Delirious

I remembered another movie that I love which plays around with writers and writing. Granted, it seems a lot less deep and much more silly than the others I have mentioned, but I like it all the same.

The late great John Candy starred in Delirious, playing a soap opera writer who turned in his “bible” for the show’s upcoming storylines. Just as he is about to go on vacation, his bosses (one of whom is the late great Jerry Orbach) tells him they are unhappy with the script. It seems they will get another writer, Federman, to doctor it. Candy leaves in a huff, grumbling all the way to the car and accidentally bonking himself on the head. (Oh! Those old stand-by plot devices, eh?) He wakes up in the fictional town he created, where he is met by a new character he intended to include. She (Mariel Hemingway) assumes him to be another new character. He insists nothing is real and that he created the whole town. Then comes the wonderful line. “You say you’re a writer, well, then…WRITE YOUR WAY OUT!” He ponders it and types on his trusty archaic typewriter. What he writes comes true! As you can imagine, hilarity ensues. But he does not always get his way as one might imagine. For back in the real world Federman is typing on his computer to counteract and thwart him. It’s also a wonderful parody of soap operas, not that those can’t be parodies of each other and themselves. The late great Raymond Burr stars as the villain and there's an appearance by Robert Wagner as well, Robert Wagner, sort of. I guess you'll have to see what I mean.

All in all, though, I include it among my favorite film shenanigans about the art of writing and the writers who labor over their creations.