Steven Martin recently turned 78 and has been working almost non-stop for decades and with the hit TV show Only Murders in the Building has talked of slowing down. If there’s someone who’s deserving of some time for himself, it’s Martin. Since he was in his early 20s, he’s been writing on TV shows, winning an Emmy for his work on The Smother Brothers Comedy Hour and then doing stand-up which turned into several TV appearances before his movie career took off with the successful The Jerk.
It was the first of four collaborations he’d have with Carl Reiner directing. Sometimes, it’s difficult for a stand-up comic to transition to movie roles as they can’t find the right filmmaker. That wasn’t the case with Reiner. The two comic legends knew how to make good comedies. Unfortunately, all good things can’t last forever. In 1984, they worked on their swan song, All of Me, a fantasy comedy that makes good use of Martin’s physical abilities as a comic.
Set in the Los Angeles area, Martin plays Roger Cobb, who has just turned 38 and his career as a lawyer isn’t the best. He’s mainly become an errand boy for his boss, Burton Schuyler (Dana Elcar), a philandering corrupt lawyer, who is going through a divorce that could ruin his finances and practice. Roger is also dating Burton’s daughter, Peggy (Madolyn Smith), who like Burton wants him to give us his “hobby” of playing jazz guitar with Tyrone Wattell (Jason Bernard), a blind saxophonist musician and focus more on his career.
One day, Burton tells Roger to go out to handle some urgent matters at the estate of Edwina Cutwater (Lily Tomlin), the very ill and bedridden sole heir to a wealthy fortune. Edwina has employed an Eastern mystic Prahka Lasa (Richard Libertini), a spiritual but very gullible man who is able to transfer the souls of one person into another. Edwina wants to tranfer her estate to Terry Hoskins (Victoria Tennant) the younger and more healthier daughter of her horse wrangler, Fred (Eric Christmas). Edwina will have Prahka transfer her soul into the body of Terry, who initially says she’s gotten disillusioned with the material world, and her soul will be released to the universe.
But Roger doesn’t believe this calling the plan “bananas” and his actions upset Edwina who has turned bitter and cold toward anyone who doesn’t cater to her needs. She thinks money can solve everything and goes to the office to have Roger fired while she meets with Burton to finalize her new will. Roger tells Edwina what he really thinks which impresses Burton who also believes Edwina’s idea is outrageous. However, Edwina dies while in the conference room while Prahka is trying to transfer her soul into a special bowl he has made. But during the commotion, health workers try to rush to Edwina’s aide and the bowl gets knocked out the open window accidentally.
Down on the sidewalk, Roger is leaving the building as the bowl knocks him on the head -and placed Edwina’s soul inside of Roger’s body, but only on his right side. Roger can see Edwina’s reflection in the mirror and they can read each other’s thoughts. They try to go back up to the conference room but Edwina controls half of Roger’s body making it hard for him to walk as she’s not using to walking a lot.
Roger can’t find Prahka at the office and a series of misunderstandings while he talks to Edwina lead Peggy into thinking he’s hiding another woman in his office and a colleague, Mr. Mifflin (Michael Ensign) thinking he’s a weird pervert in the restroom. Apparently, Roger can’t go do his business unless Edwina helps him pull out “the little fireman.” He later tries to track Prahka down at a church Edwina was associated with but falls asleep only to be awaken late by Terry, but discovers Edwina isn’t talking to him.
They go back to Roger’s apartment to have sex but Edwina wakes up preventing Roger from having sex, but his actions, speech and manuerisms convince Terry that the soul transfer did work. She had only agreed to do it to get Edwina’s fortune. She has no desire to go through with it and since Edwina is now officially dead, all her wealth and fortune belongs to Terry. She tries to send Prahka off who has been staying in a posh hotel but doesn’t understand western civilization, associating a telephone call with flushing the toilet.
At the same time, Roger is trying to prepare for the divorce hearing to save his job and rekindle his relationship with Peggy, but he falls asleep from not getting enough sleep leading Edwina to pretend to be Roger. Watching Martin pretend to be a woman pretending to be a man really shows you his capabilities as a comic. A courtroom scene turns into a farce that is perfectly staged and directed by Reiner.
Martin also works well as an actual person rather than the goofy characters he’s been known for up until now. Even though he hosted Saturday Night Live in the 1970s, his skit along with Dan Aykroyd as they played “Two Wild and Crazy Guys” has stuck with him, for better or for worse, for almost 50 years. I remember what Roger Ebert said of Chevy Chase in Funny Farm, which he praised calling it a performance, not an appearance. Ebert had been no fan of Martin prior to seeing this movie and praised it as well. Martin even admitted this started his “mature film career.” In the book Steven Martin: The Magic Years, he stated, “I learned a lot about structure and character.”
You can emphatize with Roger because as he nearing middle-age and his life doesn’t feel fulfilled. He really wants to be a jazz guitarist as well as a respectable attorney with a promotion and a good salary. Yet, people tell him to give up the jazz music and just do one more job to get his promotion. This is why he initially doesn’t like Edwina because she doesn’t see the struggles others have.
However, Edwina is not an entirely soulless person. She breaks down and tells Roger it was a difficult childhood of always being sick and not able to experience what others take for granted. Her parents hired a clown who didn’t perform for her birthay and she had to watch Terry as a child enjoy her horses from a window. You can’t blame Edwina for turning bitter or wanting to examine all spiritual ways to live on after her body expires.
Martin and Tomlin show they have wonderful chemistry together, even when they’re bickering with each other. Martin also has to mimic Tomlin in the way he walks. You’d never think seeing a man walk through a office building lobby would be so funny but he makes it work the way he walks on his right side like a woman while tries to walk like a man on his left side. It’s easy for physical comics to lose the ability to make the audience laugh by overdoing it.
Martin and Tennant would later marry in 1986 and be together until 1994. They would appear again in L.A. Story, which would be a modest financial success like this movie. Martin would finish the 1980s making more “mature and grown-up” movies like Roxanne, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and Parenthood along with the brilliant Planes, Trains and Automobiles, which I’d argue is his best work because he plays so well against type. He would then venture into more dramatic roles in Grand Canyon, The Spanish Prisoner, A Simple Twist of Fate and more family-friendly movies like the Father of the Bride and Cheaper by the Dozen movies.
Sadly, Martin and Reiner never made another movie. They had already did their best work with this movie and to bookend it with The Jerk was the best way for their brief five years of working together. While I thought Dead Man Don’t Wear Plaid was too gimmicky with its insertion of Humphrey Bogart, Ava Gardner and Cary Grant, among many other classic actors, The Man With Two Brains still remains his most criminally underrated comedy after 40 years.
Whether or not, Martin does a season four of Only Murders in the Building, which by now it’s getting a little meta-cliche someone keeps getting killed in a posh Manhattan apartment complex, I’d love to see what’s next in store. But Martin has proven the old saying of “Never say never.” He’s risen from a TV comedy writer to a stand-up comic, musician, movie star, comedy legend and dramatic actor. The only other avenue he can pursue is directing. And it hasn’t slowed Clint Eastwood down and he’s got 15 years on Martin.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 