Maid To Order

As far as 80's comedies go, it doesn't get much better than Maid to Order. It has the three things I look for in a movie:

1. A plucky heroine who overcomes adversity
2. Singing and/or dancing
3. Beverly D'Angelo

I've seen it about ten times, but it's so much fun to watch with someone who's never seen it.


Lukas: "Who's that?"
Me: "Valerie Perrine."
Lukas: "Who??"


Lukas: "How did she make that coconut fall on that guy's head. Is she a witch?"


David: "Who's that guy?"
Joe: "Michael Ontkean! Now shut up and watch!"


(During the scene in which the maids and the mechanic are gathered around a grand piano, singing)
Lukas: "These are the maids?"
Me: "Yes."
Lukas: "If that was my house, I'd say, 'I'm not paying you bitches to sing! Now get back to work!'"


And he'd be right. But what would Maid to Order be without the down-on-her-luck-former-recording-legend Audrey James? Boring, that's what. And I love how it takes the entire movie for everyone to be all like, "Oh, you're THAT Audrey James?"

While we're speaking of believability, I can buy Beverly D'Angelo as a fairy godmother with magical powers. And I play along when everyone acts like Ally Sheedy is pretty. But when Audrey James gets a record deal after she butchers "The Shoop Shoop Song" to the point where it's almost unrecognizable? That's where I call bullshit.


UPDATE: The woman who plays Audrey James (Merry Clayton) was the ORIGINAL performer of "The Shoop Shoop Song (It's In His Kiss)." My bad. According to Wikipedia, she sang with Mick Jagger on "Gimme Shelter" and her performance was so intense that it caused her to miscarry. And she recently recorded with Sparta (the band that formed after the break-up of At The Drive-In). I can't believe how bad-ass this chick is, and before tonight, I thought her biggest claim to fame was landing a song on the Dirty Dancing soundtrack!