FEEBLE ATTRACTION

FATAL ATTRACTION (1987)
dir: Adrian Lyne

FEEBLE ATTRACTION
MAD #279, June 1988
w: Stan Hart
a: Mort Drucker

Thriller about Dan (Michael Douglas), a lawyer for a publishing company, who has an affair one weekend with Alex (Glenn Close) and makes her pregnant, and she becomes obsessed with him, threatening to kill him and herself, and taking his ignoring her out on his family. He also has a dog.

At the beginning, you see his happy home life in New York City with his wife Beth (Anne Archer) and daughter. She goes away for the weekend to see the home upstate they'll be moving to. When she's away, Dan goes in to work and runs into Alex at a meeting, having previously met her at a work party. After they share lunch they hit it off, go to her loft, and their affair begins.

The labels on things are all titles or puns on titles of movies Michael Douglas or his father previously appeared in.

Dan tries to leave after sex but she won't let him. She gets upset and slashes her wrists and he stays to take care of her and make sure she doesn't do anything more drastic. He returns home as does his wife who doesn't suspect a thing. Back at work, Alex keeps calling him and he keeps trying to avoid her. She accosts him coming home on the subway to tell him she's pregnant and he's the father.

Not shown here: Alex befriends Dan's wife and buys their apartment.

Dan and his family have moved into their house. He got his daughter a pet rabbit like he promised, and one day Beth comes home to find a pot of boiling water with the rabbit in it. Dan reveals that he had an affair with Alex and they separate. Beth goes to school to pick up their daughter who's missing. She drives through town looking for her. The daughter was picked up by Alex who takes her to an amusement park. Beth is distraught being unable to find the daughter and gets into an accident.

Dan and Beth have reconciled, and while Beth is showering, Alex breaks in and tries to kill her. There is now a three-way fight, Dan drowns Alex in the bathtub, she comes back to life, and Beth shoots her. Now Dan and Beth return back to domestic life.