The Woman in Red (1984) Orion/Comedy RT: 87 minutes Rated PG-13 (language, brief nudity, sexual humor/references, mature themes, adult situations) Director: Gene Wilder Screenplay: Gene Wilder Music: John Morris Cinematography: Fred Schuler Release date: August 15, 1984 (US) Cast: Gene Wilder, Kelly LeBrock, Gilda Radner, Charles Grodin, Joseph Bologna, Judith Ivey, Michael Huddleston, Michael Zorek, Kyle T. Heffner, Kyra Stempel, Robin Ignico. Box Office: $25.3M (US)
Rating: ***
Once again, I bemoan the state of film comedy in the 21st century and ask why they can’t make them funny like they used to. This summer has been especially disheartening with one comedy clinker after another. I’ve been raiding the DVD archives for movies that make me laugh and came across The Woman in Red. A remake of the 1976 French comedy Pardon mon affaire, I had forgotten how funny it is. I had also forgotten how very much like a Blake Edwards comedy it is. Its plot concerning adultery and other sexual matters is aimed at the same adult crowd as 10 (1979).
Gene Wilder stands in for Dudley Moore as a happily married middle-aged man who considers cheating on his wife after spotting a gorgeous woman in a red dress. I know, how dated is that premise? The Woman in Red came out shortly before the AIDS virus put a damper on people’s casual attitudes towards sex. By the end of the decade, such movies would no longer get made. I found myself laughing loud and often at this silly little slapstick movie in which Wilder makes a complete fool of himself as he attempts to get with the object of his desire. The woman is played by Kelly LeBrock, a full year before a whole generation of teenage boys stood up and took notice of her in Weird Science. She’s equally as sexy and alluring in The Woman in Red. It’s easy to see why somebody would put their marriage in jeopardy.
The movie opens with San Francisco ad man Teddy Pierce (Wilder) sitting on the ledge of a building wearing a bathrobe. What could possibly have led the mild-mannered man to this point? We soon learn that it all began when he spotted an attractive woman in a red dress in the parking garage of his workplace. She steps on a grate and a gust of wind blows her dress up, an obvious allusion to Marilyn Monroe in The Seven-Year Itch (1955).
Teddy is hooked and can’t get this woman out of his mind which leads to a pursuit fraught with all sorts of wacky misadventures starting with a misdirected interoffice phone call. He thinks he’s making a date with the mystery woman when he’s actually speaking to a plain-looking colleague (real life spouse Radner) who’s flattered by the attention and accepts his invitation to meet later that night at a restaurant. Hell hath no fury like a woman stood up and Ms. Milner proceeds to make Teddy’s life miserable after he fails to show up for their date. Of course, he has no idea why his co-worker is acting like this. All he knows is that he wants to hook with the mystery woman whose name is Charlotte.
It’s not like he’s trapped in an unhappy marriage. He loves his wife Didi (Ivey, Compromising Positions) and their two teenage daughters. His rowdy friends encourage Teddy to go for it. They behave like teenagers with their pranks and sexual activities. Joe’s (Bologna, Blame It on Rio) wife has just left him because of his constant fooling around with other women. Buddy (Grodin, Seems Like Old Times) has a wandering eye which affects the relationship he’s currently in. Michael (Huddleston) is having an affair with the wife of a doctor who calls him whenever her husband is called away on a medical emergency. Yep, Teddy has some positive influences! His desire and tenacity ultimately lead to him sitting on the building ledge as a crowd gathers.
One of the main problems with today’s comedies is that they ALL seem geared towards younger audiences. I might have appreciated this 30 years ago, but now I see the folly of that type of thinking. In doing this, studios alienate the over-30 crowd. I’ll admit that I enjoyed The To Do List and The World’s End, but I would love to see sophisticated comedies for adults make a comeback. I’d like to see more funny movies like The Woman in Red playing at the multiplex.
It’s one of Wilder’s better starring roles. He’s the kind of person you’d expect to see get into situations like the ones depicted in the movie. I love the bit where he fakes a heart attack in the back of his car after being confronted by an angry Ms. Milner. Let’s just say that you do NOT want to get on this woman’s bad side. She’s a vindictive one, she is. Radner does a great job in the role. The whole cast does a good job, but I especially liked Bologna and Grodin.
The Woman in Red has a pleasing score with songs by Stevie Wonder and Dionne Warwick. Ah yes, Ms. Warwick, I love her! She’s the right choice for this kind of movie. Wonder won a Best Song Oscar for “I Just Called to Say I Love You”. The only false note is the song “Don’t Drive Drunk”; it just feels out of place.
Like any comedy, The Woman in Red has scenes that work and scenes that don’t. It takes a bit of dramatic turn when we discover a secret about Grodin’s character. It’s unclear whether his friends already know, but he has a rather affecting scene with Wilder after a break-up.
Overall, it’s a funny little movie and it’s quite good for an Americanized remake. We see far too few of movies like this anymore and I can only hope that some filmmaker will take pity on us adults and offer up something that doesn’t involve endless gags about bodily fluids. At 16, I never imagined that I would be saying this, but life is strange.
