The Danny DeVito Comedy That Brian De Palma Regrets Making

Brian De Palma, the director behind Carrie, Scarface and The Untouchables, was sometimes criticized for “borrowing” from more accomplished directors like Alfred Hitchcock and Jean-Luc Godard. But he was a favorite of Roger Ebert and Pauline Kael, a sought-after director whose visual style led to offers to helm huge Hollywood hits like Fatal Attraction, Flashdance and Taxi Driver, according to ScreenRant. 

De Palma, though, told Business Insider he had no regrets about turning down those smashes. But there is one career move that he’d like to take back. “Now a movie I wish I hadn't done was Wise Guys,” he explained. “The studio changed their minds and didn’t want to make it. They just wanted us to go away. I should have just taken my money and walked instead of dealing with a studio that didn’t want to make the movie.”

The screwball plot of Wise Guys is comically convoluted so let’s keep it to this: Danny DeVito and Joe Piscopo play two low-level mobsters and best pals who eventually are contracted to kill one another. Comedy stuff happens, as they say.  

Despite De Palma’s regrets, some thought Wise Guys was pretty good. Ebert gave it three-and-a-half stars, calling it “an abundant movie, filled with ideas and gags and great characters. It never runs dry. It never has the desperation of so many gangster comedies, which seem to be marching over the same tired ground. This movie was made with joy, and you can feel it in the sense of all the actors working at the top of their form.”

Ebert reserved special praise for De Palma. “I wouldn’t have suspected that he had this comedy in him,” wrote the critic. “Now here’s this polished, confident comedy that never seems to go wrong.”

So what’s the problem? Ebert was in the minority, for one. Wise Guys sits at a lousy 31 percent on Rotten Tomatoes. Most reviews from forgotten 1980s comedies don’t make their way online, but Rotten Tomatoes’ critic blurbs provide the general consensus:

• “A lame Mob comedy, proving Piscopo is not movie material.”
• “Brian De Palma, who made some funny movies years ago, seems to have lost his touch.”
• “A waste of celluloid.”

But De Palma’s real issue seems to be with the studio. MGM clearly lost interest in the film after it inked the contracts, and the director could see the writing on the wall. What’s the use of pouring your heart and soul into a movie only to discover MGM had no interest in promoting it? Good or bad, a movie without studio backing is unlikely to find an audience. 

It’s either that or De Palma really hated working with Joe Piscopo.