User reviews

I first saw this movie about 18 years ago and found it below average. The main reason for viewing it was may admiration for Gene Wilder after the early Mel Brooks movies... Gene Wilders appearances in The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein and, not to forget although not from Mel Brooks, Silver Streak are rightfully and indisputably regarded as masterpieces by now. Compared to these highlights, I actually found The Woman in Red slightly dull.

Watching it on Cable-TV yesterday, i.e. January 2006, I got a completely different impression. I don't know if the difference is just me being 20 years older and more tuned-in with the main character, but now I experienced a warm, enjoyable movie filled with a mild madness I found most appealing. The spirit of the early 80's is very evident, this is not a timeless movie. Nevertheless, I find it more up-to-date with human emotions and behavior than most contemporary attempts in the "daily life comedy" genre.

Finally, if you - just like me - was disappointed by this one twenty years ago, give another try!

"The Woman in Red" is Gene Wilder's somewhat sloppy comedy that's a remake of the 1977 French movie "Pardon Mon Affaire". Wilder did triple duty on this film. He not only stars but also wrote and directed the picture. As a writer and director, he does a so-so job. This movie has alot of silly moments that are totally preposterous. And it contains a few laughable lines of dialogue. But "The Woman in Red" for the most part is a pretty funny film. Wilder is good as Teddy Pierce, a married man who one day see's a beautiful woman wearing a red dress. After catching a glimpse of this woman, he becomes obsessed with her, and can't get her out of his mind. Wilder gets some good support from an exceptional cast which includes Charles Grodin, Joseph Bolonga, Judith Ivey, Kelly LeBrock (as The Woman in Red), and of course Wilder's late wife, Gilda Radner. "The Woman in Red" ain't a great comedy, but a good one. Only if Wilder had done a better directing job this would have been a great farce.

*** (out of four)

Wilder's best loved comedy. It's nice to see him behind the camera also in this witty picture about a man enthralled by this model of beauty, played sumptuously by LeBrock, only to find that there's more to loving someone than just a great body. Wilder performs some of his finest screwball comedy and is given great support from Grodin, Ivey, Bologna and Gilda Radner. Stevie Wonder's song is also catchy and adds plenty of flavor to a fun romantic-comedy.

Saw this when I was pretty young. I just remember Kelly being gorgeous, and the Pantene lady in a movie. Is it comedy? Not really. It's just a bunch of middle aged guys messing around, but there's Gilda Radner too! Love her. They sort of even out the cheating thing with his wife messing with her daughter's bf. Flirty.

Gene Wilder, Kelly LeBrock and Gilda Radner are the highlights of this great 80's comedy. One of Wilder better comedies of the 80's, it is also one of his funniest. Kelly LeBrock was at the peek of her career, for here, it was all down hill. LeBrock's beauty makes her the treasure of ever guy's desire. For Wilder, he is ready to destroy his life, in a funny way, in order to have her. Gilda Radner is just funny. Every time she is on the screen, she makes you laugh. Her addition to the cast makes everything else funny. A smaller role that what she was use to in previous films, her addition to the cast is beyond perfect. Much like the comedy team of Wilder and Pryor, Wilder and Radner had a great on screen chemistry, that was second to none when it came to comedy (couples) team.

