Movie Reviews by Edwin Jahiel

SOAPDISH (1991)

Although at times the film tries too hard and makes the mistake of attempting to maintain hysteria, this is overall an often hilarious parody of soap operas that operates on several levels: producing and filming soap episodes, backstage temperaments and rivalries, real life outdoing television. Comically frantic and silly, the film also tells some truths about TV, reminding you what "S.O.B." or "The Player " did for movies or "Broadway Danny Rose" for variety acts. There are subtler in-jokes too, starting with Downey's command : "No turbans for Miss Talbot", an echo of the famous thriller "No Orchids For Miss Blandish" . Sally Field plays the 41-year old queen of the soaps, Cathy Moriarty the dementedly ambitious actress who wants Field's place, Kevin Kline a thespian who does Willy Loman (in "Death of a Salesman") in a geriatric dinner theater and later, without his glasses, misreads the teleprompter, Robert Downey Jr. the producer who lusts after Moriarty, Whoopi Goldberg Field's writer-manager-friend, director Garry Marshallthe autocratic boss. They are all great . (Edwin Jahiel)