Smokey And The Bandit (1977)

Bandit and Cledus are two truck-driving southerners who accept a dare from big-shots Big and Little Enos to pick up a truckload of beer from Texas and return it to them within a specified amount of time. Picking it up is simple enough, but as they are leaving Texas, Bandit unwittingly picks up Carrie, a hitchhiking bride-to-be who just left her groom, Junior, at the altar. Junior, however, is the son of Sheriff Buford T. Justice. And when Buford and Junior discover what has happened, they go on a "high-speed pursuit" across the Southeast to catch the bandit.

Smokey and the Bandit is a 1977 American action comedy film starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Pat McCormick, Paul Williams and Mike Henry. The film was the directorial debut of stuntman Hal Needham. It inspired several other trucking films, including two sequels, Smokey and the Bandit II and Smokey and the Bandit Part 3.

It's Burt Reynolds, Sally Field and Jackie Gleason, in high gear and hot water!

 One of the first films to tap into the anti-authoritarian aspects of the Citizen's Band (CB) radio craze, "Smokey" is basically a movie-length car chase and a pleasantly insipid slice of late-'70's Americana.

"Snowman what's your 20, you got your ears on, comeback? We got a Smokey convoy on our tail moving eastbound and down, with the peddle to the metal and the thing to the floor".

Bo "Bandit" Darville (Reynolds) accepts a, illegal job/bet offer of delivering a truck load of Coors Beer from Texas across the states to Georgia. The job must be completed within 28 hours or he will not pick up the $80,000 payment for his services. Enlisting his buddy Snowman (Reed) to drive the truck, while he acts as a decoy in his Pontiac Trans Am, the Bandit must avoid capture by the Smokey (police). When he stops to pick up runaway bride Carrie (Fields), this makes him the target for one particularly vindictive laws enforcer, Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Gleason), whose son Junior Justice (Henry) is the jilted intended of Carrie.

You sumbitches couldn't close an umbrella!

If they'd a cremated the sum-bitch. I could be kickin' that Mr. Bandit's ass around the moon by now

 The best of the "CB Radio" movies, Smokey and the Bandit makes up for what little it has in plot, with unadulterated fun via car pursuits, stunts and wonderfully colourful characters. Essentially one long chase movie, it was a massive box office success on it release, becoming the second biggest earner in 77 behind a certain Space Opera from George Lucas. Cashing in on Burt Reynolds popularity, and the new found interest in CB radio on the highways, film went on to influence similar films and TV shows further down the line.

Hal Needham uses his knowledge as an ex-stuntman to great effect, setting up a number of inspired sequences that sees cars jumping, crashing or going for a swim! Wisely letting his actors ad-lib where possible, film has a natural flow that's hard to dislike. The chemistry between Reynolds and Fields is warming, due to the fact that it was off screen real, while Gleason steals the movie with a hilarious portray as the manic, cussing and determined Buford. The bumpkin based music is perfectly in keeping with the mood, and the various locations used make for an appealing backdrop to the carnage and speedster thrills.

Time to take to the road, for a quiet little drive in the country...or not.

Regardless of what you may think about this movie you can kiss the crack of my ass.   This movie is fun.  Jackie Gleason is fucking awesome.  And Fred The Dog is better than fucking Benji or Lassie.  Pure fun.

`What we're dealing with here is a total lack of respect for the law!'

There's no way, *no* way that you came from *my* loins. Soon as I get home, first thing I'm gonna do is punch yo mamma in da mouth!

 Trivia:
On the DVD Documentary, Burt Reynolds says that a senior executive at Pontiac promised him a free Trans-Am if the movie became a hit. It did and the 1977 T-Top Trans-Am became one of the hottest selling cars of the year. When the movie became a hit, Reynolds expected the executive to come through with his promise. But the Trans-Am never came. After a few months, Reynolds, (who was afraid of looking like one of those pretentious stars looking for freebies), finally called Pontiac. As it turned out, the executive that made the promise had retired and the new executive refused to keep the promise that was made, by the previous Pontiac Trans Am executive. 

