Review of Doctor Detroit (1983) by Kyo 9 — 03 Aug 2010

Check out this sweet '80s premise - a geeky but adorkable college professor (Dan Aykroyd) is tricked by a bunch of hot high-end prostitutes into becoming the city's biggest and baddest pimp, "Doctor Detroit".

Only in the eighties, right? Reminds me a bit of Night Shift, where Henry Winkler ran a prostitution ring out of a morgue. Doctor Detroit may not be laugh-out-loud funny, but it is fun to watch. Dan Aykroyd was a good screen presence back in his day and without him this movie would not have been as interesting.

Howard Hesseman appears in the beginning as a pimp in trouble - he owes the city's kingpin, a fat old ugly cunt named "Mom", $80,000 dollars. He spent the money on a penthouse, expensive clothes, yadda yadda yadda, and has no intention of paying her back.

So, he creates a patsy - "Doctor Detroit". Picking up the oblivious, trusting and nerdy Aykroyd at an Indian restaurant, Hessman and his girls show him the time of his life. Hessman of course leaves town the next day and lets all of his troubles fall on Aykroyd's shoulders.

But of course, this being a classic '80s screwball comedy - Aykroyd saves the day, makes life better for everyone, and has fun doing it. It even has one of those funny old-school endings where text appears on the bottom of the screen in front of each character - telling you about their wacky future.

The foursome of girls in Doctor Detroit are pretty hot (and look great with their awesome â??80s hairstyles), and you got to love whenever Fran Drescher appears in anything from this decade. Just the SHEER IDEA of Fran Drescher is hilarious in its absurdity.

I always thought her first flick was 1989's UHF, but she's apparently been around the block a few times. Also, I remember her as a slutty prostitute in 1990's Cadillac Man, with Robin Williams.

OK, well, she didn't play a prostitute in that but she sure as hell looked like one. What makes everything alright about the group is that the hookers are decent people with good hearts and even their black driver, Diavolo, is a charming, yet wild, person.

This 1983 film was only brought to my attention because of the killer Devo song, single, and video of the title track that I caught on one of their tapes in the late '90s. I even bought the 12â?? single.

I never even had heard of this film at the time; did they ever play it on TV back then? I doubt it. But, man I can imagine that the critics had a field day with this. Oh well, I liked it.