''Haunted Honeymoon'' is a 1986 American
comedy horror
Comedy horror, also known as horror comedy, is a literary genre, literary, television genre, television, and film genre that combines elements of comedy and horror fiction. Comedy horror has been described as able to be categorized under three ty ...
film starring
Gene Wilder
Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016), known professionally as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He is known mainly for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in ''Willy Won ...
,
Gilda Radner
Gilda Susan Radner (June 28, 1946 – May 20, 1989) was an American actress and comedian, and one of the seven original cast members of the "Not Ready For Prime Time Players" on the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). In he ...
,
Dom DeLuise
Dominick DeLuise (August 1, 1933 – May 4, 2009) was an American actor, comedian, director, producer, chef, and author. Known primarily for his comedic performances, he rose to fame in the 1970s as a frequent guest on television variety shows ...
and
Jonathan Pryce
Sir Jonathan Pryce (born John Price; 1 June 1947) is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television. He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2021 he wa ...
. Wilder also served as writer and director. The title ''Haunted Honeymoon'' was previously used for the 1940 U.S. release of ''
Busman's Honeymoon
''Busman's Honeymoon'' is a 1937 novel by Dorothy L. Sayers, her eleventh and last featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, and her fourth and last to feature Harriet Vane.
Plot introduction
Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane marry and go to spend thei ...
'' based on the stage play by
Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy Leigh Sayers (; 13 June 1893 – 17 December 1957) was an English crime writer and poet. She was also a student of classical and modern languages.
She is best known for her mysteries, a series of novels and short stories set between th ...
.
Wilder and Radner play Larry Abbot and Vickie Pearle, two radio murder mystery actors who decide to get married. Larry, plagued with on-air panic attacks, is treated with a form of shock therapy and subsequently chooses to marry Vickie in a castle-like mansion which had been his childhood home. Once there, they meet the eccentric members of Larry's family, including his great-aunt Kate (DeLuise) and his cousin Charles (Pryce).
''Honeymoon'' was distributed by
Orion Pictures
Orion Pictures (legal name Orion Releasing, LLC) is an American film production and distribution company owned by Amazon through its Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) subsidiary. In its original operating period, the company produced and released films ...
through a deal with
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
. The movie flopped by grossing just short of its $9 million budget whilst it was panned by the critics. The movie earned DeLuise the
Razzie Award
The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
for
Worst Supporting Actress. The movie represents the last feature film appearance for Radner (prior to her diagnosis and death from
ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different c ...
) and the last directorial role for Wilder.
Plot
Larry Abbot (Wilder) and Vickie Pearle (Radner) are performers on radio's "Manhattan Mystery Theater" who decide to get married. Larry has been plagued with on-air panic attacks and speech impediments since proposing marriage. Vickie thinks it is just pre-wedding jitters, but his affliction could get them both fired.
Larry's uncle, Dr. Paul Abbot, decides that Larry needs to be cured. Paul decides to treat him with a form of shock therapy to "scare him to death" in much the same way someone might try to startle someone out of hiccups.
Larry chooses a castle-like mansion in which he grew up as the site for their wedding. Vickie gets to meet Larry's eccentric family: great-aunt Kate (DeLuise in drag), who plans to leave all her money to Larry; his uncle, Francis; and Larry's cousins, Charles, Nora, Susan, and the cross-dressing Francis Jr. Also present are the butler Pfister and wife Rachel, the maid; Larry's old girlfriend Sylvia, who is now dating Charles; and Susan's magician husband, Montego the Magnificent.
Paul begins his "treatment" of Larry and lets others in on the plan. Unfortunately for all, something more sinister and unexpected is lurking at the Abbot Estates mansion. The pre-wedding party becomes a real-life version of Larry and Vickie's radio murder mysteries, werewolves and all.
Cast
*
Gene Wilder
Jerome Silberman (June 11, 1933 – August 29, 2016), known professionally as Gene Wilder, was an American actor, comedian, writer and filmmaker. He is known mainly for his comedic roles, but also for his portrayal of Willy Wonka in ''Willy Won ...
as Larry Abbot
*
Gilda Radner
Gilda Susan Radner (June 28, 1946 – May 20, 1989) was an American actress and comedian, and one of the seven original cast members of the "Not Ready For Prime Time Players" on the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). In he ...
as Vickie Pearle
*
Dom DeLuise
Dominick DeLuise (August 1, 1933 – May 4, 2009) was an American actor, comedian, director, producer, chef, and author. Known primarily for his comedic performances, he rose to fame in the 1970s as a frequent guest on television variety shows ...
as Aunt Katherine "Kate" Abbot
*
Jonathan Pryce
Sir Jonathan Pryce (born John Price; 1 June 1947) is a Welsh actor who is known for his performances on stage and in film and television. He has received numerous awards, including two Tony Awards and two Laurence Olivier Awards. In 2021 he wa ...
as Charles "Charlie" Abbot
*
Eve Ferret as Sylvia
*
Bryan Pringle
Bryan Pringle (19 January 1935 – 15 May 2002) was an English character actor who appeared for several decades in television, film and theatre productions.
