The Boss' Wife

This movie is one of my all time favorite light comedy offerings. Christopher Plummer is a master as the neurotic Mr. Roalvang who simply cannot bear to be challenged. He is able to cause his wimpy employee, Daniel Stern, to succumb to his demands by confronting him with a question: "Are you challenging me, Smokey?" Another absolute comic genius is Martin Mull, who becomes more obnoxious the harder he tries to be the favored employee, Tony Dugdale. But none of these three men can deal with the problems caused by the overly, overtly, demandingly erotic Mrs. Roalvang (Arielle Dombasle).

Much of the action takes place on a train, or there are references to trains. Mr. Roalvang even has his lunch delivered on an electric toy train. There is a great scene when Mrs. Roalvang does her bombastic walk through the train station.

The writing is terrific. The actors are great. I have to watch it at least once a year for a laugh fix. I rank it with "Long, Long, Trailer" or "Mr. Blanding's Builds His Dream House."

Joel Keefer (Daniel Stern) and Janet Keefer (Melanie Mayron) are a married couple having trouble conceiving. He's a busy low level stockbroker. Louise Roalvang (Arielle Dombasle) is the wife of the boss Mr. Roalvang (Christopher Plummer) who loves image above skills. Tony Dugdale (Martin Mull) is the top analyst despite his incompetence due to Roalvang loving his hair. Joel takes on Tony which gets heated when a department head job opens up. They are going to a resort to battle it out. Carlos Delgado (Fisher Stevens) is an outrageous experimental artist.

This comedy starts fine. I like the couple initially but he starts to annoy me over time. I generally like Daniel Stern, but he is too bumbling and he's a big jerk to Janet in one scene. If he's being idiotic, there's less reason to pick him for the job. He is still much better than the annoying Fisher Stevens. This comedy rises and falls on Joel's likeability. I don't think I like him. He needs to be much nicer to Janet.

The Boss' Wife is one of a very long line of 80's sex comedy farces, in which the title and poster told you everything you needed to know. These movies always had a nymphomaniac woman who seems hell bent on coming onto an average Joe type character. With the added complication that the guy was married, she was or both are in this movie. And she is obviously his bosses wife, further adding to the tension and providing the name of the movie.

The narrative is obvious, a guy has a promotion on the line and his boss has invited him to a social weekend to talk business, but the bosses wife has other ideas. This is your typical farce type of humour, much like that found in Frasier, of ridiculous situations, in that case of a sexual nature. This movie is so cliched that you even know exactly what moves the bosses wife will try on the average joe character while seated at the dinner table. There is some nudity thrown in, some bad accents and uncomfortable scenes, however it does actually fire along at a face pace. Its very much a movie of its time and there is no pretence its anything other than advertised. Its an average 80's movie that has the feel of a TV movie, particularly as the opening credits roll with a font I haven't seen since Heart to Heart. Watchable if you want to watch an 80's movie about a nymphomaniac bosses wife from the 80's, because that is exactly what it is.

It's been a while since i have seen this movie, but i loved it & i personally think it's hilarious!!! Daniel Stern, Christopher Plummer, Fisher Stevens & Ariele Dombasle all turn in great performances!!!

The scenes which i remember the most are, the one where Fisher Stevens who plays an enthusiastic Photographer is giving Miss Dombasle a massage outside the window while Daniel Stern is sitting on Christopher Plummer's couch ( His Boss ) nervously eating crisps & Mr Plummer has his back to the window, so he doesn't know what is going on lol!!! That was hilarious!!! The scene at the dinner table which involved what i think was either a piece of butter or soft cheese & Miss Dombasle puts it down her bra & replaces it on the table, right in front of everyone, her husband ( The Boss ) is way too busy talking to notice this, at this point Plummer says something about making quite an impression lol!!! She also has her foot under tha table between Sterns legs in this scene!!! It's classic stuff!!!

Fisher Stevens also has a Dog called TIGHT ASS LOL!!! Miss Dombasle also disrobes a lot in this movie as she is trying to seduce Sterns character, she is certainly a sight for sore eyes!!!

I just hope it gets a dvd release soon, i believe it was released by Fox on video so it should do at some point!!! This movie is seriously underated & i'm pretty sure not many people have even heard of it or seen it, it's a pity!!!

I mean look how many reviews there are on here for it, hardly any!!! It deserved more attention that what it got!!!

Like any other good farce, the characters in this film represent extremes: the boss (Plummer) is REALLY eccentric and REALLY blind to his wife's behavior; his wife (Dombasle) is RELENTLESSLY seductive and sexual; the photographer (Delgado) sees the EXTREME anger he deliberately arouses in people as affirmation of his art; Daniel Stern is climbing the walls to have sex with his wife (Mayron), but can't, since they have to wait until she's at her most fertile (making the advances on him by Dombasle that much funnier, since he has no choice but to resist her constantly); Martin Mull is the CONSUMMATE yes-man, clawing his way up the corporate ladder. Character development? Who needs it? THE BOSS' WIFE isn't trying to be CITIZEN KANE; it's just a very funny movie. And it's NOT slapstick, despite what others might tell you.