The Woman in Red (1984)

Adapted from the French farce Pardon Mon Affaire, The Woman in Red was written, directed, and stared the late Gene Wilder. The story of a San Francisco city employee's single minded pursuit of an affair with a model (a pre Weird Science Kelly LeBrock) who is working on an advertising campaign for the city, this is the kind of cynical adultery comedy which I most associate with another Wilder, Billy. While it operates under this basic framework Gene Wilders comic persona is his own, he has a very unique, ideocentric humor, he is that rare performer whose comedy is somehow both dry and manic at the same time. A comedy inherently kind of sleazy in its subject matter, it's also witty and sophisticated enough to be quasi- high brow. Good supporting part for Charles Grodin, his sub plot is strangely progressive for a movie it's time. This is also the film from which the Oscar winning Stevie Wonder song "I Just Called to Say I Love You" comes from. ***