Let's be honest. This isn't a movie to take all that seriously, and it has to be evaluated on that basis. It's a bit of a thin storyline revolving around quiet ad executive Teddy's attempt to - well - get it on with the beautiful model Charlotte, in spite of the fact that he's happily married, and that Charlotte seems (at least at first glance) somewhat out of his league. Gene Wilder and Kelly Le Brock are the two main characters in this. Wilder was very good, and there were a lot of amusing scenes for him scattered throughout, and some fun moments of misunderstanding with his office colleague Ms Milner (played by Wilder's real-life wife Gilda Radner.) Even knowing that it's coming I can't help but laugh as Milner keys his car because she thinks he stood her up or sends him careening helplessly down one of San Francisco's hills or as he walks down the hall in his fancy new clothes and high fives a colleague with the words "What it is!" Wilder caught the character of Teddy - strangely drawn to Charlotte and yet knowing that he's a happy guy already with his wife Didi (Judith Ivey) and their daughters, and even as he pursues Charlotte, you can almost see the wheels turning in his head as he asks himself "why?" Le Brock (although playing the title character) was less central to the movie, which really revolved more around Teddy and his guy friends (played by Joseph Bologna, Charles Grodin and Michael Huddleston.) She was fine and certainly didn't detract from the movie at all, although I didn't think her performance was especially powerful either.

The movie is a wonderful length - at 1:26 just perfect for a fun little comedy of no great importance. Not to be overlooked are some wonderful songs performed by Stevie Wonder and Dionne Warwick. The only part of the movie I really didn't care for had to do with the character of Shelly (Michael Zorek) - the punk boyfriend of one of Teddy's daughters. The character wasn't likable first of all, especially as he groped at Didi, and the character also served absolutely no purpose to the overall story. Aside from that, it is indeed a fun movie. (7/10)

Teddy Pierce (Gene Wilder) works in a San Francisco ad agency and finds himself on a ledge wondering what went wrong. Four weeks previous, he sees the woman in red Charlotte (Kelly LeBrock) doing the Seven Year Itch dance in the parking lot. He tries to make a date with her despite being happily married to Didi (Judith Ivey) with kids. Miscommunication leads to Ms. Milner (Gilda Radner) getting the call who assumes that she's going on the date. His womanizing friend Joey (Joseph Bologna) loses his wife who takes everything. He continues with plans for the affair anyways while the guys Buddy (Charles Grodin) and Mikey take Joey for a night out. He has second thoughts and stands up Ms. Milner while Charlotte doesn't even know who he is.

There is no redeeming Teddy's antics but Gene Wilder gets a few good laughs in. I love Gilda Radner in this when she takes it out on Gene. The movie works best when Teddy gets put down. It doesn't work as much knowing he's lying to his wife. This movie should have more misadventures and hitting Teddy's nuts.

Light comedies look like the easiest things to make when they work, but when they don't, it's more like quantum physics on acid. Take this 1984 sex farce.

Teddy Pierce (Gene Wilder) is a happily married ad man in San Francisco who goes gaga when he catches a glimpse of a beautiful model (Kelly LeBrock) in racy undies. With the help of some friends, Teddy works around the suspicions of his wife (Judith Ivey) and the anger of a spurned co-worker (Gilda Radner) to arrange a furtive rendezvous with the object of his desire.

Best remembered today for the film debut of the bodacious LeBrock and a soundtrack that featured Stevie Wonder's hit song "I Just Called To Say I Love You," this is a movie that aims low and still misses. Wilder, who wrote and directed, presents a comedy that is not only not funny, but so tonally off as to become uncomfortable to watch.

Take the scenes with Radner. One of the great comedic talents of her time, Radner's wasted here as the butt of humor as mean as it is nonsensical. We see her as a love-starved crone being duped by bad luck into thinking Teddy wants to get romantic with her, only to find he doesn't. This drives her to inflict vengeance on him and his helpless car. Why does Teddy put up with this, rather than take it up with her or with HR?

You might answer that it's because this is a farce, but elsewhere "The Woman In Red" is played much more dramatically, too much so. Two of Teddy's male friends undergo crises involving romantic partners that are played very seriously, and developed in a heavy- handed way by Wilder that threatens his largely jokeless comedy. Or was I supposed to be laughing when Joseph Bologna has a nervous breakdown after discovering his wife and kids left him?

Wilder is only a little more successful working on Teddy's home life, as when Teddy discovers his wife keeps a revolver around the house and admits to being easily jealous.

"You realize you might have shot me?" he tells her after her gun accidentally goes off.

