Down and Out in Beverly Hills

Down and Out in Beverly Hills is an updated remake of the 1932 Jean Renoir film Boudu Saved From Drowning. Philandering businessman Dave Whiteman (Richard Dreyfuss) rescues scraggly tramp Jerry Baskin (Nick Nolte) from drowning himself in Dave's swimming pool. Much against his will, Jerry is invited ...more

Renoir's Boudu Saved From Drowning is the ostensible source of Paul Mazursky's hilarious satire of Beverly Hills affluence, but it seems much more like a comic version of Pasolini's Teorema. The story centers on Jerry (Nick Nolte), a homeless man who is prevented from drowning himself in a Beverly Hills swimming pool by its owner Dave Richard Dreyfuss. Dave takes in the stranger, and it soon appears that Jerry is the answer to every family member's prayers. Mazursky's dissection of upper crust ...more