Tootsie

Tootsie Movie Poster

"What do you get when you cross a hopelessly straight, starving actor with a dynamite red sequined dress?  You get Amercia's hotest new actress".  Tootsie, starring Dustin Hoffman as Michael Dorsey (Dorothy Michaels), Dabney Coleman as Ron Carlisle, Jessica Lange as Julie Nichols, Terri Garr as Sandra Lester, and Bill Murray as Jeff Slater, was a comedy released in 1982.  The movie was a huge success, not only getting huge marks from critics like Roger Ebert, but also earning big bucks at the box office.  The movie was the second highest earner of 1982 next to E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.  The movie is still considered to be one of the greatest comedies ever released.

In this movie, Michael Dorsey (Hoffman) stars as a respected, but quick-tongued actor who is having trouble finding work due to his attitude.  After months without work, Michael learns about a female part in a soap opera that was open to auditions.  Realizing he was going to get nowhere in his current state, he decides to dress in drag and try out for the part as Dorothy Michaels.  He gets the part, and decides to attack it with gusto in an effort to raise enough cash to allow his friend Jeff (Murray) to produce a play called Return to Love Canal.  It does not take long before Dorothy Michaels becomes a hit, and in an effort to disguise his second identity, he ends up romantically involved with his friend, Sandra (Garr).  In the meantime, however, Michael is secretly in love with Julie (Lange), who he manipulates under the guise of Dorothy.  To complicate matters further, not only is Julie is having romantic feelings for Michael as Dorothy, but Dorothy has a number of male suitors as well.

In the end, Michael manages to get himself off of the soap opera by pretending to be Dorothy’s twin brother, who assumed her identify (on the show) to seek revenge.  Once all his friends find out that Dorothy was actually Michael, things do not go so well at first, especially with Julie.  Eventually, Jeff’s play is produced and Julie and Michael make up, with Michael saying "I was a better man with you as a woman than I ever was with a woman as a man”.