Based on a 1932 French movie entitled Boudu Saved From Drowning, and the very first R-rated picture ever to come out of that bastion of squeaky-cleanness, Walt Disney Studios (under the aegis of their subsidiary Touchstone).
Dave Whiteman (Dreyfuss) has made it big in the coat hanger business. He and wife Barbara (Midler) live in a huge house in Beverly Hills with their children, Jenny (Nelson), an anorexic college student, and Max (Richards), an androgynous budding filmmaker.
Barbara is the ultimate yenta who spends her days having her hair and nails done, shopping, and going to classes.
Also living in the house are Carmen (Pena), a seductive Latino maid with whom Dave is having an affair, and Matisse (Mike), the family dog who refuses to eat despite regular visits to a doggie psychiatrist.
When tramp Jerry Baskin (Nolte) enters their lives after attempting to drown himself in the Whiteman swimming pool, Dave saves his life and invites him to become part of the family, a decision that has some very comic results.
Although the ending is softened from Renoir’s original, this garishly coloured film succeeds quite well on its own terms. The film is full of moments both surprising (Jerry showing Matisse that his dog food is eminently eatable) and entertainingly predictable (Jerry getting intimately involved with several family members and an “everyone into the pool” sequence).
The movie was adapted into a sitcom in 1987 with Tim Thomerson playing middle-aged tramp Jerry Baskin who enters the lives of a Beverly Hills couple played by Hector Elizondo and Anita Morris.
Jerry Baskin
Nick Nolte Barbara Whiteman
Bette Midler Dave Whiteman
Richard Dreyfuss Jenny Whiteman
Tracy Nelson Max Whiteman
Evan Richards Mel Whiteman
Jack Bruskoff Sadie Whiteman
Geraldine Dreyfuss Orvis Goodnight
Little Richard Carmen
Elizabeth Peña Dr Von Zimmer
Donald F Muhich Pearl Waxman
Valerie Curtin Sidney Waxman
Paul Mazursky Lou Waltzberg
Barry Primus Sheila Waltzberg
Irene Tsu Roxanne
Sue Kiel Al
Felton Perry Tom Tom
Eloy Casados
Director
Paul Mazursky
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