"I would never do that," she answers. "Not without a reason."

There are also little side bits that never make any sense, like a daughter's boyfriend who sports an aggressive Mohawk hairdo and makes clumsy passes at Teddy's wife, or a destructive and pointless gag Teddy's friends play at a fancy restaurant. These don't connect to the main story, and they aren't funny on their own.

At one point, we discover Teddy's wife hosts a diet clinic in their home for reasons that are never explained. The entire purpose of this seems to be to provide Wilder with an excuse for some physical humor, walking through a thick crowd of people in his character's living room while an instructor drones on about something called "the Alphabet diet:" "You have to watch yourself carefully because by the time you get to 'P,' you might put on all the weight you lost on 'K,'" she tells them.

And what of LeBrock's character, Charlotte? As male fantasy object, she certainly works for me. Yet except for one scene in an elevator with Charles Grodin (playing one of Teddy's friends), she never breaks out of that to develop any comic identity or dramatic interest.

Wilder's performance alternates between goofy and wan; he was in an odd period in his career after some fantastic comedic performances over the prior 15 years apparently left him with no more mountains to climb. He seems tired and disengaged here, adding to the weight of a very labored film.

There's a lot of things going for this movie: 1) Great, great Stevie Wonder musical score; 2) Gene Wilder in real romantic distress, and 3) first class ensemble work involving Gilda Radner, Joseph Bologna, Judith Ivey, Charles Grodin and others. Each of four very close friends encounters extra-relationship entanglement, film centers on Wilder's infatuation with much younger model LeBrock. The real fun is in the interaction between and among Wilder's friends, a truly enjoyable experience. Lots of negative comments here on IMDb related to "the original" movie (which I haven't seen) - I think it's only fair to judge this one on its own merits. I could watch this movie 20 times, in fact, I HAVE watched this movie 20 times. With apologies to all the bashers I give it 10 out of 10.

But he tried in the 80s to be a comedy director instead of a comic actor. Wilder proves in this movie and Haunted Honeymoon to not be a good judge of how to get the best comedy out of his cast. Instead, these performers get more caught up in bringing only their characters to life instead of being funny while doing it. Gilda Radner's performance is subject to this problem here. I always thought Radner's strengths as a performer involved her ability to bring some spontaneity to the roles she played but nothing she does here feels spontaneous, it all feels forced. If she had the type of leeway Robin Williams always had, her character would be genuinely funny instead of trying to be funny while pretending to not be. Maybe there was not much respect for her talent which is a shame considering her then boyfriend and future husband was directing her in this.

The same problem seems to be shared with the entire cast who is there to be funny EXCEPT Gene Wilder who is left trying to carry the entire comedy because of his own failings as a director. He had talent around him, why not use it? One of the best remembered comedies from the 80s was The Burbs, that movie had alot of improvisation included out of necessity (writers' strike). This movie would have benefited from that instead of Wilder tryi g to be mastermind of it all. As I said, he is no Mel Brooks who was initially a renowned comedy writer like Woody Allen's initial claim to fame in the 50s. That history shows in their work, Gene Wilder never had that background and this movie proves it.

I literally laughed till i cried at this super piece of work. I am a big fan of Gene Wilder, he seems to have a natural ability to make me laugh, so i knew i was in for a good laugh here. I must have seen The Woman in Red about 12 times now over the years and it just keeps getting better. What a shame Gene Wilder doesn't make movies any more, i feel there is no good talent around for comedy these days. It seems to be just young guys who are good looking so people would like them whatever they do. Gene Wilder on the other hand is a comedy legend, not just an actor but a director and writer, he is a man of many talents and i really miss him. Also worth noting about The Woman in Red is the soundtrack by Stevie Wonder, it's so 80's and it just brings me back to those days again. Gene Wilder plays a man seeking adventure in his life and becomes obsessed with the woman in red played by Kelly LeBrock. That's your basic storyline, simple and straight to the point so the laughs begin immediately as Teddy (Wilder) pursues Charlotte (LeBrock) and gets into all kinds of trouble as he chases after the woman in red. Hilarious.

