Main Cast: Jeff Corey, Peter O'Toole, John Dehner, Mariel Hemingway, Ellen Geer, Vincent Spano, Virginia Madsen, Rance Howard, David Ogden Stiers
Release Year: 1985
Country: US
Run Time: 108 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
This romantic, melancholy twist on the Frankenstein formula stars Peter O'Toole as Professor Harry Wolper, a lonely eccentric who has dedicated decades of research to cloning his long-dead wife Lucy from a culture of living tissue. To this end, he enlists the services of likeable Graduate assistant Boris (Vincent Spano), who is initially baffled by the professor's endless rants about God, Science and "The Big Picture." After Wolper posts bills seeking a human egg donor, his wish is granted by the vivacious young Meli (Mariel Hemingway), in whom the professor soon discovers a more willing convert to his grand design... and perhaps a love more immediate and real than the one he lost. Boris eventually manages to come around to "The Big Picture" himself when Wolper points him in the direction of another graduate, Barbara (Virginia Madsen). Despite opting for a platonic relationship to better determine if they are ideally matched, Boris and Barbara soon fall deeply in love, realizing that they are soul-mates as the professor had predicted. Tragedy strikes, however, when a brain hemorrhage renders Barbara comatose, and Wolper's nemesis Dr. Sid Kuhlenbeck (David Ogden Stiers) persuades the university to shut down Harry's private cloning laboratory. Meli forces Wolper to choose between her love and his misplaced longing for his dead wife... and his answer is suddenly made clear when he witnesses Boris's heartfelt determination to bring his own true love back to the land of the living. Written by Jeremy Leven (based on his own novel), this is a flawed but engaging comedy which proves that a well-written story can incorporate traditional science fiction elements as more than a mere plot device and actually enhance the humanity of the characters. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Lee Kessler - Mrs. Pruitt; Karen Kopins - Lucy Wolper; Elsa Raven - Mrs. Mallory; Kenneth Tigar - Pavlo; William H. Bassett - Dr. Sutter; Gary Bayer - Bovi; Crawford Binion - Fred; Jordan Charney - Dr. Whitaker; Burton Collins - Lyman; Al Fann - Guard; Michael Greene - Guard; Sandy Ignon - Dr. Franklin; Mike Jolly - Boom-Boom; Michael McGrady - Larry; Eve McVeagh - Woman with Monkey; Anthony Peck - Norman; Byrne Piven - Krauss; Ian Wolfe - Prof. Brauer; Vincent Cobb - Hamberg; Doug Cox - Arthur; Judith Hansen - Karen
Credit
Thomas S. Dawson - Costume Designer, Julie Weiss - Costume Designer, Ivan Passer - Director, Richard Chew - Editor, Sylvester Levay - Composer (Music Score), Dorothy Pearl - Makeup, Josan F. Russo - Production Designer, Robbie Greenberg - Cinematographer, Stephen Friedman - Producer, Charles B. Mulvehill - Producer, Thomas Roysden - Set Designer, Burt Dalton - Special Effects, Jeremy Leven - Screenwriter, Jeremy Leven - Book Author
Harry Wolper (played by O'Toole) is a Nobel prize laureate in biology, obsessed by the possibility to clone his beloved late wife, Lucy. Helped by the student Boris Lafkin (Spano) and an eccentric egg-donor girl, Meli (Hemingway), Dr. Wolper finally succeeds in the cloning process, but the events leading to this achievement create strong bonds between himself and Meli, and also between Spano and his schoolmate, Barbara (Madsen). In the end, Harry realizes that he is in love with Meli, and interrupts the cloning process dropping the last cells of Lucy into the sea.
