Lureen: I better quit drinking. I've got to go do The Robin Byrd Show in an hour.
Reva: Oh really? Are you an actress?
Marianne: Yeah.
Lureen: You know Karl Percy, don't you? From Albany?
Reva: Oh yeah.
Marianne: Yeah.
Reva: We worked for him.
Lureen: You're kidding. Which movies?
Marianne: The early ones.
Reva: Yeah, the early ones.
Lureen: You mean like Finger Licking Good? 20 Laps?
Mariann: Yeah, that's right.
Lureen: Wow.
Reva: No, I-I wasn't in 20 Laps.
Lureen: Oh.
Reva: I had another part.
Lureen: Oh.
Reva: In a musical.
Lureen: You're kidding!
Marianne: She is.
Lureen: You know, Crystal was so good in Hot Sausages --
Reva: Uh-huh.
Lureen: -- but she just never followed through. She had no ambition.
Marianne: I think that she was very dumb to get mixed up with Chuckle.
Lureen: Yeah, well, Crystal was dumb. And Chuckles is smart. He is real smart. He is too smart. I get scared of guys who are that smart. You know, and he really gets off on showing you just how smart he is -- like a really mean cat with a bird.
1990's In The Spirit is one of the funniest comedies of its decade. The film, written by Jeannie Berlin and Laurie Jones and directed by Sandra Seacat, stars Marlo Thomas and Elaine May. as Reva and Mariann.
Marianne is married to Roger (Peter Falk) who has lost his job on the West Coast at the start of the film. So as he spirals into depression, Marianne tells him the answer is to move back to NYC where they still have their c-op and he can look for a new job. At a party, Sue (Olympia Dukakis) introduces Marianne to Reva who is an interior decorator, who was married to Sue's late brother Ed and who is heavily into New Age spirituality.
Reva believes in talking to her inner guides and in the use of crystals. She has a neighbor named Crystal (Jeannie Berlin) who is a prostitute. Reva attempts to help her. By suggesting she stop eating red meat. Marianne and Roger first meet Crystal when, returning to NYC, they have dinner with her at Reva's apartment.
Crystal: I'm really upset.
Reva: What happened?
Crystal: This guy I know, he stole some money from me while I was sleeping. And now he won't call me back.
Reva: Oh no.
Marianne: What a terrible experience. How long have you known him?
Crystal: A couple of hours.
Reva: Crystal has trouble distinguishing negative vibrations from positive vibrations. It's very dangerous.
Crystal: It really kills me because I just need $500 more and then I could quit the life and I could go to school.
Roger: What are you going to study?
Crystal: Bartending. I used to study acting. I did a lot of parts in some high class porno movies. I was a fluffer at first. I did some inserts. And eventually I got my name above the title, my face on the big screen. But I want to do something with more security and more respectability and a lot less narcissism. So I think bartending's probably a good place for me to start.
Crystal's clients include mobsters and police officers. And one of them decides to murder her. But Reva has something the killer wants and he comes after her and Marianne forcing them to attempt to figure out who killed Crystal which leads them to prostitute and porn actress Lurleen (Melanie Griffith) who becomes the killer's next victim after she meets with Marianne and Reva. In need of help, they go to Reva's former sister-in-law.
Sue: I don't understand. You mean you think a policeman murdered a prostitute?
Marianne: No. Well -- maybe.
Reva: That's not the point. We know she was killed and we know Lureen was killed. But we're just not sure who killed them. And we don't know who to give the book to. You see, we just have to get out of town for awhile. Just until -- well, we have to get out of town for awhile. See, our plan is to leave town tomorrow but I want to get some cash to Pamela. We don't have any place to stay and we don't have any clothes.
Marianne: We can't go to a hotel dressed like this.
Sue: Well, uh, you can't stay here.
Reva: What do you mean?
Sue: You-you came here because you wanted to stay here?
Reva: Well of course. You're my family.
Sue: I'm Ed's family. I have a husband with a heart condition and two children on drugs. I think it is outrageous for the two of you to come here and endanger us all this way because you might have been followed!
With no where to go, they go on the run, come up with a plan to lure the killer to them and debate whether or not they will kill the killer or turn him over to the police.
In The Spirit is one of our favorite movies and, thanks to Ann and Stan, we now know the never-on-DVD classic is available at Amazon -- $3.99 for streaming rental, $9.99 for digital ownership. (One warning, "s**t" becomes "sh" in Amazon's version of the film.)
It is a hilarious comic gem with amazing turns by Melanie Griffith, Olympia Dukakis, Peter Falk, Jeannie Berlin and Laurie Jones (she plays Reva's housekeeper Pamela) in supporting roles. But the film belongs to Marlo and Elaine who make an amazing comedic team. They build off each other, they accent one another and when the movie ends, the only things that harshes the giddy high the film leaves you with is the realization that no reteaming of Elaine and Marlo on film has yet taken place. Before there was Thelma and Louise, there was Reva and Marianne.
