Tootsie (1982)

Tootsie
Directed by Sidney Pollack
Written by Larry Gelbart and Murray Schisgal from a story by Gelbart and Don McGuire
1982/US
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/YouTube rental
One of 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die

George Fields: No one will hire you.
Michael Dorsey: Oh, yeah?

I loved it on original release and I love it still.

Michael Dorsey (Dustin Hoffman)  is a very talented but chronically unemployed actor.  He is widely known for being temperamental and hard to handle.  He wants to raise $8,000 to produce a play written by his roommate Jeff (Bill Murray).  This would provide good parts for himself and longtime friend Sandy (Teri Garr).

After he is again assured by his agent (Sidney Pollack) that he is unemployable. Michael decides to take action.  He dresses as a woman named Dorothy Michaels and is hired for a meaty part on a soap opera.

Michael’s need to disguise his identity leads to many hilarious misunderstandings.  But worse is his attraction to co-star Julie Nichols (Jessica Lange).  With Charles Durning as Julie’s father and Geena Davis in her film debut as a radiologist on the soap.

It is possible that I laughed harder this time that ever before.  In fact, I didn’t remember this as particularly funny.  But it is.  The cast is uniformly fantastic with Sidney Pollack’s performance coming as a delightful surprise.  Definitely worth seeing before you die.  There are not nearly enough comedies on The List.

Lange won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar.  Tootsie was nominated in the categories of Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actress (Garr), Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, and Best Original Song.

Actual theme song