, he even made Ted Bundy somewhat appealing.
The girls are believable, the friends are good, and the plot ends predictably yet still manages to entertain.
The girls are believable, the friends are good, and the plot ends predictably yet still manages to entertain.
The girls are believable, the friends are good, and the plot ends predictably yet still manages to entertain.
Didn't quite live up to the title, but still funny, better toward the end.
Taylor Worth is a TV weatherman in Philadelphia whose male friends are married, while he is still single.
His friend Ned bets Taylor that he can't get three women to say yes to a marriage proposal (the acceptance must be on videotape).
If Ned loses, he must give up an original Picasso which his wife inherited.
The first woman is Erin, a beautiful blonde receptionist for the Eagles football team, who seems to have an attraction to Tarry Childs, one of the players.
There is also Veronica, a pianist who doesn't like the term 'new age', and Eleanor, who is unhappily married.All three women go with Taylor to see the movie 'Snow White', and each has a different reaction.
I suppose the usher (Arthur Malet) was supposed to be amazed at Taylor's love for that movie, but it was hard to tell.
I kept expecting some classic line from him.Taylor talked to the audience a lot, and occasionally other characters did the same.
That might have worked, but I didn't like him that well.
I liked Erin but not the other women, and found myself wishing he would settle for Erin.
Unfortunately, Taylor had to find a way out of each engagement, and his excuse for not marrying Erin made for some good (if off-color) laughs.
The best part of the movie at first was seeing Ned's dismay as he came ever closer to losing the bet.
And, of course, Taylor nearly gets caught a few times, which is good for a few laughs.
The women don't seem to mind being videotaped, though not all of them are aware of it.
Toward the end, something happens that comes close to making the movie hilarious, but the events don't quite come together to make this satisfying.
It was funny, but not a classic.
SPOILER:  If you must know why this movie got better, the three women found out about the bet, and they set out for revenge, which was quite funny, especially at the engagement party with one of the women, and at the wedding with another..
So, it's about five o'clock in the morning and I'm about to put a tape in the VCR to watch some Asian action movie, but decide to channel-flip for a few minutes first.
I come across the beginning of Worth Winning, an obvious cheesy '80s half-heartedly tongue-in-cheek "bad boy" romance, seemingly targeted for daytime soap audiences.
I usually never watch stuff like that.
All the horrible light-blue and pink sweaters the characters wear instantly give me a bad taste in my mouth, but in this case I keep watching because Madeleine Stowe catches my eye.
Young, cute and sophisticated, and many leagues above this material, she is delightful to watch.
So I watch the whole movie.Apart from its bad taste in clothes and generally preposterous premise, shallow characters and completely unrealistic situations, it's not that bad.
It has a classic structure, actually.
As seen in many other stories, we have a guy going through three stages, or in this case, three women.
As it ends with the attaining of the latter, the story actually does have some redeeming artistic and social value, in that it - in a very subtle and non-literal way, of course - urges the audience to embrace a new, better and freer social order.
This storytelling structure is actually very literate, and I'm not surprised the storyline came from a novel.Now, if only the movie wasn't thoroughly suffused by that insufferable Barbara Cartland air, it might garner a higher rating than a 6 out of 10..
Winning Romance..
Worth Winning (1989): Dir: Will MacKenzie / Cast: Mark Harmon, Madeleine Stowe, Lesley Ann Warren, Maria Holvoe, Mark Blum: Insincere yet amusing romantic comedy about what one pursues in relationships.
Mark Harmon stars as weatherman Taylor Worth who is an egotistical ladies man whose friends witness him constantly dumping women after about two months.
Central plot has Taylor's friends roping him into a bet that has him video taping three proposals to three different women within a specific time limit.
This is a hilarious concept marred extremely by repetition and an ending that lacks sincerity.
What does work is Harmon's cocky charm as Taylor as he confidently endures this bet without threat of consequence.
Maria Holvoe plays target number one, Erin Cooper whose body guard is a local celebrity football player.
Target number two is Veronica Briskow, played by Madeleine Stowe.
She is a pianist who takes an immediate dislike to Taylor but withstands his counter charm.
Lesley Ann Warren plays Eleanor Larimore, a sexually repressed married woman whose desires are awakened when Taylor pursues her.
Mark Blum plays Taylor's married best friend who issues this bet at high stakes.
Theme regards relationships verses playing the field and whether any of it is worth winning in the end.