Another You(1991)

After going along with the Abe Fielding identity for a couple of days – which sees him meeting Abe’s wife, Elaine (Mercedes Ruehl), as well as Dibbs (Stephen Lang), the business manager of the Fielding Brewery – George (Gene Wilder) loses his courage to keep lying after Eddie (Richard Pryor) suddenly ditches him one night to go look for some action in the city (having earlier been given some money from Dibbs when he had requested it from him, in addition to a credit card with Fielding’s name on it). He thus talks to Elaine – while keeping himself from looking at her the whole time – and tells her that he is going away for good because he doesn’t want to be in this house alone with her, and he can’t bring himself to look at her because he fears that, if he does, he will never leave. He then explains to her that she reminds him of a girl that he was once in love with, but he got her to love him by lying to her and he doesn’t want to do the same thing with her. He proceeds to tells her that his name is George and that he is a Volvo salesman before stepping out the front door, and though Elaine asks him to give her one last kiss goodbye, he can’t bring himself to do it and flees the property. He re-admits himself back into the Rivington Clinic and back into the therapy group that he was a part of before he left, and he tells his therapist all about what he just went through. The therapist tells him that he actually did an admirable job because he was totally honest with Elaine and he chose to leave her rather than lie to her.

We then see a crying Elaine with Dibbs in his office, and we find out that her real name is Mimi Kravitz and that she is an actress/singer that was hired by Dibbs to pretend to be Elaine Fielding in order to entice George to want to be Abe, which is all part of a scheme that he has been cooking up (more on that later). He tells her that he wants George back to continue to play the role because of the fact that he is a pathological liar, but Elaine doesn’t want to subject George to this any further, having come to feel sorry for him and having recognized that he was a little sweet on her. Dibbs tells Elaine to take another crack at being Abe’s wife, but she replies that George is never going to come back without Eddie. Dibbs informs her that he already fixed this by having Eddie arrested for “stealing” Abe’s credit card. Later, Dibbs approaches Eddie in his cell and tells him that, in exchange for him bailing him out and giving him a $10,000 payment, he must bring George back to the mansion and have him be Abe again for one week, and he also explains another part of his scam by informing Eddie that the key people in Abe’s life that he and George have already met at this point are just actors that he hired to play those roles. Eddie decides to take the job.

Eddie picks up George from the clinic and takes him back to Abe’s mansion in his car, but after they reach the front door, Eddie tells George to stay put while he goes in to speak to Elaine first and “pave the way” for him. When Eddie meets with her in the bedroom, she tells him that she knows that he is in on Dibbs’ scheme now, and when she asks him what he wants, he tells her that he thinks that George is in love with her and he is waiting to see her now. He then gets George’s attention from the window and tells him to come on up, and once he reaches the bedroom, Eddie excuses himself so George and Elaine can talk alone. George proceeds to tell Elaine that the two of them had something together, and now, he wants to stay here with her. He soon tells her that he wants to know all about her and vows to romance her and win her over. Meanwhile, Eddie goes to Dibbs’ office to have a meeting with him, in the process becoming acquainted with Dibbs’ secretary, Gloria (Vanessa Williams), and he successfully asks her out on a date. When he meets with Dibbs, Dibbs explains his entire scheme to him: Abe Fielding died five months ago, and though he and everyone else at the brewery assumed that he would inherit the business after Abe’s death, he found out that Fielding had an illegitimate son, Abe Jr., out there in the world somewhere, which would make him the true inheritor. He went out looking for Abe Jr., but by the time he found him, he discovered that he had died just ten minutes beforehand. Knowing that Fielding’s estate would go into probate if someone found out about Abe Jr.’s death, he decided that he needed to convince someone to pose as Abe Jr. to prevent this. This is what led him to find and select George for the deception, thinking that, because he had a history of being a pathological liar, he would take on the identity willingly. Dibbs then doctored up a photograph of George and Elaine together and hired the actors he hired in order to make the deception seem more real.

