MICKI AND MAUDE

US, 1984, 118 minutes, Colour.
Dudley Moore, Amy Irving, Ann Reinking, George Gaynes, Richard Mulligan, Wallace Shawn.
Directed by Blake Edwards.

Micki and Maude is an entertaining Blake Edwards comedy. Edwards has the ability to create human situations with sentiment and laughter. He also has a sense of comic timing as well as for oddball farce. His career over thirty years has included such films as Operation Petticoat, The Great Race, The Pink Panther series, S.O.B., Victor/Victoria. He also highlighted Dudley Moore in 10. Dudley Moore did not have such a successful Hollywood career after 10 (except for Arthur) but is very good in Micki and Maude. He receives excellent support from Ann Reinking as Micki (All That Jazz, Annie) and Amy Irving as Maude (The Fury, The Competition, Yentl, The Far Pavilions). Richard Mulligan, star of Soap, has appeared in several Edwards films as quite manic; here he plays an excellently subdued but comic role.

The film is a light-hearted though feeling look, at marriage, family, and bigamy. Edwards also introduces some oddball comedy, with gentlemanly wrestlers and nude male models who wear guns and holsters. There is also a great deal of farce as Dudley moves from wife to wife trying to keep up two households. This reaches a climax with the two pregnant wives about to give birth at the same hospital.

All in all, an unlikely subject receives entertaining treatment.

1. A pleasing comedy? Romantic, farcical? Blake Edwards' work?

2. Big production values: Panavision, the world of commercial television, state politics, justice, classical music? The world of hospitals and gynaecologists? Style, editing and pace? Atmospheric score?

3. The film on the roles of men and women? Stereotypes and expectations? Changes in the '80s? In American society? The women as the focus of the film? Rob as the centre? Their relationships? Perception and truth?

4. Micki and the woman in politics, in the area of justice? Her skill as a lawyer? Her appointment as judge? Her love for her husband? Family planning? A busy woman? phone calls, appointments, not being able to keep dates? The build-up to her revealing the news of her pregnancy to Rob? Her leaving work, going home, having to be looked after? The amusing sequences of her being at home, reading, taking up fashion work? Her love for her husband? The humour about the pullover? The outings to the gynaecologist? The exhilaration of her pregnancy?

5. Maude as younger, musician, the opportunity to play with the Cambodians, the interview and her response to Rob, the invitation to the concert, the party? Returning home, the beginning of the affair? The phone calls, the continuing of the affair? Her pregnancy and Rob's delight? The visit to the wrestling, meeting her father, the engagement? The irony of the wedding - Rob's bigamy and Maude's not knowing? Their domestic life, her preparation for the birth, natural birth? Her playing the cello, the auditions? The visit to the doctor? The exhilaration of her pregnancy?

6. Dudley Moore as Rob - the little man and audience sympathy? Engaging? Humour, emotive? His marital tangle and audience response? masculine response? Feminine response? His TV work, showing the children the camera, the interview with the governor? His attitude to politics? The ideal marriage with Micki but the desire for children? The lovemaking in the taxi? Her pregnancy? At home, his desperation to see her, the appointments broken? Loneliness? Work and the support of Leo? The clash with the crew - even to who should say 'Roll the camera'? The encounter with Maude, the delight of the interview, Micki not coming home, his going to the concert, the party, the affair, the phone call breaking it off but continuing, the comedy in his meeting her father and the wrestlers, the pregnancy, engagement, the wedding? The irony of Micki's parents being outside the church and discussing the celebrity being married and his double-talk to cover the situation? Leo's continued help? His managing two households, sleeping, timetabling, the pullover and the 'I love you' on the lapel? The visits to the doctors, the clash with the nurse? The humour of his television work - especially the interviews with the nude gunmen?

7. The visits to the doctors and his timing in getting each wife to avoid seeing the other? The suspicions of the nurse? The build-up to the hospital farce ? a long sequence with its timing, incidents and pace?

8. Leo as the television executive, Rob's friend, support at the wedding, support with the two households, helping him after the truth was out?

9. The sketch of Maude's father and the wrestlers? The two doctors and the ugly nurse ? and the irony of her having a liaison? The deadpan humour of the interview with the nude gunman?

10. The sketch of Micki's parents? Their curiosity outside the church?

11. The aftermath and the relationship with each of his wives? Staying at Leo's, the hangover, following each in the park to see his children? The discussion with each ? and concealing the truth from the other? Rob as a loving husband caught in a situation, not wanting to hurt each woman? His love for the children and delight in them?

12. A blend of the serious and the comic, the farcical and the sentimental?