Purely Joyful Movie!

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

Nasty shrew Enid (marvelously essayed with lip-smacking venomous aplomb by Maureen Mueller) catches her long-suffering police officer husband Harry (a sound performance by the always engaging Judge Reinhold) doing just what you think with her sweet, ditsy sister June (a terrific portrayal by Elizabeth Perkins). June accidentally kills Enid in the ensuing fight. Harry and June try to cover up the murder and dispose of Enid's body, which proves to be easier said than done. Director/co-writer Maurice Phillips concocts a deliciously dry'n'deadpan black comedy riot that unfolds at a steady pace, offers a wealth of sidesplitting moments (June's loopy conversations with Enid's corpse are very funny and inspired), and boasts a handful of memorably eccentric secondary characters to keep things lively and enjoyable throughout. The excellent cast has a ball with the wacky material: Reinhold sweats and frets with exquisite eye-rolling panache, Perkins is a screwball treat as she endures one dreadful mishap after another and barely manages to keep hysteria at bay, Jeffrey Jones almost steals the whole show as Harry's eager beaver partner Floyd, Brion James has an uproariously raucous field day as a loutish and disgusting drunken truck driver, plus there are nifty bits by Rhea Perlman as snippy dispatcher Mavis, Michael J. Pollard as a flaky late-night motel manager, Charles Tyner as an ornery old coot, and Henry Jones as a doddery elderly gas station attendant. The New Mexico setting adds extra regional flavor to the infectiously kooky proceedings. Craig Safan's jaunty, twangy score likewise further enhances the quirkily macabre merriment. Alfonso Beato's crisp cinematography gives the picture an attractive bright look. A real hoot.

Dark comedy with a too-familiar premise: woman catches her husband in bed with her sister and, after a scuffle, thinks she's killed her. She and her cheating husband attempt to dispose the body but come up against many screwball obstacles. Despite good leads Elizabeth Perkins and Judge Reinhold, the picture falls flat. It tries hard, but flails about. The script had possibilities, despite the overall feel of been-here-done-this, and the director can't work up much originality with such a slim budget. Disappointing and lackluster unreleased theatrical film was mentioned in the trades for a few years (always with a different title) and finally made it to video in 1990. *1/2 from ****

Apparently, it is impossible to buy a copy of this superb dark comedy, which is available for rent from some video stores under the title "Over Her Dead Body." This is a shame, because I am a devotee of dark comedies, and this is my all-time favorite, bar none. The hi-jinks mix with pathos in a most rib-tickling way in this film. Truly, if you don't laugh at loud at least a few times during this movie, you'd better check to see whether you, yourself, may be saddled with a dead body (your own)!

This is sort of a distaff "Weekend at Bernie's", only it's set in small-town New Mexico and there are cops instead of crooks. It ends up being darker and drier. "Bernie's" may be wackier, but this film is funnier in the long run, I think.Elizabeth Perkins is a platinum blonde this time out, and looks even cuter than she usually does. She's a winning comedienne and is well teamed with Judge Reinhold and Jeffrey Jones. They could have been Lamour, Hope and Crosby starring in "The Road to Roswell" but thankfully that's a bit of New Mexico we don't get to see for a change.Once upon a time, the inconvenience of a dead body was considered a topic worthy of the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, in one of his rare comedies, "The Trouble With Harry" ("Is He's Dead"), and more recently it has been a lesser plot point for the National Lampoon in the original and still riotous "Vacation".Live comics stiff all the time, but dead ones are always good for a laugh.