A majority of the lines & quotes, spoken by Jackie Gleason as Sheriff Justice were improvised.

The second highest grossing movie released in 1977, next to Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (1977). 

Jackie Gleason said the cafe scene with himself and Burt Reynolds was not in the original story, it was Gleason's idea.

Hal Needham asked Jerry Reed to write a theme song for the film. A couple of hours later, Reed presented "East Bound and Down" to Needham. With an acoustic guitar, Reed started to play it and Needham immediately stopped him. Thinking Needham didn't like it, Reed offered to re-write the song. To which Needham replied: "If you change one note, I'll kill you!" The song went on to become one of Reed's biggest hits. 

I saw that, you sombitch! You did that on purpose! You're going away till you're gray! I got the evidence!

While Hal Needham was in Georgia working as Burt Reynolds' stunt double in Gator (1976), the driver captain on the set brought some Coors beer from California and brought a couple of cases to Needham's hotel room. After he noticed that the maid kept stealing the beers from the fridge, he remembered a TIME magazine article from 1974 about how Coors was unavailable east of the Mississippi River, because the beer was not pasteurized and needed constant refrigeration, and couldn't legally be sold outside of 11 western and southwestern U.S. states. Which made him realize that, "bootlegging Coors would make a good plotline for a movie."

Was a Guilty Pleasure of Alfred Hitchcock according to his daughter Patricia Hitchcock.

Buford T. Justice was the name of a real Florida Highway Patrolman known to Burt Reynolds' father who was once Chief of Police of Jupiter, Florida. 

Three Trans-Am cars were used in this movie. Director Hal Needham claims in the DVD documentary that they could barely run towards the end of the film's production.

Jackie Gleason reportedly modeled his character, Sheriff Buford T. Justice, after Burt Reynolds' description of his father, a Florida police officer and Chief of Police. Among the character traits that came from this was the use of "sumbitch", a colloquial pronunciation of "son of a bitch". 

This movie made the Pontiac Trans Am a superstar. Trans Am sales jumped from 68,745 in 1977 to 93,341 in 1978. And just one year later that number swelled to 117,108 units sold.

For the good old American life: For the money, for the glory, and for the fun... mostly for the money.

According to Hal Needham on a radio show in Atlanta, the scene with the football players narrowly missed being a serious accident when, unknown to the film crew, a groundskeeper watered the grass on the field, causing the car to go out of control, slide the wrong way, and almost hit the extras. 

Snowman is driving a 1974 Kenworth W900.

Hal Needham was better known in the film industry as a stunt man, and had great difficulty in getting any producers interested in this project. Only when his close friend Burt Reynolds agreed to star in the film did he manage to gain studio attention. 

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Sally Field says Burt Reynolds wanted her for the role of Carrie after being smitten with Field for some time, since her TV debut on Gidget (1965). Field says she decided to do the part because it allowed her to be light and pretty, a big departure from her previous role on television as the troubled Sybil (1976).

 This movie is one of a handful of pictures that Burt Reynolds made with his 1970s girlfriend Sally Field. In every movie they made together, Field played Reynolds' girlfriend. The movies are: Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Hooper (1978), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980) and The End (1978).

The Trans-Am used for the bridge jump was completely wrecked after the successful jump. 

Fred, the Bassett Hound dog for Snowman's pet, was personally picked by Burt Reynolds, chiefly because it refused to obey commands. Perhaps it was a reminder of Elvis Presley singing Hound Dog to a Bassett Hound on Steve Allen's show for new talents.

 According to director Hal Needham in the DVD Documentary, Pontiac gave them three Trans-Ams and two Bonnevilles (Sheriff Justice's patrol car) for the film. Needham says that one of the Trans-Ams was completely destroyed during the famous bridge jump scene and that with all the damages the Lemans sustained, they eventually had to piece all three bodies together to make one Bonneville.

Lamar Jackson, who was a real Georgia State Trooper went on to become Burt Reynolds' body guard and an actor/producer. 

