It's not the most memorable comedy with either of it's two stars, nor did it get more than mediocre reviews when it came out, but HOUSESITTER is actually quite an interesting comedy. It certainly is much more than the one joke everyone who critiqued the film jumped on.
At the start of the film, Newton Davis (Steve Martin) is taking his long-time fiancé (Becky Medcalf - Dana Delany) on a car ride where Becky is blindfolded. Newton has promised her a surprise. He drives her to the surprise, and she takes off the blindfold. It is a two story, specially designed private home that he has built for her, and has even put a huge ribbon around for her to pull off while he proposes marriage to her.
The house with the ribbon around it is the joke that was pinpointed by the critics as the best gag - and it was done too early they claimed. Actually it was done pretty well. For Becky is speechless, until she explains to Newton that she wants an end to their dating and sexual relationship. As this ignores the expense and time of Newton in creating and building that house, her announcement that their relationship is over demolishes him.
Returning to Boston and feeling dejected, Newton goes to a dinner at a Hungarian Restaurant in honor of the head of the architectural firm (Roy Cooper)that ends in quasi-disaster when Newton gets his boss angry. As he tries to pick up the tatters he has left, he talks to a waitress named Gwen Philips (Goldie Hawn) and mentions the house he's built. Gwen (who has had problems with her boss, which has just cost her her apartment), realizes that Newton has given her a possible place to reside in for awhile. So she moves to the house. And she soon is acquiring credit with various local townspeople claiming that she and Newton have married and she's setting up the house.
Newton also heads for the house, debating on when he can sell it or tear it down. He's surprised to get dozens of congratulations for his marriage, and when he confronts Gwen she offers him a deal. He still wants to win back Becky (who is astonished that he has gotten married so quickly). Gwen will remain his "wife" as long as possible for him to make Becky jealous and willing to marry Newton (once he gets a "divorce").
It's interesting to compare this fake marriage with INDISCREET, CACTUS FLOWER, and OVERBOARD. In the first Cary Grant made up a non-existent wife so he could have an "above-board" romance with no strings attached with Ingrid Bergman,but when she learns of it she teaches him a lesson by pretending she's been carrying on with an old flame. In the second Walter Matthau invents a non-existent wife for a similar reason to romance Goldie Hawn, but when she reveals the depth of her love for him coupled with her insistence that her husband has to be truthful, Matthau has to make his nurse/receptionist (again Ingrid Bergman) his "wife" in order to create an "amicable divorce". In OVERBOARD, after being abandoned by conniving husband Edward Herrmann, amnesiac sufferer Goldie Hawn is convinced by her "husband" Kurt Russell that she is the mother of his sons. Here the so-called "wife" sets up the situation for her own benefit, and her so-called husband goes along because it will enable him to reunite (maybe) with his original lover.
What I find particularly fascinating in HOUSESITTER is that as the movie unfurls, and there are more and more stories that have to be created to give a background to the "marriage" of Gwen and Newton, more and more people on the periphery get drawn in, and even when they have doubts about the stories end up not only affirming they are true, but seemingly embracing them.
The best example is Richard Schull and Laurel Cronin as Ralph and Mary. Both are middle aged derelicts who know Gwen (who helped give them food near the restaurant). When Newton's parents (Donald Moffett and Julie Harris) want to meet Gwen's parents, she brings in Ralph and Mary. This includes cleaning them off, draining them of their alcoholic haze, and giving them clothes. Ralph soon falls into line - he likes having a nice daughter. He also talks about his services in World War II. And since he and Mary are cleaned now, he is showing more consideration to his old fellow drunkard, and she's starts embracing the lies. Later, there is a dinner party at the new house, and Newton's boss is among the guests (he is very impressed at the way Newton designed the house). It turns out the boss was in the theater of war that Ralph was claiming he was in. At first the boss is doubting this, but as the evening goes on he starts embracing the idea that Ralph was not only there, but fighting side-by-side with him against the Japanese!
They are not the only ones. It actually hits every character as the film continues because everyone realizes the lies are more pleasant than the truth. And the last one to learn this is Newton - just watch his moment of "lie" when comparing Gwen and Becky and realizing which of the two is really worth more.
