Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)

A bored suburban housewife, seeking adventure to her life, accidentally gets hit on the head, wakes up with amnesia, and is mistaken for a free-spirited New York City drifter named Susan.

Director:

Susan Seidelman

Writer:

Leora Barish

Stars:

Rosanna Arquette, Madonna, Aidan Quinn

Nominated for 1 Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 2 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Rosanna Arquette	...	Roberta Glass / 'Susan'
Madonna	...	Susan
Aidan Quinn	...	Dez
Mark Blum	...	Gary Glass
Robert Joy	...	Jim
Laurie Metcalf	...	Leslie Glass
Anna Levine	...	Crystal
Will Patton	...	Wayne Nolan
Peter Maloney	...	Ian
Steven Wright	...	Larry Stillman D.D.S
John Turturro	...	Ray
Anne Carlisle	...	Victoria
José Angel Santana	...	Boutique Owner (as Jose Santana)
Giancarlo Esposito	...	Street Vendor
Richard Hell	...	Bruce Meeker

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...

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Plot Keywords:

housewife | jacket | new york | amnesia | personal ad | 

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Taglines:

Roberta is desperate to be Susan. Susan is wanted by the mob. The mob finds Roberta instead...

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Genres:

Comedy | Romance | Drama

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Certificate:

PG-13

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

29 March 1985 (USA)

Also Known As:

Recherche Susan désespérément

Filming Locations:

8th Avenue, Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$4,500,000 (estimated)

Gross:

$27,400,000 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Orion Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

104 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (original release)

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The orange baseball jersey that Susan wears after her clothes have been stolen, sports the letters MC. These are Madonna's initials; her full name is Madonna Ciccone.

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Goofs

When Susan picks up The New York Mirror newspaper, the word lotto is spelled Looto on the front page

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Quotes

Gary: What are you wearing?
Roberta: A jacket. It used to belong to Jimi Hendrix.
Gary: You bought a used jacket? What are we, poor?

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Connections

Referenced in Gilmore Girls: Teach Me Tonight (2002)

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Soundtracks

"SUCKER M.C.'S"
Written by Darryl McDaniels (uncredited) and Joseph Simmons (uncredited)
Performed by Run-D.M.C.
Courtesy of Profile Records

User Reviews

Very funny and evocative of the '80s

Everybody is "Desperately Seeking Susan," but nobody realizes they're not looking for the same person in this 1985 quirky comedy starring Roseanna Arquette, Madonna, Aidan Quinn, and Laurie Metcalf. The film was directed by Susan Seidelman from a script by Leora Barish.

In this very clever story, Roberta (Arquette) is a bored housewife with a rich fantasy life who envies a woman named Susan (Madonna). Susan's boyfriend is always leaving her notes in the personals column about where to meet. Before long, Roberta is showing up at the meeting places and actually starts stalking Susan. When Susan pays for a pair of boots that she wants with her unique leather jacket, Roberta buys it and starts wearing it. All this could have been harmless fun except for three things: 1) Susan is a con artist, and she's stolen Egyptian artifacts she mistook for earrings from a guy in Atlantic City, who ended up dead at the bottom of his hotel; 2) Susan was seen (from the back) wearing her jacket in the hallway of the hotel by a mobster who wants the artifacts; and 3) Roberta is in an accident, and when she wakes up, she has amnesia. A friend (Aidan Quinn) of Susan's boyfriend who came to the meeting place to check on the real Susan as a favor thinks Roberta is Susan.

This is such a fun movie, with much of the comedy being in the situation rather than in the dialogue. Not only that, it's totally '80s, right down to Madonna's leggings, and brought back a lot of great memories.

The acting is very good, and one wonders why Madonna didn't continue in this vein rather than trying to become a great dramatic actress. She's perfect in this off-beat role as well as being beautiful, exotic, trashy, and sexy. She also would have been excellent as Roxy in "Chicago" if the film had been made back in the '70s, when it was originally supposed to be done. She might then have had a very interesting film career.

Though "Desperately Seeking Susan" was made 23 years ago, Roseanna Arquette hasn't changed much. She's excellent as the quiet, dying to be free, fantasy-driven Roberta. Aidan Quinn gives his usual good performance as a poor sap over his head. He doesn't know how lucky he is - he could have gotten involved with the real Susan! Highly recommended, especially if you were a young adult in the '80s.