Themes: Riches To Rags, Fish Out of Water, Servants and Employers
Main Cast: Ally Sheedy, Beverly D'Angelo, Michael Ontkean, Valerie Perrine, Dick Shawn
Release Year: 1987
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Rich but repulsive teenager Jessie (Ally Sheedy) can't stand the notion that the whole world doesn't jump to the crack of her whip. Her overindulgent father, millionaire Charles Montgomery (Tom Skerritt), wishes he could teach his daughter a lesson, but can't bring himself to deny his little darling everything her heart desires. Unfortunately, she gets her comeuppance when, after finding out that Jessie has been arrested, her father mutters a wish that she'd never been born. Zap! Enter fairy godmother Beverly D'Angelo, who grants the girl her wish. With no name, no friends, and no money, Jessie has no choice but to look for work. She is hired as a maid by a filthy-rich Malibu couple (Valerie Perrine and Dick Shawn), whose selfish excesses make Jessie look like Pollyanna. Worse still, Jessie is compelled by circumstance to meet up with her father, who doesn't even recognize her. The key to the film's success is the wonderfully many-sided performance of Ally Sheedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Tom Skerritt - Charles Montgomery; Merry Clayton - Audrey James; Begonia Plaza - Maria; Khandi Alexander - Hooker in Jail; Nina Axelrod; Kimberly Beck - Kim; Jason Beghe - Bret; Diana Bellamy - Woman in Unemployment Office; Victoria Catlin - Alicia Nolin; Vance Colvig - Man with Newspapers; Alyson Croft - Lorelei; Leland Crooke - Dude; Alexander Folk - Westec Guard #2; Rita Gomez - Juanita; Bennet Guillory - George Sterling; Brett Hadley - Harvey Bessman; Rigg Kennedy - Westec Guard #1; Rain Phoenix - Brie Starkey; Theresa Randle - Doni; Steven Robert Ross; Katey Sagal - Louise; Tony Simotes - Francisco; Perla Walter - Trini; Theodore Wilson - Woodrow; Henry Woolf - Jailer; Keith Joe Dick - Arresting Officer; Robert Jaffe - Miles; Jack Russell - Loaded Blanks; Carmine Iannaccone - Habib; Ed Quinlan - Man at Party; Virginia Watson; Julianna McCarthy - Elderly Lady
Credit
Nina Axelrod - Casting, Lisa Jensen - Costume Designer, Kristine Peterson - First Assistant Director, Amy Jones - Director, Jeffrey Townsend - Second Unit Director, Sidney Wolinsky - Editor, Georges Delerue - Composer (Music Score), Don Devine - Camera Operator, Jeffrey Townsend - Production Designer, Shelly Johnson - Cinematographer, Mort Engelberg - Producer, Herb Jaffe - Producer, Rick Waddell - Sound/Sound Designer, Perry Howze - Screenwriter, Randy Howze - Screenwriter, Amy Jones - Screenwriter
These maids aren't in Manhattan, but they are Maid To Order. The company provides individual and corporate cleaning and party hosting services in the Chicago area. Customers come with messy dorm rooms, day care centers, corporate apartments, churches, luxury yachts, and other spaces needing cleaning. Maid To Order can clean weekly, bi-weekly, or by appointment. Its waitstaff and bartenders do not cook, but do help set up and serve food to guests at events such as weddings and corporate board meetings. President Coralee Smith Kern founded the company in 1971.
Key numbers for fiscal year ending December, 2008: Sales: $1.7M
Rich and spoiled twenty something Jessie Montgomery (Sheedy) who learns a lesson after a life of wild partying winds up with her in jail. Her father (Tom Skerritt) decides he might have been better off without a daughter, and with that her "fairy godmother" (Beverly D'Angelo) creates an existence where she must make it on her own. Jessie is then forced to find work as a maid for an eccentric rich couple (Valerie Perrine and Dick Shawn).
The film is an unusual variation on the Cinderella formula: the fairy godmother is not a reflection but rather the nemesis. Stella is Jessie's primary obstacle to achieving her outer motivation...which is to regain her old Beverly Hills lifestyle.
In the end, however, through her experiences with the other people in the mansion (former singer turned cook Audrey, Hispanic servant Maria and chauffer Nick) Jessie learns the true meaning of love, friendship, and self-respect, and when she chooses the happiness of her new friends over her own, she is rewarded with having her old life more or less returned to her.
Taglines
Worse help is hard to find.
She was raised in one mansion. Now she's got to clean another.