At the 15 minute mark, The Bandit breaks the fourth wall and smiles at the camera.

When Hal Needham originally wrote the initial screenplay, he hired Jerry Reed to play the Bandit. But when Needham told Burt Reynolds about the film, Reynolds decided he wanted to do it and Reed was re-cast as the Snowman. 

In the original screenplay, Bandit's last name is LaRoue (first name never mentioned), Carrie's name was Kate, Cledus' handle was simply just Bandit II, Big Enos and Little Enos' names were Kyle and Dickey, Junior was not a character, Buford's name was different, Bandit's car was not a Trans Am, and the reward for making the run was a new truck, not $80,000.

Jackie Gleason would often ask his assistant Mal for a "hamburger," which was code for a glass of bourbon. 

Burt Reynolds recommended Sally Field for the part of Carrie and had to convince her to to do the role because Field thought the script was too slight.

I'm goin' I'm goin! I got the metal to the petal and the thing to the floor!

 In the restaurant Sheriff Justice (Jackie Gleason) orders a "Diablo sandwich" which is like a "Sloppy Joe" but spicier. There are regional differences but it is usually made like a Sloppy Joe with ground beef. The Sloppy Joe spices are replaced with taco spices and the recipe might include hot sauce, canned corn and diced tomato. In some places jalapeño peppers are added. It is usually served on a hamburger bun.

 The nickname Smokey is Citizens Band radio slang for State Patrol troopers because of their hats. Most states outfit them with what are properly called "campaign hats" with a "Montana crease". The hat with that type crease is of late 19th century vintage. It came to be called a "Smokey Bear hat" after the US Forest Service began publishing images (posters) of their mascot wearing one in 1944. Nicknames for other law enforcement officers are, among others, "City Kitty" or "local yokel" for a city police officer and "County Mountie" for a county police officer or Sheriff's deputy.

When scenes were filmed in the Trans Am, it was not possible to use a slate to mark the beginning and end of scenes. The actors had to clap their hands instead to mark when a scene started and ended. Several outtakes show this being done. 

Adding the Junior Justice character was Jackie Gleason's idea. "I can't be in the car alone," Gleason said. "Put someone in there with me to play off of."

When Sheriff Justice first meets Sheriff Branford (a black man) he first addresses his white deputy as the sheriff, before remarking to Sheriff Branford "You sounded a lot taller on the radio." This is similar to a scene in The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974), when Walter Matthau first encounters Inspector Daniels (also a black man) in person, by telling him "Oh, I thought you were, uh, a, uh, shorter guy..." 

Oh I love your suits. It must have been a bitch to get a 68 Extra Fat and a 12 Dwarf.

Hal Needham saw a picture of a Pontiac Trans Am in a magazine and thought up a product placement idea. He asked for six Trans Ams, but Pontiac would only agree to send four. Needham also asked for four Bonnevilles for Jackie Gleason's cars, but he only got two. By the time they shot the final scene, they had wiped out three Trans Ams and the fourth wouldn't start after all of the stunts, so another car was used to push it into the scene. For Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), Needham asked for and received 10 Trans Ams and 55 Bonnevilles with no trouble.

When "The Bandit" asks "Silver Tongued Devil" as to his location, he answers "Interstate 82". There is no "Interstate 82" in the state of Arkansas. However, U.S. routes were also known as interstate routes, so calling 82 an interstate would be correct for the time period. The interstate system we know today was still being built at the time this film was made. PS: There is a Highway 82 in Texarkana, Texas. close to where the beer was "taken from." 

Near the end of the movie, one of the two Georgia State Patrol cars that block the entrance to the fairgrounds (the Oldsmobile) is equipped with an airbag (very rare for the '70s). General Motors did offer the airbag as the Air Cushion Restraint System in 1974 as RPO AR3 in full-sized Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillacs after it was experimented with some 1973 Chevrolet Impalas used as test mules. The airbags were used in conjunction with a knee blocker on the instrument panel. GM discontinued the ACRS after the 1976 model year in response to low demand. The airbag did not deploy in that minor collision but did deploy when they purposely wrecked the car years later. That car is shown in an airbag safety film used in some traffic schools.