Life and career
Born in Glascote, Tamworth, Staffordshire, he was brought up in the L ...
as Pfister, the Butler
*
Peter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan (born Peter Ewart Ohm; 4 April 1923 – 6 December 2016) was an English character actor known for many supporting roles in British film and television productions. He also acted extensively on the stage.
He is perhaps best known ...
as Uncle Francis Abbot Sr.
*
Paul L. Smith
Paul Lawrence Smith (June 24, 1936 – April 25, 2012) was an American-Israeli actor. Burly, bearded and imposing, he appeared in feature films and occasionally on television since the 1970s, generally playing "heavies" and bad guys. His most no ...
as Dr. Paul Abbot, uncle
*
Jim Carter as Montego, the Magician
*Jo Ross as Susan Abbot
*
Roger Ashton-Griffiths
Roger Ashton-Griffiths (born 19 January 1957) is an English character actor, screenwriter and film director. He is best known for his role as Mace Tyrell in the HBO fantasy series ''Game of Thrones''.
Life and career
Born in Hertfordshire, As ...
as Cousin Francis Jr.
*
Ann Way
Ann Way (14 November 1915 – 13 March 1993) was an English film and television character actress. Born in Wiveliscombe, Somerset, she began her career in repertory in Birmingham in the 1950s moving from there to the Dundee Rep.
Her petite build ...
as Rachel, Pfister's wife
*
Matt Zimmerman as Radio Actor #1
*
Sally Osborne
Sally Osborne (born 19 September 1952) is a British film and television actress. She has appeared in a number of television series including '' The Cedar Tree'', ''Cribb'', '' King's Royal'', '' The Duchess of Duke Street'', ''A Tale of Two Citie ...
as Mrs. Abbot (Larry's mother)
Production
Development
Wilder wrote the opening scene while filming ''
Silver Streak'' in 1976. He wanted to make a "comedy chiller" inspired by such films as ''
The Cat and the Canary'' (1939), ''
The Old Dark House'' (1932) and ''
The Black Cat'' (1941), and radio shows like ''
The Inner Sanctum''. "Since I was 6 years old I have been scared of horror movies", said Wilder "And the movies that I liked the best – even though I was scared by them – were what was called then 'comedy-chillers.' They were horror movies yet they had comedy, or they were comedies and yet they had horror. They were not comedy-mysteries, they were not comedy-thrillers, they were comedy-chillers." Wilder says when he started writing the film "I knew I wanted it to be a comedy-chiller", but he struggled and the film wound up as an "autobiographical psycho/sexual comedy with music."
Wilder and Radner fell in love while making ''
Hanky Panky'' (1982) and he decided to revisit the project as a vehicle for them both. "I always thought that Gilda has been one of our most brilliant television comediennes, but now I think she's becoming more than very good as a comic movie actress, which is a very, very different thing", said Wilder.
Wilder rewrote the script with writing partner, Terry Marsh. "I knew that I wanted it to be not a parody and not a satire, but to re-create a comedy-chiller", said Wilder.
"I don't like naturalism. I like things that are fantastical – I'm not saying necessarily fantasies, but more than reality."
Wilder says the film was partly inspired by a song
Jeanette MacDonald
Jeanette Anna MacDonald (June 18, 1903 – January 14, 1965) was an American singer and Actor, actress best remembered for her musical films of the 1930s with Maurice Chevalier (''The Love Parade'', ''Love Me Tonight'', ''The Merry Widow (1934 ...
and
Jack Buchanan
Walter John Buchanan (2 April 1891 – 20 October 1957) was a Scottish theatre and film actor, singer, dancer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George G ...
sang in the film ''
Monte Carlo
Monte Carlo (; ; french: Monte-Carlo , or colloquially ''Monte-Carl'' ; lij, Munte Carlu ; ) is officially an administrative area of the Principality of Monaco, specifically the ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is ...
'' (1930). Wilder says he heard it while watching the film in bed with Radner. "I'm always looking for some emotional spine to what I'm doing. I look over at her
adnerand tears are coming down from her eyes. It was so sweet and innocent. Like little children. And I thought that's what this ('Haunted Honeymoon') is about."
