Drop Dead Fred
THE late, great Rik Mayall may have shone brightest on the small screen, but he did make the odd somewhat ill-advised foray into the film world. Drop Dead Fred, from 1991, is a good example of one of those rare crossovers.
Well, 'good' might be pushing it, but it's an example all the same.
Mayall's manic quality may have generally struggled to find a big screen home, yet Ate de Jong's madcap comedy bottles that fire cracker insanity better than most. It's not a comic recipe that works for everyone, but it's certainly one that's hard to ignore.
Phoebe Cates is Elizabeth, a woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown who loses her job and moves back in with her mother (Marsha Mason) when her womanising husband (Tim Matheson) walks out on her. Whilst lying in bed one night she finds an old jack-in-the-box from her youth that magically reactivates her old imaginary friend Drop Dead Fred (Mayall) when she opens it.
Fred always got the young Elizabeth into trouble and that's exactly what he does again as he creates havoc for her friend Janie (Carrie Fisher) and possible new partner Mickey (Ron Eldard).
Elizabeth's mother understandably intervenes and takes her daughter to a psychiatrist who prescribes pills to help her get rid of Fred once and for all. The problem is, Elizabeth isn't sure if that's what she really wants.
It's a slight set up for a slight comedy, but while Cates is a sweet and likable figure it's the whirlwind character of the utterly objectionable imaginary friend that hogs the limelight throughout.
Mayall steamrollers all before him as the obnoxious Fred. How much you love or loathe the hysterically over the top pantomime antics of the star in full-blown crazy maniac mode really depends on how much you love or loathe the comedian's TV persona, patented in the likes of The Young Ones and Bottom. Personally, I love him, so it's all good with me.
The film was torn asunder by critics at the time and, while it's not hard to see what rubbed them all up the wrong way – the slapstick vibe sits uneasily with the mental illness plot – it's still easy to see why Drop Dead Fred has gained a reputation as a left-field cult favourite ever since.
There's an innocent, child like naughtiness to Mayall's screen performance that is both completely nuts but simultaneously charming, and while the story never really goes anywhere, it's impossible to take your eyes of the unhinged Young One every time he's on screen.
By all accounts, Rick Mayall's off screen personality wasn't a million miles from his onscreen one – they even called him 'Rick' in The Young Ones, remember – and that only adds to the air of unrestrained madness on display here.
It's easy to see why most Hollywood film makers would avoid a wild-card comic talent like his – he's just too loose and weird to ever really fit into the American mainstream after all – but we should be grateful to the chosen few who didn't.
