Blind Date **** (1987, Kim Basinger, Bruce Willis, John Larroquette) – Classic Movie Review 7760

Director Blake Edwards’s delightful and sometimes hilarious 1987 screwball romantic comedy Blind Date stars Bruce Willis as workaholic Walter Davis, who invites his brother Ted (Phil Hartman)’s wife’s cousin Nadia (Kim Basinger), a teetotaller, out for a blind date and plies her with bubbly.

Nadia gets drunk, loses control, goes crazy, wrecks a restaurant and offends his boss and overseas clients, especially his new important Japanese client Mr Yakamoto (Sab Shimono). Things get even worse when they also encounter Nadia’s ex-boyfriend David (John Larroquette) and Walter ends up without his job, his car, his dignity or his freedom.

The stars make the best of the good gags in Dale Launer’s funny knockabout comedy screenplay, and director Edwards brings his expert touch with slapstick to the movie.

Willis (in his first lead role) and Basinger work well together as a romantic comedy team, and the set pieces in the restaurant and in her parents’ home with the guard dog are vintage stuff.

John Larroquette scores too as Basinger’s old lover who will try anything to get her back and Graham Stark has a fun time as Jordan the butler. Also in the cast are William Daniels, Alice Hirson, George Coe, Mark Blum, Joyce Van Patten, Stephanie Faracy, Jeannie Elias, Scaredo Tanney [Herb Tanney], and Georgann Johnson.

Blind Date is directed by Blake Edwards, runs 93 minutes, is made by Tri-Star, is released by Columbia-Cannon-Warner, is written by Dale Launer, is shot by Harry Stradling Jr, is produced by Tony Adams and is scored by Henry Mancini, with production design by Rodger Maus.

It was announced in August 2018 that Sony is developing a remake of Bruce Willis’s and Kim Basinger’s rom-com Blind Date (1987). Clearly studios do not like original ideas any more.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 7760

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