Movies of 1996 Bracket Game: The Nutty Professor Vs. The Birdcage

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I think we’ve established that 1996 was an off year for Hollywood in terms of quality. With a then record-breaking 15 movies grossing over $100 million dollars, it was a pretty spectacular year at the box office. But very few of those movies are held in high regard twenty years later. Among those $100 million dollar hits were two comedy remakes which hold up reasonably well today.

Yesterday’s match-up between two dark-for-Disney animated offerings was a squeaker. When I went to bed, James and the Giant Peach had a slim lead. Overnight, a Disney fan group shared a link to the article which helped Hunchback get the votes necessary to tie things up. This morning, I awoke to find the votes deadlocked. So I went to Facebook and the comments and I asked if someone would cast the deciding vote. Someone did so I am pleased to say we have a winner. By a single vote, The Hunchback of Notre Dame will advance to round two where it will face the winner of today’s comedic pairing.

Eddie Murphy was one of the biggest movie stars of the eighties. But the nineties hadn’t been good for the former SNL star. Murphy tried to evolve into a romantic leading man, but his fans were having none of it. They wanted the “old Eddie” back. The one who made movies like 48 Hours and Beverly Hills Cop. But when Murphy made sequels to his eighties hits, he looked bored out of his mind. In 1994, Beverly Hills Cop III flopped and killed Murphy’s biggest franchise.

In 1995, starred in another flop. The horror-comedy Vampire in Brooklyn was directed by Wes Craven. Murphy himself has made fun of the wig he wore in that movie. But he bristled when David Spade made a crack at the expense of his career on Saturday Night Live. During a Hollywood Minute segment, Spade showed Murphy’s picture and said “Look kids, it’s a falling star. Make a wish.”

Murphy was incensed. He felt that since he more or less single-handedly kept SNL from being canceled in the early eighties, he was off-limits. As a result, Murphy refused to have anything to do with SNL for over two decades.

But here’s the thing. Spade wasn’t wrong. Murphy’s career was in trouble. At the time, there was no reason to believe that Murphy’s remake of an old Jerry Lewis movie was going to be anything but another box office dud. The notion that Murphy had added a fat suit into the mix only made the project seem more random.

As it turns out, The Nutty Professor was about as close to a return to form as Murphy was capable of. With the Buddy Love character, Murphy was able to send up his old screen personae. He may not have had it in him to continue playing obnoxious motor-mouths, but he could make fun of them. Murphy also buried himself in make-up and played several supporting roles. This approach had worked well for him in Coming to America and it proved popular here as well.

Unfortunately, it proved to be a crutch that Murphy would rely on far too often following the success of The Nutty Professor. The Klumps even became the focus of the Nutty Professor sequel. And the less said about Norbit, the better. Those movies have diminished the reputation of Murphy’s Nutty remake which was pretty well-received at the time.

While Murphy’s career was in desperate need of a lifeline, Robin Williams was riding high. His recent star vehicles like Mrs. Doubtfire and Jumanji were drawing mixed reactions from critics, but they were big hits at the box office. So for Williams to take on a project like The Birdcage at a time when same-sex marriage wasn’t even being talked about was an act of courage. It was one thing for Williams to star in a drag comedy like Mrs. Doubtfire. But to play one half of a gay couple in 1996 was a pretty brave thing for a guy in Williams’ position to do.

The Birdcage is a remake of the French-Italian farce, La Cage aux Folles. Williams and Nathan Lane play a gay couple who pretend to be straight to make a good impression on their son’s future in-laws. Having recently done drag, Williams asked to play the less showy of the two leads. The supporting cast includes Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest as a Republican senator and his wife and Hank Azaria as a flamboyant housekeeper.

In retrospect, it’s kind of amazing that an American version of The Birdcage was even made in the mid-nineties. The fact that it was the ninth-highest-grossing movie of the year really speaks to Williams’ unique star power at the time. I don’t think that movie would have been nearly as well-received with any other actor in his place. The Birdcage starring Eddie Murphy would have been a disaster.