Doctor Detroit

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Doctor Detroit
Doctor Detroit film poster
Directed by	Michael Pressman
Produced by	Robert K. Weiss
Written by	Bruce Jay Friedman Carl Gottlieb
Starring	Dan Aykroyd Howard Hesseman Fran Drescher
Music by	James Brown (theme song, "Get up Offa That Thing/Dr. Detroit") Lalo Schifrin
Cinematography	King Baggot
Editing by	Christopher Greenbury
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	May 6, 1983
Running time	89 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$8,000,000 (estimated)
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

Doctor Detroit is a 1983 comedy film, written by Bruce Jay Friedman and Carl Gottlieb. The film stars Dan Aykroyd, Howard Hesseman, Lynn Whitfield, Fran Drescher, and Donna Dixon, with a special appearance by James Brown. The film was directed by Michael Pressman.

1 Plot summary
2 Cast
3 Reaction
4 Trivia
5 External links

[edit] Plot summary

A shy but gentle man named Clifford Skridlow is a professor of comparative literature at the financially-strapped fictional Monroe College in Chicago. A chance encounter with four beautiful women at a restaurant changes his life forever when it's revealed that they are actually high-class prostitutes. Smooth Walker, the girls' pimp, is in financial (and physical) danger due to his enormous debt with the gruff "Mom," a Chicago mob boss. Smooth invents a fictitious business partner, the flamboyant and no-nonsense "Doctor Detroit," in an attempt to save himself from Mom's wrath. Through a series of comical misunderstandings, Cliff is conned into becoming Smooth Walker's patsy, this Doctor Detroit, and embarks on a dangerous mission to protect the girls from Mom while keeping his secret from his strait-laced parents while simultaneously attempting to secure a large endowment for the struggling university.

[edit] Cast

Dan Aykroyd — Clifford Skridlow/Doctor Detroit
Howard Hesseman — Smooth Walker
Donna Dixon — Monica McNeil
Lydia Lei — Jasmine Wu
T.K. Carter — Diavolo Washington
Lynn Whitfield — Thelma Cleland
Fran Drescher — Karen Blittstein
Kate Murtagh — Mom
George Furth — Arthur Skridlow
Nan Martin — Margaret Skridlow
Peter Aykroyd — Mr. Frankman
Glenne Headly — Miss Debbylike
Annabel Armour — Airline Clerk
Robert Cornthwaite — Professor Blount
Parley Baer — Judge
John Kapelos — Rush Street Dude
James Brown — Bandleader (himself)
Steven Williams — Junior Sweet
Andrew Duggan — Harmon Rausehorn
Peter Elbling — Guptor

[edit] Reaction

In her autobiography, "Enter Whining", Fran Drescher comments that this film was expected to be a major hit but that it fell short of that expectation; by the time the film ended its run in theatres, it had only managed to make US$10.8 Million, on a budget of US$8 Million.

[edit] Trivia

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

The Illinois license plate on Dan Aykroyd's car ("BDR-529"), is the same plate that was on the "Bluesmobile" in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.

The end of the film promises a sequel, Doctor Detroit II, the Wrath of Mom. It's possible that this was merely a joke, parodying The Wrath of Khan.

James Brown performed the theme song to the film "Get Up Offa That Thing/Dr. Detroit".

Devo performed the "Theme From Doctor Detroit" and had another track in the film, "Luv-Luv". There was an EP with the "Theme from Doctor Detroit", "Luv-Luv", and a remix of the theme released, as well as a music video for the theme incorporating footage from the film.

Dan Aykroyd married Donna Dixon after working with her on this project.

Futurama's villainous "Mom" appears to reference the "Mom" in Doctor Detroit, in that her henchmen are all-clad in grey, double breasted, chauffers uniforms, much like the henchmen in Doctor Detroit.