The original actors mostly redubbed their own lines for the television version, except for Jackie Gleason. Actor Henry Corden, who voiced Fred Flintstone after original performer Alan Reed died, was used to replace a considerable amount of Sheriff Justice's dialogue. This is fitting, as Fred Flintstone was a parody of/homage to Gleason's character Ralph Kramden and The Flintstones (1960) was a parody of/homage to The Honeymooners (1955). 

Give me a diablo sandwich, a Dr. Pepper, and make it quick, I'm in a god-damn hurry.

Three The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) stars had cameos, in this movie. They were Sonny Shroyer, aka Enos Strait, John Schneider aka "Bo Duke" & mechanic, Cooter Davenport, acted by Ben Jones. Nearly two decades later, John Schneider played the sheriff in one of the four television adaptation version Bandit. Burt Reynolds played Jefferson Davis Hogg in The Dukes of Hazzard (2005).

Set with his $5.3 million budget, a studio "hatchet man" was sent to Atlanta to inform Hal Needham that his budget was cut by $1 million. With Burt Reynolds making $1 million, Needham still had $3.3 million to make his film. 

In Jonesboro, GA where a lot of the film was shot, Snowman's house and the warehouse where the Coors beer is picked up (in Texarkana, TX) are actually only about a half a mile away from each other.

Even though the storyline had bandit as a notorious truck driver, Burt Reynolds character never sits in the cab of any truck during the 'bet'. He 'drives' up to Snowman's house in the early scenes of the film.

Snowman's hat would lead the audience to believe that the W900A is Caterpillar powered. However, in most scenes of the movie the truck can be clearly recognized by sound as having a Detroit Diesel. It's been rumored that the trucks in the movie were powered by Cummims, Caterpillar, and Detroit diesels. 

Richard Boone was also considered for the role of Sheriff Buford T. Justice. Burt Reynolds wanted someone "a little crazier, a little more dangerous, and a lot funnier" than Richard Boone, so he suggested Gleason.

You know who that is? That be the Evel Knievel. He snuck in my back door when I wasn't lookin'. You better flip-flop back here and gimme' a hand, son, or we gonna be in a heap of trouble. Please roger that transmission!

 The line of Jackie Gleason's dialogue printed on the movie's poster is incorrect. The quote on the poster reads "What we have here is a total lack of respect for the law." In the movie Gleason actually says "What we're dealing with here, is a complete lack of respect for the law." 

The area around Helen, Georgia was used for some locations. The scene where Buford T. Justice's car has the door knocked off by a passing semi was shot on GA 75, 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Helen. The tow truck driver was an actual local garage owner, Berlin Wike.

It is about 1,100 miles from Atlanta to Boston (one-way). To get there and back in 18 hours would require an average speed of about 120 mph. 

The film features the custom clothing and costuming of Niver Western Wear of Fort Worth, Texas. NWW provided much of the western attire worn in the film, as well as the custom-made (size 64) sheriff's uniforms that Jackie Gleason wore throughout the film.

I hope your goddamn head was in it.

 Variety reported that, "after shooting the first of what was intended to be a handful of scenes with Reynolds and Jackie Gleason on screen together, Reynolds demanded that the subsequent scenes be scrapped. Why? The question isn't directly answered, or even indirectly addressed.

 Sheriff Justice's collar brass says "CCS". If he was Sheriff of Montague County, TX, it would say "MCS" for Montague County Sheriff.

The calculator Snowman uses is a Unisonic 790R Handheld Electronic Calculator. It sold for about $19.00 new in 1977. 

At The Earth's Core (1976)

A Victorian era scientist and his assistant take a test run in their Iron Mole drilling machine and end up in a strange underground labyrinth ruled by a species of giant telepathic bird and full of prehistoric monsters and cavemen. 

