Küss mich, Doc

When I was younger, this was one of my favorite movies. Don't ask why... just accept it. I remembered the little things. Michael McKean cutting out the pinatas appendix as a child. The kids imitating Sean Young as she goes into convulsions during a dance class. Gary Friedkin trying to hang up the phone (he's a 'little person'... you know the scene.) The Philadelphia F'in Philharmonic. Harry Dean Stanton... as though you need anything more, right?

I bought a used copy in the late 90s and watched it again... oh boy... nowhere near the film I thought it was. Then I realized it followed up Airplane! and several other like-minded spoofs of the day. It was confused in a lot of ways, as though it wanted to be raunchy but wasn't sure how to do it.

I still like the film in bits... some of them are genuinely funny. But as others said, it has a genuine sitcom feel to it. This is Marshall's first film after having worked in television for over 20 years and considering his track record since, you can tell he learned a few things from this film. After this, he went on to make Pretty Woman, the Runaway Bride, and Frankie & Johnny, all of which are decent films. Of course he also directed Exit to Eden (Rosie O'Donnell and Dan Aykroyd in bondage-wear? OUCH!) but we'll forgive him for that...

A friend of mine knew I loved the movies "Repossessed" and "Silence of the Hams" along with the Zucker and Brooks films and introduced me to this one. Just as funny as those, this movie struck me with having just as many of the stars of the day as well as several up and coming future stars such as Ted McGinley, Richard Dean Anderson, Crystal Bernard, Rick Overton, Saul Rubinek and Michael Richards as a very Krameresque hit-man trying to bump off a underworld figure in the hospital. The main plot isn't as good as the sub-plots, but there's also some light nudity in order to really get your attention. Some of the jokes were later stolen to use in other parodies, but I was surprised to see an "E.T." reference since I was sure this movie predated that one. I don't know if this was shown theatrically, but I do consider myself lucky enough to find it on tape.

Dr. Joseph Prang (Dabney Coleman) teaches the new batch of interns at City Hospital for the next twelve months. A mob boss in hiding has a heart attack. Angelo (Hector Elizondo) takes him to the hospital in disguise while hunted by a hit-man (Michael Richards). Intern Phil Burns (Taylor Negron) likes hard-nosed head nurse Norine Sprockett (Pamela Reed). Popular intern Dr. Bucky DeVol (Ted McGinley) falls for hooker Julie. Intern Dr. Stephanie Brody (Sean Young) is suffering from mysterious pains. Dr. Simon August (Michael McKean) is cold but can't help falling for Stephanie. He is desperate to be a surgeon but can't stand the sight of blood.

This Garry Marshall movie is part spoof of a soap opera like General Hospital in the vein of 'Airplane!'. There are some funny bits. I still remember the urine scene. However, the comedic jokes don't come quite as fast and furious as 'Airplane!'. It's pretty broad but not all of it works. The cameos don't work on me since I don't watch soap operas. Sean Young is great and her character is classic soap material. Michael McKean is less capable as a leading man. He doesn't have charisma. His character is suppose to be stiff but it doesn't work if the actor is too good at it. Overall, this needs more jokes.

Young Doctors in Love reminds me of the early 80s comedies Meatballs, Johnny Dangerously, and Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid. Spoof comedies that, despite the abundance of gags and running gags, just can't quite seem to match the comedic brilliance of something like Airplane. Although, Young Doctors in Love certainly fares better than some of the others, it too, offers humor that may wear thin after several viewings (Airplane, on the other hand seems to remain of timeless quality).

The film follows a handful of med school interns, although the movie itself really focuses on 1) the relationship between the emotionally void Dr. Simon August (Michael McKean) and the melodramatic, and soon-to-ailing love interest, Dr. Stephanie Brody (Sean Young); 2) the bizarre budding relationship between Dr. Phil Burns (played by the hilarious 80s bit-part regular, Taylor Negron) and the somewhat held-back but probably secretly kinky Nurse Norine Sprockett (Pamela Reed); and 3) my particular favorite, the interaction between Dr. Charles Litto and Angelo Bonafetti (played famously by Hector Elizando who's best was the deadpan delivery of "I used to play guitar and then I broke it over my brothers head and then I went to work"), a mobster who disguises himself as a woman to get his father in the hospital who is meanwhile always unsuccessfully threatened to be bumped off by his mafia rival, Malamud Callahan (played by a young Michael Richards).

There is a lot of course going on in the film, and it even uses the old PA background gags like we heard in Airplane and Meatballs. And it does have it's funny moments. But, as a mild spoof comedy of medical soap operas using humor that is somewhat outdated (on the order of like old dirty-joke joke books), it may best be reserved for the spoof cult crowd who can appreciate it best. If nothing else, tune it in to see big names in the old days (like Dabney Coleman, Harry Dean Stanton, Billie Bird, and more).

In the tradition of other spoof movies, "Young Doctors in Love", a skewering of medical soap operas such as 'General Hospital', is the kind of thing that does require some attention to be paid, as there's a fair amount of detail to its presentation. It's handled by a group of TV veterans - Garry Marshall made his theatrical directing debut here, and the writers are Michael Elias and Rich Eustis, who also pack the movie with cameos by actual soap opera actors (you get to see a very young Demi Moore, who at the time was on GH). The main story line is of an arrogant, insufferable prick, Simon August (Michael McKean) who wants to be a top surgeon but who is scarred by a childhood prank, and the fellow doctor he loves, Stephanie Brody (Sean Young, looking just beautiful) and attempts to save after realizing she needs special surgery. Some gags are good, such as the pitiful fate of terminally unlucky hit man Malamud (Michael Richards, long before 'Seinfeld'), although it's some of the throwaway gags and lines that are the funniest. References to pop culture of the time are there, such as a line involving "E.T.". There's also the standard device of the popular man-in-drag idea as gangster Hector Elizondo (who as we all know became Marshall's good luck charm in all of his movies) disguises as a woman in order to smuggle his sickly dad (Titos Vandis), who's been targeted by other mob families, into the hospital. There aren't many performers here who did little else of note, and people will have a high old time noting all of the familiar faces. Ted McGinley, Taylor Negron, and Rick Overton are among the group of doctors, Dabney Coleman is the stressed out guy in charge, Patrick Macnee is utterly wasted in a next to nothing part, Crystal Bernard is an underage prostitute, Harry Dean Stanton is the expert in tasting bodily fluids, and Pamela Reed the dorky nurse who blossoms when she thinks Negron's doctor is interested in her (really, he just wants the key to the drug cabinet). It's a bit of a revelation that this first effort from Marshall is so unabashedly R rated with its sexual jokes and liberal use of profanity. It's not always terribly successful, but it does generate a pretty respectable amount of genuine laughs. What's amusing is the device it employs at the end, which we see sometimes in film, when the fates of the characters after the events of the movie are revealed, and the actors also get a roll call as well, which is nice. While "Young Doctors in Love" doesn't set off any real comedy fireworks, it's still not bad at all, and does present a respectable effort to go for a certain zaniness, even if it's not on the level of a "Blazing Saddles", "Young Frankenstein", or "Naked Gun". Generally likable. Seven out of 10.