Mannequin (1987 film)

Mannequin is a 1987 American romantic comedy[1] film directed by Michael Gottlieb and written by Edward Rugoff and Gottlieb. It stars Andrew McCarthy, Kim Cattrall, Estelle Getty and G. W. Bailey. The original music score was composed by Sylvester Levay. A modern retelling of the Pygmalion myth, the film revolves around a chronically underemployed artist named Jonathan Switcher (McCarthy) who lands a job as a department-store window dresser and falls in love with a mannequin (Cattrall)—the attraction being that she comes to life on occasion, but only for him.

Mannequin
Theatrical release poster
Directed byMichael Gottlieb
Produced byArt Levinson
Written by
  • Edward Rugoff
  • Michael Gottlieb
Starring
Music bySylvester Levay
CinematographyTim Suhrstedt
Edited by
Production
company
Gladden Entertainment
Distributed by20th Century Fox[1]
Release date
  • February 13, 1987 (1987-02-13) (United States)
Running time
90 minutes[2]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$7.9 million[3]
Box office$42.7 million (US)[1]

Mannequin received a nomination for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for its main title song, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" by Starship,[4] which reached number one on both the Billboard Hot 100 and UK Singles Chart. In 1991, a sequel to the film called Mannequin Two: On the Move was released.

Plot

In Ancient Egypt, Ema "Emmy" Hesire hides in a pyramid from her mother, who wants her in an arranged marriage. Emmy prays to the gods to save her and find her true love in the future. The gods answer her prayers and Emmy suddenly vanishes before her mother's eyes. In 1987, Philadelphia artist Jonathan Switcher takes a number of odd jobs, including one where he assembles a beautiful, perfect mannequin. Although Jonathan painstakingly expresses his artistic passion, his employers dismiss him for taking too much time. His arrogant girlfriend Roxie Shield, who views Jonathan as a flake, dumps him.

After his motorcycle breaks down in the rain, Jonathan passes the Prince & Company department store and recognizes his perfect mannequin in a display window. He declares that she is the first that made him feel like an artist. The next morning, he saves the owner, Mrs. Claire Timkin, from being killed by a falling sign. Grateful, Claire hires Jonathan, much to the chagrin of manager Mr. Richards, who assigns Jonathan as a stock boy. Jonathan meets flamboyant window dresser Hollywood Montrose, and the two become friends. That night, Hollywood and Jonathan construct a window display starring Jonathan's mannequin. They have a run-in with the store's extremely bumbling night security guard, Captain Felix Maxwell. When Jonathan is alone, the mannequin he is obsessed with comes to life as Emmy. She says she has existed for centuries, appearing to various great artists as a muse. She explains that she can only appear to him when they are alone and everyone else sees her as a mannequin.

To the surprise of his detractors, Jonathan's popular window dressing for Prince & Company attracts large audiences. At a board meeting, Richards wants to dismiss Jonathan, ostensibly for showing off with the window displays. In truth, he is actually a corporate agent from the rival department store Illustra. Ignoring Richards, the board members promote Jonathan to visual merchandising. Jonathan and Emmy's relationship thrives over the following weeks, and he takes her on a date to see the city on the back of his motorcycle. Every night, she helps him to create popular window displays. Impressed with his work, Claire promotes Jonathan to vice president of the department store.

As the window designs are bringing a tremendous number of customers and profits for Prince & Company, Illustra's chief executive, B. J. Wert, attempts to lure Jonathan away from Prince & Company with a job offer from Roxie, who works for him. Jonathan refuses, saying that at Prince & Company, he has people he cares about and who count on him as somebody to help and view his work as important. They realize that Jonathan seems to have a fixation on one of the mannequins and make plans to steal Emmy. After becoming frustrated with Felix's ineptitude and Richards' attitude towards Jonathan, Claire fires them.