Wilder's in good form, though neither he nor the material is up to the level of the great Mel Brooks troika (The Producers, Blazing Saddles, Young Frankenstein). The supporting cast (including the greatly missed Mrs. Wilder, Gilda Radner) is strong. Kelly LeBrock's not winning any acting awards, but her woodenness isn't a real problem with he "fantasy-idol" role here. And any film with a Stevie Wonder theme song ("I Just Called to Say I Love You") has to get bonus credit.

Gene Wilder's third (and penultimate) film as star-director is also his most consistent effort – albeit one that was a remake of a successful French original, i.e. Yves Robert's PARDON MON AFFAIRE (1977). Wilder ideally casts himself as a happily-married advertising agent whose chance 'encounter' with the stunning title character (portrayed by débutante Kelly LeBrock, a former model and future Mrs. Steven Seagal!) in an underground parking-lot thrusts him into a frenzied, amusing series of amorous complications. Aiding Wilder in his clumsy extramarital travails are his three buddies – gay Charles Grodin (his 'blind man routine' is side-splitting), married but perpetually horny Joseph Bologna and rotund Michael Huddleston – all of whom have their own sentimental troubles to contend with. To makes matters worse for Wilder, ugly duckling office colleague Gilda Radner mistakes his attentions for Le Brock to have been intended for her and goes through several physical and emotional changes in her quest to please her 'man' and, after realizing her error, hilariously takes sweet revenge on the understandably bewildered {sic} Wilder. Complimenting all the above quite nicely is Stevie Wonder's song score that, not only features duets with Dionne Warrick, but is highlighted by the Oscar-winning "I Just Called To Say I Love You".

Kelly LeBrock in her movie debut made a huge success mimicking the famous scene of Marilyn Monroe's air vent with white clothing, Kelly appears in hot red, she is really a gorgeous girl, though just an average actress, surviving with their fabulous physical attributes, her beauty make until dead men rise to the grave, for that Kelly was schedule to upside down the behaved husband Teddy (Gene Wilder) afterwards he gonna crazy to meets her, after many misunderstandings show up with the clumsy Teddy, up to the day the kindly Charlotte (LeBrock) accepts a diner and perhaps something more, just maybe.

Actually Teddy make part of a closest circle of odd friends mainly focused in the womanizer and cocky Joey (Joseph Bologna) that has been fooled his wife all the time, follow up by Buddy (Charles Grodin) a prouder single man touted as skirt chaser as well and the sidekick Mickey (Michael Huddleston), just Teddy never had any affair, preserving his happy marriage, so far, after having many mishaps he finally got an evening alone at Charlotte's fancy apartment for so awaited lovermaking, not so fast, her husband appears on the building without warning.

Gene Wilder also directed this funny picture and his real wife Gilda Radner as usually was there as the expectant unrequited mistress, becoming raging and vindictive, Charles Grodin was catched as queer guy, ashamed at first moment, however later well-accepted by his buddies, a soft-comedy of errors, fleeting unfaithfulness as anybody else and their setbacks, relied in an amusing way, although the reckoning will comes when Teddy reachs at home, all this with love songs of the Stevie Wonder which took the Academy Awards as the best original song "I Just Called To Say I Love You" a smashing hit of the 80' indeed!

Thanks for reading.

Resume:

First watch: 1988 / How many: 4 / Source: TV-Cable TV-DVD / Rating: 7.5.

