Mistress is a 1992 comedy film starring Robert Wuhl, Robert De Niro and Martin Landau, directed and co-written by Barry Primus.
Marvin Landisman (Wuhl) is a down-on-his-luck screenwriter who has resorted to making instructional videos. One day he gets a call from big producer Jack Roth (Landau) who likes his script and wants to film it. However, he hits a lot of roadblocks making the film as producers, agents and executives want to make changes to it. After much deliberation, Marvin is forced to make compromises.
This film provides examples of:
- Black Comedy: The film is a brutal satire on the film-making process in Hollywood.
- Book Ends: The film begins and ends with him getting a call from Jack while watching an old foreign film play on a projector.
- *Click* Hello: Stuart Stratland, Sr. pulls this on Junior and Marvin when they're fighting.
- The Corruptible: Marvin starts agreeing with what the studio wants with his film.
- Dirty Old Man: All three men who are interested in the film want to make it so they can get their mistresses to star in it.
- Dreadful Musician: Peggy, who proves to be a terrible singer when she auditions for the role of the painter's model.
- Driven to Suicide:
- An actor named Warren who worked on a film of Marvin's jumps off a roof after Marvin decides to change the ending. inspired Marvin to write a screenplay about a painter who does the same.
- Marvin considers overdosing on pills, but thinks better of it as he decides he's no better than Warren.
- Executive Meddling: In-universe: the producers and agents tamper with Marvin's script so that it reaches a wider audience. By the third act, Marvin has left the script in other people's hands and hasn't even read the final version. Executive meddling is also the reason why Warren killed himself.
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: Jack has a reputation for having been one of the biggest executives at Universal Pictures, but now he's just a washout.
- My Greatest Failure: Marvin considers an actor's suicide to be this.
- Old Shame: In-universe: The script that the film focuses on is the one that Marvin and Rachel worked on together. Rachel considers it to be this for her.
- Starving Artist: Played straight and deconstructed with Marvin. He believes in his artistic vision, but he's living like a college student, to paraphrase his wife, and he's incredible self-absorbed.
- Women Are Wiser: Rachel is much more grounded than Marvin.
- Yes-Man: Stuart is this at first to the producers, but then grows out of this when Marvin starts agreeing with the producers' ideas. Then Stuart starts changing the script without Marvin's permission.