Richards and Felix break into the store and search for Emmy. Unable to tell one mannequin from another, they simply steal every female mannequin. The next morning, Hollywood and Jonathan discover Emmy missing. Jonathan immediately suspects Illustra and confronts Wert, who is dismissive. Roxie storms out of the office, swearing that Jonathan will never see Emmy again. Jonathan chases Roxie while being pursued by a dozen security guards including Felix. Hollywood bombards the guards with a fire hose as Roxie loads Emmy along with the other mannequins into a trash compactor. Jonathan jumps onto the loading conveyor belt and grabs Emmy, still frozen as a mannequin. As Jonathan attempts to pull her out, Emmy comes to life and stays human in front of other people for the first time.

Felix and his fellow guards rush in, followed by Wert and Richards, who attempt to have Jonathan arrested for trespassing. But Claire arrives, accusing Richards and Felix of breaking and entering, grand theft and kidnapping Emmy, while accusing Wert of conspiracy, displaying evidence from a newly installed video security system in the store. Wert, Richards and Felix are arrested and hauled away and Wert fires Roxie as he is being dragged out. Jonathan and Emmy are married in the store window of Prince & Company. Claire is the bridesmaid, Hollywood is the best man, and numerous pedestrians watch them exchange vows.

Cast

Production

Development

The idea for the film came when director Michael Gottlieb was walking down Fifth Avenue and thought he saw a mannequin move in the window of Bergdorf Goodman.[5] Others observe the similarities to the plot of the film One Touch of Venus (1948).[6]

The film was made based on the marketing principles of noted Hollywood market researcher Joseph Farrell, who served as an executive producer. The film was specifically designed to appeal to target demographics. Though not a star, McCarthy was cast after tests of his films showed that he strongly appealed to girls, the target audience.[3]

Filming

The producers contacted various state film commissions across America looking for an elegant center city department store in which to shoot the movie. They visited stores across the country before settling on John Wanamaker's in Philadelphia (now Macy's Center City). The store was given the name Prince and Company for the film.[7] Interior filming at Wanamaker's took about three weeks, with shooting usually beginning around 9 pm and going until 6 am the next day.

Additional scenes were filmed in the formal gardens behind The Hotel Hershey. Scenes taking place at the fictitious department store Illustra were filmed at the Boscov's department store in the former Camp Hill Mall (now Camp Hill Shopping Center) near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia mayor Wilson Goode estimated the film injected $3 million into the city.[7]

Prior to the start of filming, Cattrall spent six weeks posing for a Santa Monica sculptor, who captured her likeness. Six mannequins, each with a different expression, were made.[7] Cattrall later recalled, "There's no way to play a mannequin except if you want to sit there as a dummy [...] I did a lot of body-building because I wanted to be as streamlined as possible. I wanted to match the mannequins as closely as I could."[7] The actress later said that doing the film made her feel "grown up":

I've become more of a leading lady instead of, like, the girl ... All the other movies that I've done I played the girl, and the plot was around the guy. I've never had anybody to do special lighting for me, or find out what clothes look good on me, or what camera angles are best for me ... In this movie, I learned a lot from it. It's almost like learning old Hollywood techniques ... I've always been sort of a tomboy. I feel great being a girl, wearing a dress.[7]

Music

Featured in the film, "Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now" was a song co-written by Albert Hammond and Diane Warren and recorded by the American rock band Starship in 1986. It is a duet featuring Starship vocalists Grace Slick and Mickey Thomas. It reached number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on April 4, 1987,[8] and topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks the following month, becoming the UK's second-biggest-selling single of 1987.

The song was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song.[4]

Reception

Box office

The film debuted at number three at the US box office behind Platoon and Outrageous Fortune, grossing $6 million over the four-day President's Day weekend, surpassing the other opener, Over the Top starring Sylvester Stallone.[9][10] The film grossed a total of $42.7 million in the United States and Canada.[1]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 21% based on 39 reviews and an average rating of 3.45/10. The site's consensus states: "Mannequin is a real dummy, outfitted with a ludicrous concept and a painfully earnest script that never springs to life, despite the best efforts of an impossibly charming Kim Cattrall."[11] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 21 out of 100 based on reviews from 13 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[12] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade B+ on scale of A to F.[13]

It was savaged by Leonard Maltin, who called it "absolute rock-bottom fare, dispiriting for anyone who remembers what movie comedy should be."[14] In his print review, Roger Ebert awarded it a half star and wrote, "A lot of bad movies are fairly throbbing with life. Mannequin is dead. The wake lasts 1 1/2 hours, and then we can leave the theater."[5]