I don't think there is any other comedy where truth took such a beating before or since.
At the start of the film, Newton Davis (Steve Martin) is taking his long-time fiancé (Becky Medcalf - Dana Delany) on a car ride where Becky is blindfolded. Newton has promised her a surprise. He drives her to the surprise, and she takes off the blindfold. It is a two story, specially designed private home that he has built for her, and has even put a huge ribbon around for her to pull off while he proposes marriage to her.
The house with the ribbon around it is the joke that was pinpointed by the critics as the best gag - and it was done too early they claimed. Actually it was done pretty well. For Becky is speechless, until she explains to Newton that she wants an end to their dating and sexual relationship. As this ignores the expense and time of Newton in creating and building that house, her announcement that their relationship is over demolishes him.
Returning to Boston and feeling dejected, Newton goes to a dinner at a Hungarian Restaurant in honor of the head of the architectural firm (Roy Cooper)that ends in quasi-disaster when Newton gets his boss angry. As he tries to pick up the tatters he has left, he talks to a waitress named Gwen Philips (Goldie Hawn) and mentions the house he's built. Gwen (who has had problems with her boss, which has just cost her her apartment), realizes that Newton has given her a possible place to reside in for awhile. So she moves to the house. And she soon is acquiring credit with various local townspeople claiming that she and Newton have married and she's setting up the house.
Newton also heads for the house, debating on when he can sell it or tear it down. He's surprised to get dozens of congratulations for his marriage, and when he confronts Gwen she offers him a deal. He still wants to win back Becky (who is astonished that he has gotten married so quickly). Gwen will remain his "wife" as long as possible for him to make Becky jealous and willing to marry Newton (once he gets a "divorce").
It's interesting to compare this fake marriage with INDISCREET, CACTUS FLOWER, and OVERBOARD. In the first Cary Grant made up a non-existent wife so he could have an "above-board" romance with no strings attached with Ingrid Bergman,but when she learns of it she teaches him a lesson by pretending she's been carrying on with an old flame. In the second Walter Matthau invents a non-existent wife for a similar reason to romance Goldie Hawn, but when she reveals the depth of her love for him coupled with her insistence that her husband has to be truthful, Matthau has to make his nurse/receptionist (again Ingrid Bergman) his "wife" in order to create an "amicable divorce". In OVERBOARD, after being abandoned by conniving husband Edward Herrmann, amnesiac sufferer Goldie Hawn is convinced by her "husband" Kurt Russell that she is the mother of his sons. Here the so-called "wife" sets up the situation for her own benefit, and her so-called husband goes along because it will enable him to reunite (maybe) with his original lover.
What I find particularly fascinating in HOUSESITTER is that as the movie unfurls, and there are more and more stories that have to be created to give a background to the "marriage" of Gwen and Newton, more and more people on the periphery get drawn in, and even when they have doubts about the stories end up not only affirming they are true, but seemingly embracing them.
The best example is Richard Schull and Laurel Cronin as Ralph and Mary. Both are middle aged derelicts who know Gwen (who helped give them food near the restaurant). When Newton's parents (Donald Moffett and Julie Harris) want to meet Gwen's parents, she brings in Ralph and Mary. This includes cleaning them off, draining them of their alcoholic haze, and giving them clothes. Ralph soon falls into line - he likes having a nice daughter. He also talks about his services in World War II. And since he and Mary are cleaned now, he is showing more consideration to his old fellow drunkard, and she's starts embracing the lies. Later, there is a dinner party at the new house, and Newton's boss is among the guests (he is very impressed at the way Newton designed the house). It turns out the boss was in the theater of war that Ralph was claiming he was in. At first the boss is doubting this, but as the evening goes on he starts embracing the idea that Ralph was not only there, but fighting side-by-side with him against the Japanese!
They are not the only ones. It actually hits every character as the film continues because everyone realizes the lies are more pleasant than the truth. And the last one to learn this is Newton - just watch his moment of "lie" when comparing Gwen and Becky and realizing which of the two is really worth more.
I don't think there is any other comedy where truth took such a beating before or since.