Doctor Detroit

In one of many goofy roles, Dan Aykroyd plays uptight Prof. Clifford Skridlow, who finds a new lease on life when he poses as a pimp. "Doctor Detroit" is mostly an excuse for a series of silly situations, but they know how to make it funny. No, this isn't his best movie, but he always has some gags up his sleeve, and the movie isn't pretending to be anything that it isn't. Aykroyd would play a similar role in 1988's "The Couch Trip", but this is the original.

So, even if this movie can only be classified as "cute", then so be it. Dan Aykroyd will always be a comic genius, with or without John Belushi. Also starring Donna Dixon (whom Aykroyd married soon after this movie) and Fran Drescher.

Dan Ackroyd in his prime essays the role of DOCTOR DETROIT, a comic superpimp. In his regular life, Doctor Detroit is a meek college professor right out of a Golden Era slapstick comedy like Cary Grant in "Bringing Up Baby" or Gary Cooper in "Ball of Fire" or even Danny Kaye in the remake, "A Song Is Born." Why and how the professor turns into this larger-than-life, scratchy-voiced pimp is what the movie is all about. And in the end, the Doctor must face down Mom, a notorious gangster. Problem with the movie is Ackroyd was not scheduled to play the role. If memory serves, it was John Belushi, who had died rather suddenly. So Ackroyd steps in to save the day, except he simply isn't funny as the Doctor. He is fine as the professor, however. Ackroyd's soon-to-be, real-life wife Donna Dixon is his love interest.

In this move, Aykroyd presents a fresh look at what makes a man tick, his desires, feeling, emotions and passions. Aykroyd plays Clifford Skridlow, a somewhat nerdish college professor who is timid and mildly neruotic. This character speaks to a lot of us as we walk our way through life, often unnoticed and unsatisfied with our interactions with others. Longing for nothing but happiness, we weave our way through the obstacles of life much as Clifford rushes through the quad on the way to class, taunted and laughed at by the students surrounding him. But this isn't just another movie designed to identify with unsatisfied loners.

While enjoying dinner at an Indian Restauraunt (symbolizing the social and cultural diversity of humanity), Clifford is picked out by a local pimp to act as a scapegoat to avoid debt to Mom, of the infamous Mom's Limo Company. How many times have you been picked by those more successful than you to take the blame? It's getting a little to real at this point, as the action picks up it's pace. Clifford must invent an inner personality to cope with the feelings of rejection and hatred, and the character Doctor Detroit is born. He embodies all that Clifford wishes he could be, suave, feared, respected, wealthy, and adored by women. The metal hand on his left arm is a not so subtle attempt to portray the desire of the weak to be strong.

The strong reference to Nietzsche's idea of men rising up from the ashes and becoming a strong race of supermen cannot be ignored at this point, and it's clear that this is more than just a silly comedy. With his newfound alter-ego and inner strength, the doctor conquers evil and saves the day. In a triumphant final speed, the Doctor retires his inner personality encouraging the gathered crowd to be strong and find their own inner selves, while returning to a life of a normal, unknown man.

But what will happen to him? Why did he choose to let his inner self die? Was this a sacrifice, or a lack of courage? What would Nietzsche think about this complex analysis? This movie will leave you asking these any many questions. Highly recommended, especially as an introduction to other great works such as Nietzsche's Beyond Good and Evil.

This is not the type of movie you watch for the clever plot and well-defined characters. This is a cheap, bawdy comic romp to be enjoyed with the fellas at a weekend get-together or at a bachelor party. Where else can you see a nubile young Fran Drescher wearing next to nothing and James Brown urging a crowd of scantily clad dancers to "get up offa that thang" in the same movie?

Nothing wrong with a little mindless entertainment, especially since Dr. Detroit doesn't pretend to be anything else.

DOCTOR DETROIT (1983) **1/2 Dan Aykroyd, Howard Hesseman, Donna Dixon, Fran Drescher, TK Carter, George Furth, James Brown. Aykroyd has a field day as milquetoast college professor who unwittingly is enlisted by a pimp to assume the identity of a ganglord mack daddy as the eponymous not-to-be-trifled man about town. Frequently funny especially his tete a tete with his archenemy, Mom, in a junk yard: `Mom, I'm gonna rip off your head and s**t down your neck!' Brown's appearance livens things up with a neat, goofy dance spotlight for the antic Aykroyd