Farah Fawcett is superb in her portrayal of heiress Barbara Hutton (Poor Little Rich Girl)

This is a moving story about the tragic life of Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. Farah Fawcett offers a stunning performance as the world's richest woman who destroys herself, physically and emotionally. Ms. Hutton faces several tragedies in her life, starting with a very unhappy childhood, growing up in a dysfunctional family, her mother's suicide, longing for a normal childhood, such as playing with friends, going to school, etc. She goes through seven unhealthy marriages and suffers emotionally. She surrounds herself with greedy and philandering men who have no regards for her feelings. She sees a world which is too eager to judge that she is too wealthy and therefore she is deserves to be unhappy. This human nature is scary, which refuses to see Ms. Hutton as a human being prone to commit judgmental errors. No doubt she does too many errors in her life, but she was also a very spiritual and caring person. This is illustrated in the movie splendidly. She developed keen interest in Buddhism and her marriage to Porfirio Rubirosa in 1953 was performed in this tradition. She had strong interest in wearing Indian saris; she wore them regularly in her life and had a big collection of them. She was a great philanthropist. She shares her wealth with many organizations dedicated to worthy causes and offers financial help to many people she comes across in here life. She donated Winfield House in London to the United States government to be used as the residence of its ambassador to the United Kingdom. When she is married to Cary Grant, she donates her expensive jewelry to her maid to wear during the maid's marriage. She offers financial help to many of her employees at the house.

Her personal life was full of misery; her first two husbands used her great wealth to their advantage, especially the extremely abusive Count Kurt von Haugwitz-Reventlow with whom she had her only child, a son named Lance. Reventlow was verbally and physical abusive. Her marriage to Cary Grant appears to be happy, but doesn't last long. It turns out Grant is the only husband who cares her only son and gives some sanity in her life. Like everything she did in her life, she loose focus in her family life and her priorities gets too diffuse. Later in her life she suffers from drug abuse that leads to anorexia which would harm her for the rest of her life. The 1972 death of her son in an aircraft crash sends her into a state of deep depression. Her fortune dwindles rapidly due to her extreme generosity and she begins to liquidate her assets in order to raise funds to pay her bills. She spent her final years at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, Beverly Hills, California, and at the time of her death, she was almost penniless.

This movie is brilliantly directed and very well written. Farah Fawcett offers a brilliant performance in the title role. Much of Barbara Hutton's life is very clearly illustrated in this movie set of two discs that runs over five hours.

Reference: Poor Little Rich Girl: The Barbara Hutton Story Farrah Fawcett