At the Earth's Core is a 1976 fantasy-science fiction film produced by Britain's Amicus Productions.
It was directed by Kevin Connor and starred Doug McClure, Peter Cushing and Caroline Munro.  It was filmed in Technicolor, and based on the fantasy novel At the Earth's Core, by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the first book of his Pellucidar series.

A Victorian scientist and his young American backer set off in their new earth-boring machine with a short test on a Welsh mountain. Unfortunately the thing is rather more powerful than expected and they end up in an enormous cavern at the centre of the earth. Here they find a race of humans enslaved to evil oversized prehistoric birds with extra-sensory abilities. The travelers decide they can be some help, the more so as at least one of the slaves is very eye-catching. 

They're in it DEEP now!

Make no mistake, this is a very silly movie. Peter Cushing knew it; he gives one of his most over-the-top, ham it up performances.  And I don't care that this movie ended up on MST3000.  It's still pretty fun.  Or maybe I just have fond memories because as a kid I actually went to see this movie in 1976 at the Fort Hill Drive In. Some of the special effects are painfully bad but what a lot of folks overlook about it is that it's actually quite fun, which is very important in my book.

The flying monsters at the end are particularly silly. They have all the aerodynamic properties of a concrete block. Just a bunch of fat blokes in rubber suits. All they do is sit on a ledge and hypnotize people. It's only when that fails, or it's feeding time, that they "swoop" down to attack. And when I say swoop, I mean someone prods the rubber thingy in the back and it swings down on a cable.

Take the Most Terrifying Journey of Your Life !

Doug McClure, Peter Cushing and Caroline Monroe are perfectly cast in the roles of David Innes, Abner Perry and Dian the Beautiful.  I could have watched many Pellucidar sequels with these actors. McClure is the perfect actor for any cheesy lost world adventure. Nobody - and I mean nobody - fights lame-o monsters like Doug McClure. The guy is brilliant. Check out the arena scene, where he faces off against a lame saber-toothed hippo thing. McClure swings, he grits, he staggers and strains. I love how he jukes the monster off balance to retrieve the spear head from underneath it. Yeah! What other actor would have put so much into that scene? Peter Cushing is certainly a far better actor than this movie deserves, and yet he gives a surprising and outrageous performance. Don't critique him too much for hamming it up, some of his lines are right out of the book, and the character calls for a goofball. Caroline Monroe looks like she just stepped out of a Frank Frazetta painting. Too bad her role is limited to being a mere one-dimensional love interest. 

Let's talk about these fucking monsters.  The first one we see walks upright, has the head of a bird and a long tail. Then we see two fighting. I can't make out what those are suppose to be. Then we are introduced to the rather unfriendly Pterodactyl like creatures which seem to control the Mahar. These explode at the end when they are killed. We also see a fire breathing dinosaur, which gets blown up after Cushing fires some arrows at it and McClure has a fight with another strange looking beast, a cross between a dinosaur and a hippo (a similar creature turned up in The People That Time Forgot a year later in 1977, possibly the same one used here). We also see some man-eating plants.

SEE: The giant BOS, lizard-like behemoths with poison fangs.

So is the film worth seeing? Well, yes AND no. No if you happen to want to watch a good film! But yes if you could use a good laugh and can turn off your brain and enjoy all the silliness--and there is plenty to go round in this one! By the way, this is the last film of Amicus Productions--and considering the quality of "At the Earth's Core", I can see why. 

Trivia:

Actor/stuntman Bobby Parr lost a finger during a fight sequence with Doug McClure that went wrong. 

The Movie takes place on Pellucidar. Pellucidar is a fictional Hollow Earth invented by Tarzan creator Edgar Rice Burroughs for a series of action adventure stories. 

 The last film produced by Amicus, Hammer's chief rival during the 1960's and 70's. Filmed January 20-March 1976, on the heels of Hammer's final horror feature "To the Devil a Daughter." 

The film opened on Edgar Rice Burroughs's birthday, 1 Sep, in theaters and drive-ins throughout Southern California.  

