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Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

PG-13 | | Comedy, Drama | 12 April 1985 (USA)
A bored suburban housewife, seeking escape from her life, suffers amnesia after an accident, wakes up, and is mistaken for a free-spirited New York City drifter named Susan.

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Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 2 nominations. See more awards »
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Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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Dez
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Jim
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...
...
...
Ian
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...
Ray
Anne Carlisle ...
José Angel Santana ...
Boutique Owner (as Jose Santana)
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Street Vendor
Richard Hell ...
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Storyline

Bored Roberta spots a regular personal ad in the paper titled 'Desperately Seeking Susan'. She heads off to New York, following one of the ads, and finds Susan. When Susan sells her jacket, Roberta - trying to emulate her mystery ad writer - buys the jacket and wears it. Little does she know someon is looking for the jacket - and its owner... Written by Colin Tinto <cst@imdb.com>

Plot Summary | Add Synopsis

Taglines:

It's a life so outrageous it takes two women to live it. See more »

Genres:

Comedy | Drama

Certificate:

PG-13 | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

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Details

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Release Date:

12 April 1985 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Recherche Susan désespérément  »

Box Office

Budget:

$4,500,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$27,400,000 (USA)
 »

Company Credits

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Technical Specs

Runtime:

Sound Mix:

(original release)

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Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1
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Did You Know?

Trivia

Madonna beat out Jennifer Jason Leigh to the role of Susan. See more »

Goofs

In the opening salon scene Roberta is reading the personal ads while waiting for the hairstylist and she has a white towel around her shoulders in up close shots that disappears when viewing her from behind. See more »

Quotes

Gary: Susan! What are you doing?
Susan: I've got good news and bad news. Which do you want to hear first?
Gary: You said you were going to leave!
Susan: All right, good news first. Roberta's not working with the greaseball.
Gary: My wife just got picked up on the lower east side escaping from her gun-toting pimp.
Susan: He's not a pimp. Problem is, he's probably going to try to kill her because he thinks she's me.
See more »

Connections

Featured in Behind the Music: Madonna (1998) See more »

Soundtracks

MASHED POTATO TIME
Written by Kal Mann (uncredited) and Harry Land (uncredited)
Performed by Dee Dee Sharp (as Dee Dee Sharp)
Courtesy of K-Tel International
See more »

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User Reviews

 
Cool girls from the city.
10 April 2004 | by (Orlando, Florida) – See all my reviews

Desperately Seeking Susan is one of those titles in a catalogue of definitive 80s movies. It is a fantastic little caper directed by the fantastic Susan Seidleman, and unfortuantely, was one movie that got pitched around a long time before someone finally picked it up.

Susan (played terrifically by Madonna in her pre-burnout years) is a sassy, flaky, and often witty young woman who's always looking for a good time, even when danger is afoot. Enter Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette) who could practically be her alter ego as she is everything Susan is not. She is shy and judicious and stuck in a boring marriage, looking for an escape. She is everything Susan is not, and wants to be everything that Susan is. And she will get her chance.

Roberta reads the personal ads frequently because that is how wordly traveller Susan reaches her boyfriend, Jimmy (Robert Joy). They place ads saying hello and telling each where to meet. Roberta is going to tag along when Susan posts a new ad telling Jimmy to meet her in battery park. This is where Roberta takes an interest in Susan, but not that in single white female kind of way, despite the sudden mix up that arises out of all of this. She follows Susan around the city and so forth.

Someone else is following Susan, too. A murderer (Patton) looking for a very expensive earring that was stolen from a museum. He is after Susan because he knows she has the earring. But, after an accident at the park and Roberta winding up with amnesia, the murderer is after the wrong Susan. With the help of Jim's friend Dez (Quinn), Roberta slowly has to figure out who she is, otherwise the murderer is going to kill her, thinking she has the find. In the meantime, Susan teams up with Roberta's totally idiotic husband, Gary (Mark Blum) to find out Roberta's whereabouts. Roberta is going to get exactly what she wanted: a little fun, a little adventure, and a little escape, that will have her rethinking her own course.

Desperately Seeking Susan is really a fun movie that takes place in New York City. Everybody in it, even Mark Blum as the obnoxious Gary Glass and Laurie Metcalf as his compulsive and mistrusting sister, Leslie. Rosanna Arquette is great in nearly everything I've seen her in for her 80s career of movies, and works perfectly as Roberta in her romance with Dez (Quinn). And, it is one of the few things that I actually like Madonna in. They tried to recreate her Susan image (and story) for the movie, Who's That Girl (with Griffin Dunne), but it just couldn't work as perfectly as it did here. Seidleman and writer Leora Barish did some good work in producing a fun film.

By the way, if you're ever in Greenwhich Village, 'Love Saves the Day' (the second hand clothing store that Susan goes into to buy boots) still exists. However, they mostly sell retro novelty toys.


18 of 21 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

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Has New York lost its edge/character? grw9952
Madonna's armpits – hair today, gone tomorrow mryipyop
Why such a low rating? parame
Was Susan a prostitute? morning_star
Susan's clothes stephaniebrown
Madonna in a bra clwbchpat
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