Down And Out In Beverly Hills (1985)
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.
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