'Doctor Detroit' (83)

'Doctor Detroit' (83) ***1/2

Writers: Bruce Jay Friedman, Carl Gottlieb and Robert Boris
Director: Michael Pressman
Starring: Dan Aykroyd, James Brown, Kate Murtagh, Donna Dixon, Lynn Whitfield, T.K. Carter, Howard Hesseman, Fran Drescher, Lydia Lei, George Furth

I thought I would start my weekly reviews of what I think are classics with a very cheesy 80's guilty pleasure of mine. I will be reviewing true classic movies, cult classics, movies I think should be cult classics and also guilty pleasures. Most of my movies I pick as classics were not well received by critics but that is what is good about the movies, we all like good crap as much as the prestige films and we all have our own classics we watch over and over.

I will start with a very dumb but addictive early 80's movie starring Dan Aykroyd. Dan Aykroyd, after the loss of his friend John Belushi, made some truly terrible movies in the 80's. "Doctor Detroit" is a huge step above 95% of his other 80's movies. Hey, this is the movie where Aykroyd met Donna Dixon who became his future wife so this movie can't be all bad. Written for John Belushi to be in right before he passed away, "Doctor Detroit" concerns a nerdy professor named Clifford Skridlow played by Aykroyd. This movie could have been very different if Belushi was in it but Aykroyd does well here. Clifford while running on Chicago's Lake Shore Drive gets splashed by a limousine driven by a pimp played by Howard Hesseman (WKRP in Cincinnati). The pimp takes Skridlow out with the help of his call girls and his assistant out in the city of Chicago for some night life. This movie might not be smart or deep but I have never seen Chicago look so beautiful as it does here in a film. If you are talking the best looking movies filmed in Chicago this is in the top five. As the night passes an evil, huge lady named "Mom" pays a visit. She is the main Mother of all the prostitutes in Chicago. She wants Hesseman to give up his women but he skips town so the girls are now in the hands of Skridlow. The professor has to come up with a powerful alter ego and he comes up with "Doctor Detroit" the bad man from Michigan. When Aykroyd raids the prop department at the college theatre department he comes up with an awful disguise. This includes a wild wig and a very ugly green and yellow pimp suit. The costume is ridiculous but it kind of grew on me as does Aykroyd's performance as "Doctor Detroit". This movie is fast paced, looks beautiful, shows off Chicago very well and I thought there were some genuinely funny moments. There's a classic line of dialogue given by the Doctor that is one of the best of the 80's. It has 80's staple T.K. Carter who I think is the most under rated comedy actor of the 80's. There is a screwball ending that is very well directed and is capped off by an awesome James Brown dance number and then a sword fight (don't ask). I don't know but I have seen this movie more than 50 times and I like it every time I see it so there you go. Yes this movie is dumb but I can compile a list of more than 100 comedies in the 80's that are worse. Sometimes a movie that seems to be so bad grows on you and I think this movie is misunderstood. When it came out there were a plethora of movies about hookers and pimps. Of course there was "Night Shift", "Angel", "Vice Squad" and the list goes on. You might find "Doctor Detroit" dumb but I know you have a favorite movie that people call bad that you love. The movie is classic junk food, it might not be good for you but it goes down fast.