Rita Kempley of The Washington Post called the film "made by, for, and about dummies."[15] Janet Maslin of The New York Times puts the blame on the writer-director: "as co-written and directed by Michael Gottlieb, Mannequin is a state-of-the-art showcase of perfunctory technique."[16]

Dan McQuade, writing in Philadelphia Magazine, referencing the film's use of Philadelphia as a setting, after panning the film itself wrote, "The message of Mannequin, clumsy as it is, is that the greatest place and time in recorded history is 1980s Philadelphia ... Truly, this is the most uplifting film ever made about the city."[17]

David Cornelius of DVD Talk wrote: "Mannequin is one of the stupidest movies ever conceived, and one of the worst. Which makes it, in its own lousy way, mesmerizing. To watch it is to get sucked in by its hypnotic ways; its very off-the-wall shoddiness is astounding. Spader alone is worth the price of admission – surely aware of the movie's badness, the actor hams it up with a deliriously over-the-top performance". He called it "a Bad Movie Essential" but warned advised viewers with a lower pain threshold for bad film to "obviously Skip It" as it is a truly dreadful film.[18]

Sequels

Despite being savaged by critics, the film made a strong profit (see above). In 1991, a sequel called Mannequin Two: On the Move was released and was directed by Stewart Raffill. The sequel was dubbed as "one of the worst follow-ups ever made."[19]

Home media

Mannequin was released on VHS, Betamax, and digital stereo LaserDisc format in September 1987 by Cannon films through Media Home Entertainment. The film was released on DVD by MGM Home Entertainment on October 7, 2004, in a widescreen Region 1 DVD, and was later re-released to DVD on January 16, 2008, in a new double feature edition with Mannequin Two: On the Move as the second disc.[18] Mannequin was released on Blu-ray for the first time by Olive Films (under license from MGM) on November 3, 2015.

References
  1. "Mannequin (1987)". Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  2. "Mannequin (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved January 18, 2012.
  3. Weber, Bruce (25 December 2011). "Joseph Farrell, Who Used Market Research to Shape Films, Dies at 76". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 December 2011.
  4. "60th Academy Awards for Best Original Song". The Academy Awards of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Archived from the original on 30 May 2012. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  5. Ebert, Roger (13 February 1987). "Mannequin Movie Review & Film Summary (1987)". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  6. One Touch of Venus review, Vicpine
    One Touch of Venus review, Steven Stanley, StageSceneLA, 7 February 2011
  7. Paul Willistein (February 14, 1987). ""Mannequin Is Kim Cattrall's Display Window"". The Morning Call. Archived from the original on 2013-04-08. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  8. "Starship". Billboard.
  9. Mathews, Jack (19 February 1987). "Stallone Loses A Box-office Arm-wrestle". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2 June 2012.
  10. "'Platoon' Pumps Up February B.O.; Brisk Biz At Top". Variety. February 18, 1987. p. 3.
  11. "Mannequin (1987)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  12. "Mannequin". Metacritic. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  13. "MANNEQUIN (1987) B+". CinemaScore. Archived from the original on 2018-12-20.
  14. Maltin, Leonard (2000). Leonard Maltin's Movie and Video Guide 2001. Signet Books. p. 878. ISBN 9780451201072.
  15. Kempley, Rita (13 February 1987). "Mannequin (PG)". The Washington Post. Retrieved 14 May 2013.
  16. Maslin, Janet (13 February 1987). "Film: A Comedy, Mannequin". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 May 2020.
  17. McQuade, Dan (4 December 2013). "Why Mannequin Is the Best Movie Ever Made About Philadelphia". Philadelphia Magazine. Retrieved 14 April 2015.
  18. David Cornelius (April 15, 2008). "Mannequin & Mannequin 2: On the Move". DVD Talk. Retrieved 2020-05-04.
  19. "Kim Cattrall, Andrew McCarthy's Mannequin set for remake". Zee News. 11 January 2010. Retrieved 15 May 2013.
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