Micki + Maude

Dudley Moore's brief but prolific era as an unlikely sex symbol of the 1980s came to an end with his final film of a rather odd streak. After the surprise runaway success of Blake Edwards' terrific 1979 mid-life crisis comedy 10 and the rich drunk rom-com Arthur in 1981, studios tried to get Moore into more rom-coms, romantic dramas, and slapstick fares. All of these failed utterly at capturing what 10 had: a level of unpretentious self-critical introspection about the type of character Moore was embedding wrapped in laugh-out-loud broad comedy. 1984 saw the last two attempts to recapture this glory before Moore moved on to playing unromantic comedy leads and supporting roles in movies aimed at younger people.

His trio of ’84 comedies began with a remake of Preston Sturges's classic Unfaithfully Yours, followed by Best Defense (one of the very worst movies of the year), and concluded with this re-teaming with Edwards. Micki & Maude was not an original Blake Edwards script. Edwards had just been burned by the experience of getting fired off his own picture before cameras rolled when Warner Brothers decided that his long-gestating period buddy cop comedy would be the ideal opportunity to pair the two biggest male stars of the era, Burt Reynolds and Clint Eastwood. Eastwood and Edwards' egos lasted about five minutes in the same room with each other, and Edwards bitterly left the project. Jonathan Reynolds' madcap adultery comedy Micki & Maude seemed ideal material for Edwards to jump into to get over the City Heat experience. But it ends up as one of the great writer/director's worst pictures.

The story centers on a small-time TV reporter, Rob Salinger (Moore), who longs for a baby. But his career-minded wife, Micki (musical theater legend Ann Reinking, who was enjoying an adjunct career in movies at this time with All That Jazz and Annie), is too busy for motherhood. Rob has a fling with a sexy cellist named Maude, played by Amy Irving (Carrie, Yentl, Crossing Delancey), which accidentally leads to him knocking her up. Rob sees this as his chance to have a child but then receives another shock when Micki announces that she is also expecting! Since he is in love with both women, he can't bring himself to come clean with either of them. He marries Maude and starts leading a double life of a bigamist with two pregnant partners who don't know about each other. Wacky complications ensue, such as Micki and Maude having different OBGY doctors (George Gaynes and Wallace Shawn) who unexpectedly share office space and a battleax nurse/receptionist (Lu Leonard). Naturally, it all builds to a climax where both women give birth on the same day.

The original script was a fast-paced farce, but Edwards mistakenly decided to make the film sweeter and less seedy. He opted for a much slower-paced comedy, which plays like a drama with occasional forced bits of slapstick and comical dialogue that lands like a rock. He adds some potentially funny complications, such as giving Maude a professional wrestler father (former stuntman H.B. Haggerty) with a passion for interior decorating. This enables the inclusion of some scenes featuring wrestlers Gene LeBell, Chief Jay Strongbow, Big John Studd, and André, the Giant, who feel like they have potential but never really go anywhere.

In the end, Edwards' attempt to make this main character less of a cad and more of a lovable fuck-up never really works because the extreme premise is just too much to ask of most viewers. Moore is a good actor, a fine comedian, and a screen presence that audiences clearly respond to when he's got good material to work with. But Edwards seems to think that the mere fact of casting Moore in a role this weak and annoying will take the curse off it and enable a warm and cuddly picture when he should have leaned into his strength as one of the greatest directors of American farse and made a tight 90 min laugh-out-loud comedy about a guy we love to hate.