This popular film became the 18th most profitable British film of 1976. 

German Import DVD has Super-8mm version (English Audio), as a special feature.  

4,000 miles to the center of the Earth to a world within a world

Who's That Girl (1987)

The life of an uptight tax lawyer turns chaotic when he is asked to escort a young woman newly released from prison, who persuades him to help prove her innocence. 

Who's That Girl is a 1987 American screwball comedy film written by Andrew Smith and Ken Finkleman, and directed by James Foley. It stars Madonna and Griffin Dunne, and depicts the story of a street-smart girl who is falsely accused of murdering her boyfriend and is sent to jail.

A year after appearing in the box-office sleeper Shanghai Surprise, pop superstar Madonna starred in the screwball comedy Who's That Girl? She plays Nikki Finn, who is being released from prison after serving a four-year sentence for a murder she didn't commit. Meanwhile, wealthy lawyer Loudon (Griffin Dunne) is about to get married that afternoon to the snobby Wendy (Haviland Morris), the daughter of Simon Worthington (John McMartin). Worthington does not approve of the wedding and he wants Nikki out of town as soon as possible, so he sends Loudon to collect Nikki and take her to the bus station. Instead, the flamboyant Nikki seeks her revenge while trying to find out what happened to her friend Johnny, which causes Loudon a lot of trouble. Naturally, wild action ensues -- some of it involving an escaped Cougar belonging to Loudon's boss, the millionaire animal collector Montgomery Bell (John Mills) -- and Loudon having to choose between the prim Wendy and the unpredictable Nikki.

A funny thing happened on the way to the bus station.

There is nothing wrong with Who's That Girl that a different script, a different director, and a different star wouldn't have fixed.  If you're not a Madonna fan, you probably won't like this movie.  At the time Madonna was not quite the cultural icon she is now. It's actually very nostalgic to see her early in her career.  This is how I remember her growing up in the 80's.  

This movie parodies everything. Rich people, the sleazy characters who live in Harlem and totally destroy Louden's Rolls-Royce, the gay cops who follow Madonna and Dunne around town, and Dunne's stuck-up fiance Wendy Worthington who has purportedly slept with every cab driver in New York City (played by Haviland Morris, who was Jake's girlfriend Caroline in Sixteen Candles).

This is the epitome of bad 80's film-making, unless you are a pre-pubescent girl.  Overall I wouldn't say this is a must see film but if you want a decent, inoffensive '80s comedy you could do a lot worse.

Trivia:
The film was originally titled "Slammer" until Madonna wrote and decided to use Who's That Girl as the film's theme song. The song went to #1 on the Billboard chart in August 1987.

Originally, Sean Penn was set to co-star with Madonna but after their movie Shanghai Surprise (1986) flopped, the producers opted to go with Griffin Dunne instead, fresh from his success with After Hours (1985).

When Loudon opens his diary at the beginning of the film, his schedule reads as follows:
7am: Wake 7:10am: Shower & shave 7:30am: Get dressed 8am: Breakfast & 'The Journal' 8:30am: Drive to office 9am: Call caterers 10:05am: Wendy arrives 10:10am: Meet w/ Mr. Worthington 11:10am: Final tux fitting 12:30pm: Lunch w/ Worthingtons - Club 2pm: Pick up ring @ Cartier 3pm: Co-op Interview 4:30pm: Pick up Wendy's wed. gift 6pm: Bachelor dinner w/ chums 8:30pm: Call Wendy - Love & kisses 9pm: Review pre-nuptial agrm. 9.30pm: Bedtime.

The film begins on September 11, 1987, and carries on into the morning of September 12.

Madonna brought in her friend James Foley to direct. He had previously been Sean Penn's best man at his marriage to Madonna, and had also directed the music videos of her singles "Live to Tell" (1986) and "Papa Don't Preach" (1986). He was ecstatic at having the opportunity to make a major feature film, as previously he had only directed the small-budgeted film At Close Range (1986), starring Penn.

