| Another You | |
| Director: | Maurice Phillips |
| Producer: | Ziggy Steinberg |
| Starring: | |
| Cinematography: | Victor J. Kemper |
| Editing: | Dennis M. Hill |
| Music: | Charles Gross |
| Studio: | Tri-Star Pictures |
| Distributor: | Tri-Star Pictures |
| Runtime: | 94 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $17 million |
| Gross: | $2.9 million |
Another You is a 1991 American comedy film directed by Maurice Phillips and produced and written by Ziggy Steinberg. It stars Richard Pryor, Gene Wilder, Mercedes Ruehl, Vanessa Williams and Kevin Pollak. It was released in the United States on July 26, 1991.
A critical and box-office failure, it is the fourth and last film in which Pryor and Wilder starred together, beginning with Silver Streak in 1976. It is also the last film in which both actors have a leading role, as well as Wilder's final appearance in a theatrical film.
Required to complete community service for past crimes, con man Eddie Dash reluctantly chooses the easiest assignment: accompanying mental patient and reformed pathological liar George as he acclimates to life outside the sanitarium.
Although George quickly assumes that Eddie is his best friend, he attempts to abandon George in a museum. George panics and runs outside, knocking over Al Sandro, a man who recognizes him as millionaire brewery heir Abe Fielding, who has been missing for five months. Al arranges to meet George at a cafe to pay a large sum of cash owed to Abe; Eddie, seeking to take advantage of the case of mistaken identity, convinces George to go. At the cafe, the staff and guests recognize George as Abe. When Al prevents Eddie from talking, George is forced to lie to maintain the ruse, presenting elaborate fabricated tales of the preceding five months.
Outside, George is angrily confronted by Abe's wife Elaine, who brings him to their mansion. Although George attempts to be honest with her, Elaine remains convinced that he is Abe. Eddie arrives the following morning to collect George, telling him how impressive his lying abilities are, but George regrets lying, particularly to Elaine, to whom he is attracted. Abe's business manager Rupert Dibbs arrives, handing Abe a large amount of cash and a credit card to use, which Eddie takes for himself before leaving. Without Eddie, George again panics and returns to the sanitarium.
Elaine meets with Rupert, where it is revealed that she is actually singer-turned-actress Mimi Kravitz, who has been hired to play Elaine, alongside other paid actors who pretended to recognize George as Abe. When Abe Fielding Sr. died, Rupert expected to inherit the brewery but learned that Abe Sr. had an illegitimate son who died shortly before Rupert could locate him. To prevent Abe Sr.'s assets from going through probate until he can secure the brewery for himself, Rupert intends to convince everyone that George, who has no family, is Abe Sr.'s son. Rupert pays Eddie to join in the plan.
Eddie returns George to Abe's home, where he makes efforts to earn Elaine's affections, but she remains distant, as she feels bad about manipulating the good-hearted George. He takes her to an Austrian restaurant and gives a yodelling performance to profess his feelings, which impresses Elaine, and they eventually sleep together. At Rupert's request, Eddie and Elaine take George to various doctors and the dentist to create records in Abe's name, but after overhearing a discussion about identifying bodies from dental records, they realize that Rupert plans to kill George and inherit the brewery. Rupert convinces Elaine that she is wrong, but privately offers Eddie a large sum of money to kill George. Eddie takes George on a hunting trip while Rupert uses a remote device to listen to them. George spends the trip warning the animals so that they cannot be shot, but the pair are eventually confronted by a bear. He attempts to calm it, but a panicked Eddie shoots at it, seemingly killing George.
During Eddie's improvized eulogy at the funeral, George reveals that he is alive and faked his death with Eddie's help. Eddie tells Rupert that he has recorded all of their meetings, proving that Rupert is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder. Rupert tries to expose George, but the attendees remain convinced that he is Abe, enabled by Rupert's paid actors. Infuriated that George will inherit the brewery, Rupert attempts to kill him, but Eddie and Elaine incapacitate Rupert, and he is arrested. Rupert warns George that if he does not confess, he will spend the rest of his life lying. George admits his true identity to the assembled onlookers, but they assume that he is joking, and he remains in control of the brewery alongside Eddie and Elaine.
Some time later, on a tropical beach, Elaine and George celebrate their wedding with Eddie and his partner Gloria, Rupert's former secretary.
The film was released five years after Pryor revealed that he had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, and his physical deterioration is evident in this film.[1] [2] Pryor said that he "got personally and professionally fucked on that film. They fired the director and hired another ego. I was told I wasn't going to have to reshoot scenes but the new ego had me do it anyway. That's when I discovered things weren't going well for me professionally."[3]
Peter Bogdanovich was the original director, but he was replaced after five weeks of shooting in New York.[4] On the last night of location filming, he received a phone call from his agent near midnight letting him know that he was being replaced. After reviewing footage with the replacement director, it was determined that none of the New York footage was usable, and the script was rewritten to be shot entirely in Los Angeles. The movie was shot and completed in Los Angeles, and none of Bogdanovich's footage was used.[5] Ironically, Bogdanovich had also been an early candidate to direct Silver Streak, Wilder and Pryor's first film pairing,[6] but was ousted in favor of Arthur Hiller.
In 2016, on Gilbert Gottfried's podcast (Gilbert Gottfried's Amazing Colossal Podcast!), Bogdanovich described how he and Gene Wilder did not get along because Bogdanovich devoted most of his time and energy to Richard Pryor due to his health issues.[7] Although Bogdanovich claimed that the film had been greenlit only because he had gotten Pryor involved (the studio apparently did not want Wilder to star alone), he believed that it was Wilder who successfully campaigned to have him replaced with another director.[7] Gottfried was cast in the Bogdanovich version of the film, but he was dropped when it was reshot.[7]
Another You was a box-office failure.[8] It ranks among the top thirty widely released films for having the biggest second weekend drop at the box office, dropping 78.1% from $1,537,965 to $334,836.[9] It has a 5% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 21 reviews. The consensus summarizes: "So stubbornly unfunny that not even a reunited Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder are enough to give it a spark, Another You is worse than none at all."[10] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade of "C" on a scale of A+ to F.[11]
Stephen Holden of The New York Times called the film "a frantically incoherent comedy" with a screenplay that "jabbers along in ways that even Mr. Wilder, who carries the brunt of the dialogue, cannot make amusing. Mr. Pryor's role is paltry and his dialogue scant. When all else fails, he is reduced to repeating obscenities."[12]
Joseph McBride of Variety wrote that "producer Ziggy Steinberg's feeble script is given slapdash direction by the man who replaced Peter Bogdanovich on what is billed 'a film by Maurice Phillips' (the best joke in the film)... Though Pryor shows old flashes of his old comic brilliance and charm, it's painful to see how his health problems have affected him in this role."[13]
Michael Wilmington of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Producer-writer Ziggy Steinberg's script is like a stone tied around the movie's neck that sinks it, despite all those gaudy, glossy balloons pulling it up."[14]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film half of one star out of four, calling it a "completely worthless comedy" with "no laughs".[15]