"I couldn't imagine him singing it with any other girl", said Radner. "So, I just had a tantrum and said I had to be the fiancee – not a big tantrum, just a tiny tantrum."
He says he was also inspired by seeing
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...
's ''
Beauty and the Beast
''Beauty and the Beast'' (french: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in ''La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins'' ( ...
'' in the early 1980s. "The world opened up for me", he said. "I'm more comfortable when I don't have to be held down by authenticity. In this film, which is set in the ’30s, I feel that I'm presenting authenticity of the heart. I'm not interested in everyday reality, but in the reality of the heart. I like fantasy, like a fairy tale. I'm interested in shadows and contrasts. It's like the opening scene in the movie, when a character says, `It's not what you think.' Well, it's probably what you think. But it's too complicated."
The movie was one of 14 films financed by Orion Pictures through a deal with HBO.
Shooting
The film was shot in London at Elstree Studios in 1985 over 11 weeks. "Gene calls it a 'comedy chiller'", said Gilda Radner. "For me, this is a part very similar to my own life. I wear a wedding gown in 95% of the movie. Since I didn't wear a gown when Gene and I got married, I asked the 'Haunted Honeymoon' photographer to make me a wedding album!" Radner said.
Wilder says his aim was to "make a 1930s movie for 1986."
He and the cinematographer used no primary colors and lit the film darkly.
"It's black and white in color", said Wilder. "The fat lady in Akron, Ohio, doesn't have to know that. But she should feel that it's believable in the way that an old '30s film is believable."
Wilder and Radner celebrated their first wedding anniversary during filming in September.
Jonathan Pryce later recalled, "It was one of those films where, when there's a break and they’re doing the next setup and people usually go back to their dressing rooms, nobody went back to their dressing rooms. We’d all sit around in a circle of camp chairs or whatever they call them—director's chairs—and be entertained by Dom DeLuise. It was a blissful time. It was a great time."
Wilder says he told DeLuise to play his role straight, telling him, "I want you to be my aunt. We'll get the laughs later. But first don't go for 'I'm-really-a-guy, I'm-really-a-guy, and-I'm-doing-this-little-joke.'"
Release
Orion elected not to screen the film to critics before general release. Producer Susan Ruskin said:
Reception
The film received negative reviews. On
review aggregator
A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...
website
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 18%, based on eleven reviews, and an average rating of 3.6/10.
Dom DeLuise
Dominick DeLuise (August 1, 1933 – May 4, 2009) was an American actor, comedian, director, producer, chef, and author. Known primarily for his comedic performances, he rose to fame in the 1970s as a frequent guest on television variety shows ...
won the
Razzie Award
The Golden Raspberry Awards (also known as the Razzies and Razzie Awards) is a parody award show honoring the worst of cinematic under-achievements. Co-founded by UCLA film graduates and film industry veterans John J. B. Wilson and Mo Murphy, ...
for Worst Supporting Actress for his performance in drag. Audiences polled by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.
Background
Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film an average grade "C−" on an A+ to F scale.
Alex Stewart reviewed ''Haunted Honeymoon'' for ''
White Dwarf
A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...
'' #83, and stated that "Amid Wilder's overindulgence in timid, repetitive gags, it's hard to sort out who's plotting with whom to bump off who else, and harder still to care. Only an admirably unpredictable performance from Dom DeLuise as wacky old Aunt Kate puts any kind of edge on the silliness at all."
Box office
The movie was a financial flop, grossing only $8,000,000 in America, entering the box office at number 8, then slipping to 14 the following week.
The movie represents the last feature film appearance for Radner (prior to her diagnosis and death from
Ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer is a cancerous tumor of an ovary. It may originate from the ovary itself or more commonly from communicating nearby structures such as fallopian tubes or the inner lining of the abdomen. The ovary is made up of three different c ...
) and the last directorial role for Wilder. While Radner was struggling with cancer, she wrote the following about the film:
Another source said the film earned $3.2 million in the US.
References
External links
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Review of filmat ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
''
Review of filmat ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
''
Review of filmat ''Variety''
Film reviewat Tor
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{{Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress
1986 films
1986 comedy films
1986 horror films
1980s comedy horror films
1980s English-language films
1980s parody films
American comedy horror films
American haunted house films
American werewolf films
Films directed by Gene Wilder
Films scored by John Morris
Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios
Films with screenplays by Gene Wilder
Golan-Globus films
Golden Raspberry Award winning films
Orion Pictures films
Parodies of horror
1980s American films