Casting for the film began as soon as Madonna had signed up for it.

Madonna herself commented that she had a lot in common with the character Nikki. "She's courageous and sweet and funny and misunderstood. But she clears her name in the last, and that's always good to do. I'm continuously doing that with the public. I liked Nikki's tough side and her sweet side. The toughness is only a mask for the vulnerability she feels inside."

Costume designer Deborah Lynn Scott was signed to create the wardrobe for the film. Madonna, who visualized the character of Nikki as a dizzy screwball blond, started watching the screwball comedies of the sixties, especially the work of actors like Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and Judy Holliday. She asked Scott to create comical rah-rah and ballet tutu skirts for the character, with fishnet tights and loud make-up. Scott also designed a glamorous Monroe-esque dress for the love scene between her and Griffin Dunne.

Madonna would ask for five minutes to study the script for the scene they were filming. For example, before a scene in which she needed to appear out of breath, she did a series of push-ups before going on set.

Griffin Dunne observed that "[Madonna] likes her first take best. I think my best is around fourth. She always says, 'You got it, you got it,' and she was driving me crazy just like her character would. We had to make a compromise as to which take is the best."

Madonna wanted James Foley to give her proper direction on set, but he preferred her to be her real self, rather than the persona in her music videos.

Regarding her acting abilities, James Foley stressed on the fact that Madonna was very uptight and into every detail, determined to have the correct portrayal. "That's probably why it wasn't so good. In Desperately Seeking Susan (1985), when she didn't know what she was doing, she was being natural and at her best."

Production was halted for a few days in December due to snowfall in New York City. Madonna decided to utilize the time by working on the film's soundtrack and her next concert tour.

 During the second take of a scene involving the cougar, the cougar accidentally escaped from the cage, resulting in filming being paused for a few hours.

During the development of the starting credits, Madonna asked James Foley if they could have a cartoon figure of her character introducing the film credits. Foley liked the idea, and Warner enlisted cartoonist April March to create the cartoon.

Madonna proceeded to linger on the set to watch James Foley and his team work long after her scenes had been shot. Foley described her being around the set and not acting as a "pain-in-the-ass", since she "wont skimp especially on cost and she should know that Warner had a tight schedule and constraints on the budget. They still did not trust Madonna when it came to acting. Hell they even gave a greater percentage of the budget to the soundtrack."

Initially Madonna had thought of asking Sean Penn to play the part of Detective Bellson, but Penn was serving a 60-day jail term, having violated the probation he received in 1986, for assaulting a friend of Madonna and attacking an extra on the set of At Close Range (1986).

Warner Bros. did not arrange for an advance screening of the film, as they believed that Madonna's appeal would draw moviegoers to come to it.

To further promote the film, Madonna embarked on the 1987 Who's That Girl World Tour. It was her first world tour, reaching Asia, North America and Europe.

The film was released to a total of 944 theatres, with an extra 66 being added later.

James Foley accepted the failure of the film saying, "I knew it was doomed before even filming started. The day before the first shoot, I sat in my hotel and looked to the script thinking, 'Damn, wish I could re-write this whole thing.' After the film released, my dad called me up saying 'you know The New York Times are calling it the worst film of the year." He recalled that both he and Madonna chose to overlook the failure of the film, and remembered one incident when he met Madonna at a hotel lobby. "She just looked to me once and said, 'So it's a flop right?' That's the only time she ever mentioned the film. Even Sean also never mentioned it in front of her."

The film was better accepted in the foreign released territories, prompting Madonna to defend herself, rather weakly, that her ideas were better accepted in Europe and Japan, rather than her home country. She added, "I think the movie did badly in America because I upstaged it with my tour. People were confused about the connection between the record, the tour and the movie because they all had the same title. I also think there are people who don't want me to do well in both fields. I had to really fight to get any respect from the music business and now I guess there are some people who feel that I ought to be grateful for that respect and stick to music." Nevertheless, Warner Bros. decided to release the film in home media in VHS on November 11, 1987, a decision not approved by Madonna.