CLOWN AND LOUT IN BEVERLY HILLS

DOWN AND OUT IN BEVERLY HILLS (1986)
dir: Paul Mazursky

CLOWN AND LOUT IN BEVERLY HILLS
MAD #265, September 1986
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker

Movie about a rich Beverly Hills family and their life temporarily changed by a homeless man attempting suicide in their swimming pool.

Jerry (Nick Nolte) is upset that his dog has run away and runs throughout the streets of Beverly Hills looking for him. Meanwhile, at the home of Dave Whiteman (Richard Dreyfuss), his wife Barbara (Bette Midler) won't make love anymore and is trying to relieve anxieties through whatever the latest new age technique is. His son Max (Evan Richards) has difficulty speaking to him and communicates mostly through videos he makes. (Dave doesn't know Max is androgynous until later in the movie). Daughter Jenny (Tracy Nelson) won't eat, and Dave is having an affair with the maid (Elizabeth Peña).

Their dog keeps accidentally setting off the police alarm and summoning them, and their neighbor (Little Richard) complains he never gets service because he's black.

Enter Jerry, the homeless man who wanders into the Whitemans' yard, and tries to end it all by throwing himself in their pool. They rescue him and let him stay for a while. Initially, Dave is the only member of the family who wants him around, cleaning him up and making him over. Daave also spends the night on the streets with Jerry and his friends. Jerry claims to have had an amazing life before hitting hard times.

Things change when Jerry frees up whatever has been making Barbara uptight all these years, teaches Carmen the maid about communism, gets Max to come out, and makes Jenny fall in love with him. At the Whitemans' big Christmas party, Dave finds out Jerry has been seeing his daughter and this is the last straw. The next day, Jerry reveals his life experience was a lie, and that he'll be on his way. But since he made their life better overall, they ask him to come back.

This was based on the 1919 play and 1932 film Boudu sauvé des eaux (Boudu Saved From Drowning). If you're fluent in French (I'm not) here's the film in its entirety.