Drop Dead Fred

Elizabeth Cronin is an unassertive and repressed woman, dominated by her controlling mother Polly, who blames her for her divorce. While taking her lunch break from work, she visits her husband Charles, from whom she is separated, hoping to sort out their problems. He reasserts his desire for a divorce and says that he is in love with another woman named Annabella.

While she is at a public phone, a man walking down the street breaks into her car to steal her purse, and then her car. Forced to run back to work at the courthouse, she arrives late and loses her job. As she leaves the courthouse, she runs into an old friend, Mickey, who brings up childhood memories they shared, which includes memories of Elizabeth's childhood imaginary friend, Drop Dead Fred. Mickey explains how only Elizabeth could see Drop Dead Fred, and everybody else thought she was crazy. A series of flashbacks reveals that while he caused havoc for her, he also gave her happiness and a release from her oppressive mother. One day while she and Fred are making a mess on the diner table she hears her mother coming and she imagines him hiding in a jack-in-the-box. Polly, fed up with Elizabeth playing with Fred takes the jack-in-the-box and tapes it shut and takes Fred away from her. The event leaves her traumatized.

After a pep talk from her friend Janie, Elizabeth moves back into her mother's home, having nowhere else to go. Elizabeth finds the taped-shut jack-in-the-box that Polly trapped Fred inside in her childhood bedroom. She removes the tape, releasing Fred. He agrees to help her feel better, which she believes will only happen when she wins back Charles. However, his childish antics do more harm than good. He sinks Janie's houseboat, causes havoc at a restaurant, and tricks Elizabeth into attacking a violinist in a shopping mall.

Worried by Elizabeth's recent strange behavior, Polly takes her to a (children's) psychologist. In the waiting room, Fred is seen meeting up with the imaginary friends of other patients, who are all children. The doctor prescribes medication to rid her of Fred, whom he and Polly believe is a figment of her imagination. She also changes her appearance and wardrobe. The medication also has the effect of slowly killing Fred. Charles now wants her back and she is overjoyed, until Fred discovers he is still cheating on her with Annabella and tells Elizabeth. Heartbroken, she tells Fred that she cannot leave Charles, because she is scared of being alone. She then passes out due to overdosing on medication. They escape to a dream sequence in which she is finally able to reject Charles and stand up to Polly, declaring she is no longer afraid of her. She frees her imprisoned childhood self. Fred tells her that she no longer needs him, so they kiss and he disappears.

Upon awakening from the dream, Elizabeth dumps Charles and asserts herself to Polly. Before leaving, she reconciles with Polly and encourages her to find a friend to escape her own loneliness. Days later she visits Mickey and his daughter Natalie, who blames Drop Dead Fred on mischief that has just prompted her nanny to quit. Elizabeth realizes that he is now with Natalie, although she can no longer see him.

• Phoebe Cates as Elizabeth Cronin
  • Ashley Peldon as Young Elizabeth
• Rik Mayall as Drop Dead Fred
• Marsha Mason as Polly Cronin
• Ron Eldard as Mickey Bunce
• Carrie Fisher as Janie
• Tim Matheson as Charles
• Daniel Gerroll as Nigel Cronin
• Keith Charles as Murray
• Bridget Fonda as Annabella (uncredited)
• Eleanor Mondale as Attractive customer
• Bob Reid as Judge Dubben
• Peter Thoemke as Arsonist

Tim Burton and Robin Williams were offered the role of director and Fred respectively. They turned the project down.[3]

Filming began in August 1990, and finished in September that year.

Filmed in Minneapolis, a large part of Drop Dead Fred was filmed at Prince's Paisley Park Studios in the suburb of Chanhassen. It has been said that Prince used to visit the set, each evening once filming had stopped for the day, to mess around and admire the costumes and props.

• Drop Dead Fred at IMDb
• Drop Dead Fred at Box Office Mojo