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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1980s
    Movies - 1980s Movies - S 4 Mins Read

    Splash (1984)

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    “Can a mermaid from Cape Cod find happiness in dry dock with a wholesale grocery distributor from Manhattan?”

    Tom Hanks is an industrious but unfulfilled New York bachelor named Allen who runs a successful wholesale produce market. He has never been the same since he was eight years old when he fell off a boat near Cape Cod and got rescued by a mermaid. Twenty years later, Allen is still hung up on that mermaid. No other girl measures up.

    So one day he climbs into a New York cab, says “Cape Cod!” to the driver, and about $2000 later, he’s back on the beach in Cape Cod, where the same mermaid (the luscious Daryl Hannah) rises from the sea and rescues him all over again.

    Following him to the Big Apple to return his wallet, the mermaid emerges naked from the river and gets arrested at the foot of the Statue of Liberty for indecent exposure.

    Ensconced in Allen’s apartment, her secret is safe as long as she’s dry. But every once in a while, she almost blows her cover by pouring salt in the bath and growing a tailfin that looks like one of Marlene Dietrich’s skin-tight beaded evening gowns from the Cafe de Paris.

    She’s never been out of the water before, but she knows enough to get to Bloomingdale’s. She takes the name Madison from a street sign, learns English in one afternoon from watching TV, and in no time she’s fallen in love with the joy credit cards can bring to a girl with no underwear.

    After malevolent mad scientist Eugene Levy (from SCTV) hoses her down and exposes her, the press has a field day and she is taken away to an institute. Scientists torture and mutilate the once-beautiful Madison with lab tests and experiments, draining her of her independence and beauty.

    Hanks has now fallen in love with her, and with the help of his fat, preening and terminally horny older brother, Freddie (John Candy), he sets out to rescue her, with the inevitable car chase through the New York traffic.

    Splash was the work of thirty-year-old Ron Howard. The world will always know him first as little Opie on The Andy Griffith Show, then for years as Richie Cunningham on Happy Days.

    Howard was always the freckle-faced redhead with the big gumdrop eyes who answered the eternal question of worried parents everywhere: “Do you know where your children are?”

    Then he launched a successful new career as a film director, and it’s probably safe to say there was some accuracy in his all-American clean-cut image.

    Splash was sexy and borderline raunchy (especially when funnyman John Candy is onscreen), but it was also wholesome and full of wide-eyed boy’s book splendour and awe. It’s easily one of Ron Howard’s best films.

    “All my life, I’ve been waiting for someone. And when I find her, she’s a fish.”

    Allen Bauer
    Tom Hanks
    Madison

    Daryl Hannah
    Freddie Bauer

    John Candy
    Walter Kornbluth

    Eugene Levy
    Mrs Stimler

    Dody Goodman
    Mr Buyrite

    Shecky Greene
    Dr Ross

    Richard B. Shull
    Jerry

    Bobby Di Cicco
    Dr Zidell

    Howard Morris
    Michaelson

    Patrick Cronin
    Claude
    David Knell
    Junior
    Jeff Doucette
    Buchwalter

    Royce D. Applegate
    Augie

    Tony Longo
    Ms Stein

    Nora Denney
    The President

    Charles Macaulay
    Dr Johannsen

    Ronald F. Hoiseck
    Manny
    Joe Grifasi
    McCullough
    Rance Howard
    Lt. Ingram
    David Lloyd Nelson
    Fat Jack
    Al Chesney
    Rudy
    Babaloo Mandel
    Dr Hess
    Pierre Epstein
    Sgt Munson
    Joe Cirillo
    Parilli

    Tom Toner
    Sgt Leleandowski

    Lee Delano
    George

    Nick Cinardo
    Mr Ambrose

    Than Wyenn
    Dr Fujimoto

    Eileen Saki
    Ralph Bauer

    Bill Smitrovich
    Mary Bauer
    Nancy Raffa
    Young Allen
    David Kreps
    Young Madison
    Shayla Mackarvich

    Director
    Ron Howard

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