Death Becomes Her (1992) on Netflix
Madeline Ashton, an aging actress, marries Ernest Menville, the fiancé of her rival Helen Sharp. Years on, Helen returns slim, glamorous and youthful, and Madeline is desperate to match her.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.7/10151,992 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes58%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1978, Madeline Ashton, an aging actress in a poorly received Broadway musical, invites her long-time friend and rival, aspiring writer Helen Sharp, backstage with Helen's fiancé, the plastic surgeon Ernest Menville. Ernest becomes smitten with Madeline and breaks off his engagement to marry her. Years later, Madeline is unhappy about her fading beauty and career, while Ernest works as a reconstructive mortician. Invited to a party for Helen's new book, Madeline finds Helen slim, glamorous and youthful. Desperate to look younger, Madeline takes the card of Lisle Von Rhuman, a socialite who specializes in rejuvenation, and visits her mansion. Lisle, who claims to be 71, offers a potion promising eternal life and youth. Madeline drinks it.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Death Becomes Her (1992)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
It was the first film to use CGI skin texture, in the shot where Madeline resets her neck; the sequences where her head is dislocated and facing the wrong way combined chroma key, an animatronic model created by Amalgamated Dynamics and prosthetic make-up on Meryl Streep.- In the scene where Helen and Madeline are battling with shovels, Meryl Streep accidentally cut Goldie Hawn's face, leaving a faint scar.
SPOILER
The original ending was entirely redone after test audiences reacted unfavourably: it had Ernest meeting a bartender named Toni (Tracey Ullman) who helps him fake his death, with the couple found living happily 27 years later. Zemeckis thought it too happy and chose the darker ending.- The digital advancements pioneered on Death Becomes Her were carried into Industrial Light and Magic's next project, Jurassic Park, released only a year later; the two films also shared cinematographer Dean Cundey and production designer Rick Carter.
- Kevin Kline was the first choice to play Dr. Ernest Menville but fell out of the project over a pay dispute with the studio, and Jeff Bridges and Nick Nolte were both considered before Bruce Willis was eventually cast.
- Streep disliked working on a project that focused so heavily on special effects and vowed never to work on another film with heavy effects, saying: "My first, my last, my only. I think it's tedious."
- In Taipei the film set a box-office record by earning $269,310 in two days, the "biggest opening ever" for overseas distributor United International Pictures.
