84 From ’84: All of Me

Dying millionaire Edwina Cutwater has her soul transferred into the body of younger, willing Terry Hoskins. However, something goes wrong, and she finds herself in her lawyer Roger Cobb’s body – together with the lawyer.

Cast:

• Steve Martin as Roger Cobb
• Lily Tomlin as Edwina Cutwater
• Madolyn Smith as Peggy Schuyler
• Victoria Tennant as Terry Hoskins
• Richard Libertini as Prahka Lasa
• Dana Elcar as Burton Schuyler
• Jason Bernard as Tyrone Wattell

1984 memories

I watched this on on HBO in 1984 and enjoyed it for the most part. It was one of those movies that I watched once and moved on. At the time there was nothing that had me coming back for more.

Let’s see how the comedy holds up forty years later…

40th Anniversary Re-watch

It’s about how I remember it, funny but not really memorable.

The plot is convoluted but here goes…Edwina (Lily Tomlin) is dying and wants to transfer her soul into Terry’s (Victoria Tennant) body. Terry’s soul will be released into the universe, oh and Terry is OK with this.

Edwina goes to her lawyer Roger (Steve Martin), to make Terry the lone beneficiary of Edwina’s estate.

Edwina hires a crazy mystic who can transfer her soul, it’s not a direct transfer though, the sou first goes into a bowl, then into the new body. Why the bowl? I guess it setups the comedy because when Edwina’s soul in is the bowl, the mystic drops the bowl out the window, hitting Roger and transferring Edwina’s soul into Roger.

Terry has second thoughts after she learns the transfer actually works and Roger is stuck living with Edwina in his body. Roger contacts the mystic to get Edwina’s soul out and at one point her soul is transferred to a pitcher of water!

It all works out in the end and Terry’s soul is transferred into a horse, Edwina into Terry’s body and Roger is back to his normal self. Oh and Edwina(Terry) are dating.

Steve Martin does a great job with the comedy. There are a lot of physical gags when Edwina is in his body that are perfectly suited to Martin’s style of comedy.

All of Me was directed by Carl Riener, who directed three previous Steve Martin movies; The Jerk (1979), Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982) and The Man with Two Brains (1983) and would go on to direct Summer Rental and Summer School. The last two movies are a couple of my favorites.

The writer who came up with this crazy story was Phil Alden Robinson, who may be best known for writing and directing Field of Dreams (1987). He also wrote Fletch (1985), Rhinestone (1984) and wrote and directed Sneakers (1992) and many more.

Favorite Line:

I can’t believe this. I can’t even die right.

All of Me is a fun comedy and Steve Martin is great at physical comedy. Lily Tomlin does a great job as the his body partner, but it’s Martin’s comedy prowess that sells the movie.

All of Me was released on 21 September 1984. It grabbed over $35 million on an unknown budget.

Did you watch All of Me? If so let me know your thoughts in the comments below or on X(Twitter). The main Geekster channel is @GeeksterMedia and I’m @MileHighSamurai You can also find me on Bluesky @MileHighSamurai

6/10 stars

Check out the entire 84 From ’84 movie series