DEATH BECOMES HER

Major Cast
Meryl Streep	as Madeline Ashton
Bruce Willis	as Ernest Menville
Goldie Hawn	as Helen Sharp
Isabella Rossellini	as Lisle Von Rhuman
Ian Ogilvy	as Chagall
Adam Storke	as Dakota
Nancy Fish	as Rose
Alaina Reed-Hall	as Psychologist
Michelle Johnson	as Anna
Mary Ellen Trainor	as Vivian Adams
William Frankfather	as Mr. Franklin
John Ingle	as Eulogist
Clement von Franckenstein	as Opening Man
Petrea Burchard	as Opening Woman
Jim Jansen	as Second Man
Mimi Kennedy	as Second Woman
Paulo Tocha	as Landlord
Mark Davenport	as Eviction Cop
Thomas Murphy	as Eviction Cop
Michael Mills	as Police Officer
Sonia Jackson	as Psychiatric Patient
Jill C. Klein	as Psychiatric Patient
Jean St. James	as Psychiatric Patient
Debra Jo Rupp	as Psychiatric Patient
Carol Ann Susi	as Psychiatric Patient
Kay Yamamoto	as Psychiatric Patient
Jacquelyn K. Koch	as Messenger Girl
Anya Longwell	as Chagall Receptionist
Stuart Mabray	as Chagall Security
Colleen Morris	as Starlet
Jonathan Silverman	as Jay Norman
Meg Wittner	as Woman at Book Party
Carrie Jean Yazel	as Girl at Dakota's
Michael A. Nickles	as Lisle's Body Guard
John Enos III	as Lisle's Body Guard
Danny Lee Clark	as Lisle's Body Guard
Fabio	as Lisle's Body Guard
Joel Beeson	as Lisle's Body Guard
Ron Stein	as Elvis Presley
Bonnie Cahoon	as Greta Garbo
Stéphanie Anderson	as Marilyn Monroe
Bob Swain	as Andy Warhol
Eric Clark	as James Dean
Dave Brock	as Jim Morrison
Lydia Peterkoch	as Blonde with Jim Morrison
Phillip Irwin Cooper	as Coroner
Ernest Harada	as Coroner
Susan Kellermann	as Second Doctor
Kevin Caldwell	as Medical Technician
Alex P. Hernandez	as Medical Technician

MPAA Rating:	PG-13
Production Company:	Universal Pictures
Distributors (USA):	* Universal Pictures (theatrical) * NBC (TV) MCA/Universal Home Video (all media) * Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (DVD)
Language:	English
Release Date (USA):	07/31/1992
Running Time:	104 minutes
Domestic Box Office:	$58,422,650
Rentals (USA):	$30,433,500
Foreign Box Office:	$90,600,000
Production Budget:	$55,000,000 (Est.)

PLOT SUMMARY

Aging but vain actress Madeline Ashton is performing in Songbird. (We see people leaving the theater early, making derogatory remarks.) In her dressing room after the performance, she receives her rival, aspiring writer Helen Sharp and Helen's fiancé Ernest Menville, a plastic surgeon.

In short order Ernest has ditched Helen and married Madeline. Helen becomes depressed and obese; in treatment, she depresses her group and the psychologist by obsessing about revenge on Madeline. Finally she pretends to be rehabilitated and is released.

Later she throws a party to celebrate the publication of her first novel, Forever Young. Ernest & Madeline are invited, and Madeline is devastated to see her looking like her old self: slim and ravishing. Madeline's career has faded by this time, and Ernest has become an alcoholic relegated (because of a medical mistake) to working as a mortician responsible for making the deceased presentable. They live in a mansion in Beverly Hills, but are not on good terms.

Madeline, dejected, soon visits her lover Dakota but finds him with a woman his age. Now the imagined stigma of aging fully hits home to Madeline. Someone has given her the business card of Lisle von Rhoman. This intriguingly costumed woman purveys a magic potion capable of restoring youth and beauty. (Small wonder she has become fabulously wealthy, and can easily afford an even more palatial home than Madeline's, complete with hot and cold running studs.) After seeing how it heals her pricked finger, Madeline pays up and swallows a vial of the pink liquid. She is instantly revitalized and goes home to show off for Ernest. But Ernest isn't much interested.

Soon, Helen seduces Ernest (no major feat) and convinces him to kill Madeline in an apparent drunken-driving accident. Before that can be worked out, Ernest and Madeline fight and she tumbles down the stairs, breaking her neck. Panicking, Ernest calls Helen for help. Unknown to him, Madeline gets up and overhears the details of the plot, When Helen arrives to help Ernest, Madeline blasts her with a shotgun. This leaves a hole in her stomach but does not kill her. Now it is clear: Helen has taken the von Rhoman potion and is immortal, as is Madeline. So the one-time rivals, realizing they are dead, make common cause to deal with their formidable problems — one of which is how to disguise the pallor of their skin. They soon realize Ernest's help is vital. The action moves to the von Rhoman residence, where, amid hijinx, they try to persuade Ernest to down a vial of potion so he will be as long-lasting as they are.

"My first, my last, my only. I think it's tedious. Whatever concentration you can apply to that kind of comedy is just shredded. You stand there like a piece of machinery—they should get machinery to do it. I loved how it turned out. But it's not fun to act to a lampstand. 'Pretend this is Goldie, right here! Uh, no, I'm sorry, Bob, she went off the mark by five centimeters, and now her head won't match her neck!' It was like being at the dentist."2

Capsule review: Despite giving us outstanding special effects and competent acting, Death Become Her has a silly plot. In my opinion, it is the kind of film you watch one time with enjoyment, than dismiss. That's unfortunate given the vast amounts of talent, both technical and artistic, that went into it. But that's the way I see it.