THE WOMAN IN RED (1984)
Reviewed by Jerry Saravia
There is a great moment I remember so fondly from "The Woman in Red" when it was on cable back in the mid-1980's. Gene Wilder is sitting in a car, hiding from Gilda Radner. She finds him in the car and he feigns a heart attack. She then reaches inside the car and pulls the brake, thus sending Gene's car rolling down those steep streets in San Francisco. That is one of the big laughs in a largely restrained, diluted but charming souffle of a movie.
Gene Wilder is Teddy, a San Francisco businessman working for an ad agency who spots Kelly LeBrock one fine day inside a garage as she passes an air vent, Marilyn Monroe-style. LeBrock is a famous supermodel. Teddy is married to a woman (Judith Ivey) who keeps a gun in their bedroom drawer! He wants nothing more than to have sex with LeBrock, and lies and stages hysterical acts to get there. One has Charles Grodin pretending to be blind as he endlessly knocks over bar glasses, and another involves the always engaging Joseph Bologna pretending that his wife has left him again by shouting at the top of his lungs in front of Teddy's wife.
For a rollicking farce, "Woman in Red" is not that chaotic, just this side of subdued. Matthew Zorek as some teen punk is far too laid-back. Still, for some measure of goodwill, we got the late Gilda Radner. Her character leads to a few misunderstandings in the beginning when she thinks Teddy has the hots for her (who could confuse Radner with LeBrock?) Wilder has many bravura moments, especially when trying to get one of his friends (who are all unfaithful) to call his house when his wife is home so he can pretend to refuse to go to work at a late hour, which is when he could meet up with LeBrock. Mostly the film has a leisurely pace, lacking the chaos of Howard Hawks who could speed this thing up like no one's business, once upon a time.
Based on a French farce known as "Pardon Mon Affaire," the movie sparkles rather than energizes its slight plot, which is really about Gene Wilder trying to get laid with the stunning Kelly LeBrock. Nothing more, nothing less but oh, what fun.
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