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IMDb > Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
Desperately Seeking Susan
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Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) More at IMDbPro »

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Overview

User Rating:
5.6/10   8,388 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Up 2% in popularity this week. See rank & trends on IMDbPro.
Director:
Susan Seidelman
Writer:
Leora Barish (written by)
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Contact:
View company contact information for Desperately Seeking Susan on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
29 March 1985 (USA) more
Genre:
Comedy | Romance | Drama more
Tagline:
Roberta is desperate to be Susan. Susan is wanted by the mob. The mob finds Roberta instead... more
Plot:
A bored suburban housewife, seeking adventure to her life, accidentally gets hit on the head, wakes up with amnesia, and is mistaken for a free-spirited New York City drifter named Susan. full summary | add synopsis
Awards:
Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 1 win & 2 nominations more
NewsDesk:
(15 articles)
Streep Noms, #6 (1985)
 (From FilmExperience. 26 June 2009, 10:15 AM, PDT)

The Mad(onna) Hatter
 (From FilmExperience. 23 June 2009, 10:52 AM, PDT)

User Comments:
Cool girls from the city. more

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Rosanna Arquette ... Roberta Glass

Madonna ... Susan

Aidan Quinn ... Dez
Mark Blum ... Gary Glass

Robert Joy ... Jim

Laurie Metcalf ... Leslie Glass
Anna Levine ... Crystal
Will Patton ... Wayne Nolan
Peter Maloney ... Ian
Steven Wright ... Larry Stillman D.D.S

John Turturro ... Ray
Anne Carlisle ... Victoria
José Angel Santana ... Boutique Owner (as Jose Santana)

Giancarlo Esposito ... Street Vendor
Richard Hell ... Bruce Meeker
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Additional Details

Runtime:
104 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Color
Aspect Ratio:
1.85 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Stereo

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
Madonna was trying to lose weight, or rather not to gain any. So when the script called for her to be eating, she'd spit out the food at the end of the take! more
Goofs:
Continuity: When Susan walks dripping wet from the swimming pool to the poolside chair, her path is already wet from previous takes. more
Quotes:
Gary: Are you a lesbian? Leslie says that nine out of ten prostitutes are lesbians.
Roberta: Gary, you're not listening to me. I'm not a prostitute or a lesbian!
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Frasier: Desperately Seeking Closure (#5.8)" (1997) more
Soundtrack:
LUST FOR LIFE more

FAQ

This FAQ is empty. Add the first question.
2 out of 4 people found the following comment useful:-
Cool girls from the city., 10 April 2004
7/10
Author: Pepper Anne from Orlando, Florida

Desperately Seeking Susan is one of those titles in a catalogue of definitive 80s movies. It is a fantastic little caper directed by the fantastic Susan Seidleman, and unfortuantely, was one movie that got pitched around a long time before someone finally picked it up.

Susan (played terrifically by Madonna in her pre-burnout years) is a sassy, flaky, and often witty young woman who's always looking for a good time, even when danger is afoot. Enter Roberta Glass (Rosanna Arquette) who could practically be her alter ego as she is everything Susan is not. She is shy and judicious and stuck in a boring marriage, looking for an escape. She is everything Susan is not, and wants to be everything that Susan is. And she will get her chance.

Roberta reads the personal ads frequently because that is how wordly traveller Susan reaches her boyfriend, Jimmy (Robert Joy). They place ads saying hello and telling each where to meet. Roberta is going to tag along when Susan posts a new ad telling Jimmy to meet her in battery park. This is where Roberta takes an interest in Susan, but not that in single white female kind of way, despite the sudden mix up that arises out of all of this. She follows Susan around the city and so forth.

Someone else is following Susan, too. A murderer (Patton) looking for a very expensive earring that was stolen from a museum. He is after Susan because he knows she has the earring. But, after an accident at the park and Roberta winding up with amnesia, the murderer is after the wrong Susan. With the help of Jim's friend Dez (Quinn), Roberta slowly has to figure out who she is, otherwise the murderer is going to kill her, thinking she has the find. In the meantime, Susan teams up with Roberta's totally idiotic husband, Gary (Mark Blum) to find out Roberta's whereabouts. Roberta is going to get exactly what she wanted: a little fun, a little adventure, and a little escape, that will have her rethinking her own course.

Desperately Seeking Susan is really a fun movie that takes place in New York City. Everybody in it, even Mark Blum as the obnoxious Gary Glass and Laurie Metcalf as his compulsive and mistrusting sister, Leslie. Rosanna Arquette is great in nearly everything I've seen her in for her 80s career of movies, and works perfectly as Roberta in her romance with Dez (Quinn). And, it is one of the few things that I actually like Madonna in. They tried to recreate her Susan image (and story) for the movie, Who's That Girl (with Griffin Dunne), but it just couldn't work as perfectly as it did here. Seidleman and writer Leora Barish did some good work in producing a fun film.

By the way, if you're ever in Greenwhich Village, 'Love Saves the Day' (the second hand clothing store that Susan goes into to buy boots) still exists. However, they mostly sell retro novelty toys.

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Discuss this movie with other users on IMDb message board for Desperately Seeking Susan (1985)
Recent Posts (updated daily)User
Has New York lost its edge/character? grw9952
i love this movie! nina_beretta
Why such a low rating? parame
Was Susan a prostitute? morning_star
Bruce shermism
Jim looks like haydeecm
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