The Incredible Shrinking Woman

The Incredible Shrinking Woman
original movie poster
Directed by	Joel Schumacher
Produced by	Hank Moonjean
Written by	Richard Matheson (novel) Jane Wagner (screenplay)
Starring	Lily Tomlin Charles Grodin Ned Beatty John Glover Elizabeth Wilson
Music by	Suzanne Ciani
Cinematography	Bruce Logan
Editing by	Jeff Gourson
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	January 30, 1981
Running time	88:00
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$18,400,000

The Incredible Shrinking Woman is a 1981 science fiction/comedy film, starring Lily Tomlin, Charles Grodin, Ned Beatty, John Glover and Elizabeth Wilson, and directed by Joel Schumacher. The film was written by Tomlin's longtime life partner and frequent collaborator, Jane Wagner. The original music score was composed by Suzanne Ciani. This film is a take-off on the 1957 science fiction classic The Incredible Shrinking Man, and credited as based on Richard Matheson's novel, The Shrinking Man.

Plot

Pat Kramer is an ordinary suburban housewife and mother. Her husband works for a company that makes perfume. After being exposed to an experimental perfume, she begins to shrink, gradually at first, then rapidly. A few weeks pass, and Pat has shrunk to the height of her own children. Eventually, she becomes a celebrity of sorts, appearing on The Mike Douglas Show, and captures the hearts of the American people. Soon she is less than a foot tall, making her like a doll to her children, and forcing her to move into a dollhouse.

Pat is kidnapped by a group of mad scientists, who make it seem that she perished in the kitchen garbage disposal. They plan to shrink everyone in the world by performing experiments on her to learn her secret. With the help of a kind young lab custodian and a super-intelligent gorilla named Sydney, she escapes. She shrinks to microscopic size and falls into a puddle of spilled household chemicals - which makes her return to normal size. The film ends with her homecoming. However, when her foot makes her shoe split open, the audience is led to believe she will continue to grow in size.

Cast

• Lily Tomlin .... Pat Kramer/Judith Beasley
• Charles Grodin .... Vance Kramer
• Ned Beatty .... Dan Beame
• Henry Gibson .... Dr. Eugene Nortz
• Elizabeth Wilson .... Dr. Ruth Ruth
• Mark Blankfield .... Rob
• Maria Smith .... Concepcion
• Pamela Bellwood .... Sandra Dyson
• John Glover .... Tom Keller
• Nicholas Hormann .... Logan Carver
• Jim McMullan .... Lyle Parks (as James McMullan)
• Shelby Balik .... Beth Kramer
• Justin Dana .... Jeff Kramer
• Rick Baker .... Sidney (as Richard A. Baker)
• Mike Douglas .... Himself
• Dick Wilson .... Store Manager
• Sally Kirkland .... Store Cashier

Actor Dick Wilson plays a fussy supermarket manager - much like his famous Charmin tissue TV commercial character: Mr. Whipple.

Rick Baker played Sidney the Gorilla. In 1981, he was the very first recipient of the Oscar for Best Make-Up for An American Werewolf in London when the category was first introduced. Baker's career, especially his early fascination with gorillas and his work in three movies featuring them is told in the TV documentary Gorillas: Primal Contact.

Lily Tomlin and Elizabeth Wilson previously appeared together in Nine to Five as Violet Newstead and Roz Keith, respectively. Lily Tomlin plays four characters in this film: lead character Pat Kramer, her neighbor Judith Beasley (from her Broadway shows), Tomlin's Laugh-In characters "Ernestine" (a telephone operator) and "Edith Ann" (a little girl) who wanders in the lab (shown in the TV version).

Soundtrack

1. "Galaxy Glue" by Linda November (Billy Davis)
2. "Little Things Mean a Lot" by Mike Douglas
3. "Don't Tell Me Why" by the Brainiacs

See also

• List of American films of 1981

External links

• The Incredible Shrinking Woman at the Internet Movie Database
• The Incredible Shrinking Woman at AllRovi
• The Incredible Shrinking Woman at Rotten Tomatoes