While not perfect, the nutty romantic comedy "THE WOMAN IN RED" had its laughs, especially coming from Gilda Radner's mistaken identity scenes. Even the dumb gag of Charles Grodin pretending to be a blind man in a restaurant got a laugh out of me. Gene Wilder does carry it along, directing and starring, managing to be charming in a naïve sort of way, in spite of the infidelity he's planning. I never once thought we were meant to feel sorry for his character, but Wilder's comic timing and delivery for most part is so spot on, as the lengths this guy will go, turns into many situational red-faced mishaps. Throughout you learn nearly everyone is getting in on the act in some shape or form. Family-man Teddy has always played by the rules, never a thought crossing his mind of temptation, until one day he laid eyes on the woman in red. Wanting to make something of it, his affections for this fantasy woman can only end in comical consequences. Once Kelly Le Brock makes her first appearance in red, you won't be forgetting her risqué Marilyn Monroe homage anytime soon. The loveable Judith Ivey plays the unknowing wife. Stevie Wonder and Dionne Warwick contributed to the soundtrack too.

I like this movie - it was supposed to have been released on DVD over a year

ago and for some reason this didn't happen. So, when I found out it had finally come out I was glad to be able to buy a copy. My only disappointment was the

fact that some of the music had been changed for the DVD release - perhaps

that was why it wasn't released earlier. At the end was supposed to be Stevie Wonder's I JUST CALLED TO SAY I LOVE YOU played over the end credits -

but now only a brief portion is actually heard. This is too bad because it really suited the storyline. This has happened to other releases on VHS & DVD as well - most notably the

home release of Walter Mathau and Elaine May in A NEW LEAF - which on the

VHS version that I bought had the background music totally changed. That's the one complaint that I have in home release versions of movies

released originally for theater viewing is that they fail to keep the same music and cuts.

This has an interesting premise, but those who made it couldn't take it seriously. Gene Wilder does his usual shy, reserved, should-I-or-shouldn't-I cutey. He and his juvenile muchachos act like children. He becomes obsessed with a woman in red whom he sees dancing over a heat grate. The movie is more about his mid life crisis (same old stuff) and how he maintains his status among these guys. He has the attractive wife, the adorable kids, and finds himself escaping an inevitable crash. It just doesn't work. Given a serious treatment and Wilder's acting ability, it could have been fairly nice. We are left to sort things out and hope for the best.

TWIR is a classic in a way that many others claim to be...but aren't. As a comedy I don't think it has you bending over in fits of laughter, but there are some great scenes in there. Kelly Le Brock's character remains one of the hottest characters even to grace the screen. She was simply gorgeous and a knockout - a perfect fit for the role.

The combination of great soundtrack courtesy of Stevie Wonder, the wonderful acting of Wilder, and the indescribable beauty of Le Brock form a powerful combination that helps explain why people are still watching this flick today - 23 years on!!

I'd like to hear from those who gave it low votes - just what was missing from the film that you wanted to see?

For me this is a remake and not an adaptation. It's not bad at all but I still prefer the original (un elephant ça trompe énormément). Gene Wilder being as good as he is should have taken the concept of the original but not copy it entirely. I mean every scene is an exact copy of the original. All countries take movies from other countries and remake them but forget to add that little touch from their own country and culture, wich then makes it an adaptation and not a remake. And that's why it usually isn't as good as the original in my opinion.

I'm sure there are a few exceptions where remakes are better than the original one but this is not the case.

Gene Wilder is very very funny and if this remake was made by someone else most people wouldn't even have seen it or even liked it.

If you haven't already, watch the original and the sequel, because yes there is a sequel. Pardon Mon Affaire and Pardon Mon Affaire, Too ;)

The fine line between comedy and tragedy is on display in this picture. This is a truly vile film. Comedy? Not even close. The message of this film is that everybody's a lying cheat and will never learn from their mistakes. A truly tragic pronouncement.

Maybe the language barrier affected this adaptation of its French source material. The cultural insulation films receive by way of subtitles might have made this sad mess hysterical. Find a print in which the actors speak Mandarin with English subtitles and let me know whether it's zany, OK? Never knew an alleged comedy could be so depressing.