That Saturday night, George takes Elaine on a date to an Austrian restaurant after figuring out that she shares his interests in yodeling and Austrian food, and she falls for him after he has her join him in a yodeling performance there. Afterwards, they return to the mansion and sleep together. Eddie goes on his date with Gloria that same night, and the two of them wind up developing a mutual attraction to each other. The next day, Eddie and Elaine take George to the dentist on Dibbs’ orders because Dibbs told them that he wanted to see George’s dental charts, and when they get George to the dentist, they end up sitting in the waiting room for him to return. However, while they are waiting, they listen in on two patients talking about a recent airplane crash and how all of the passengers died and their bodies were charred beyond recognition, but they will be identified through their dental records. After hearing this, Eddie and Elaine quickly come to believe that, contrary to what Dibbs told them in that George would not be harmed at all, Dibbs had them bring George here so George’s teeth could be altered to look like the late Abe Jr.’s teeth, then have him killed and buried as Abe Jr. so that he can inherit the Fielding Brewery without trouble. They find the room that George is in and get him out of there, and later on, they pay a visit to Dibbs in his office and accuse him of plotting to murder George. Dibbs denies it, and when Elaine asks him why she and Eddie had to take George to all of the doctors and dentists that they have been to lately, Dibbs replies that it had to be established that he was Abe Fielding and that there are certain financial transactions that he can’t make unless Abe is alive. After he accuses Elaine of being ungrateful for being hired by him, Elaine tells him that she is done with him and heads for the door, but Eddie stops her from leaving and tells her that Dibbs is just trying to reassure her that nothing terrible is going to befall George. Dibbs asks her why this is any business of hers anyway, and she replies that she is making it her business, and Dibbs then accuses her of being in love with George. Eddie tells Elaine to go out to his car and wait for him, but after she goes, Dibbs reveals to Eddie that he actually does want George dead and asks him to dispose of him. Eddie is not comfortable with this idea, reminding Dibbs that he is a con man and not a hitman, but Dibbs persuades him to do it by letting him set his own fee for carrying out the murder.

The following day, Eddie takes George out to Fielding Pass so they can go on a duck hunting trip with Dibbs. Shortly after they meet with Dibbs at a hunting lodge there, he informs them that he won’t be joining them, citing that an unexpected emergency has come up at the brewery that he needs to attend to. Before George and Eddie leave the lodge, Dibbs gives George a hunting jacket to wear, but we see that Dibbs has planted a small listening device inside the collar. As George and Eddie go walking through the woods, Eddie claims that he hears a bear (which is the excuse he and Dibbs planned to have him say so he could shoot George and claim that it was an accident) and starts to load his shotgun. However, the plan goes awry when a real black bear appears behind him. George tries to befriend the bear, but the frightened Eddie makes ready to shoot it. George approaches him and pleads with him to not do that, but the next thing we see is Dibbs still listening in on everything that is going on with them and then the shotgun going off twice. In the following scene, Dibbs is in his office handing Eddie and all of the other actors their payments, and he informs them that the memorial service for “Abe Fielding” will be held this afternoon in the Fielding Chapel located inside the brewery, and he wants them all to be there for it so they can continue to play up the charade.

At the memorial service, we see George lying in the coffin, and we see the actors among the mourners along with George’s therapist and the therapy group that he was a part of. After Dibbs eulogizes “Abe”, Gloria approaches him and tells him that there is an extremely urgent phone call for him, but when he steps outside the chapel, he is suddenly seized by an unknown man (soon revealed to be a mobster named Carlos [Gianni Russo] that Eddie personally knows). Eddie then starts to eulogize “Abe”, but moments later, Elaine shows up for the service in tears and scowls at Eddie for what he has (supposedly) done, having been informed about it after it happened. Suddenly, to everyone’s confusion and surprise, George starts yodeling and rises up out of the coffin, clearly having faked his death. As the mourners react with utter shock and the actors react with confusion because they think that this is a scripted event that they were not made aware of, Eddie leaves and confronts Dibbs, who is now gagged and tied up on a chair in a nearby office with Carlos standing close to him. Carlos removes the tape covering Dibbs’s mouth, and when Dibbs demands to know from Eddie what he is doing, Eddie soon lets him know that he did not murder George. However, what he did do was secretly record Dibbs on tape during their previous two meetings telling him about his conspiracy to commit murder against George, and he shows him the tapes as well as a confidential file that he got a hold of that proves that George is Abe Fielding (and back at the funeral, George tells Elaine when she awakens that he and Eddie worked out the plan to fake his death and expose Dibbs while they were on their way to Fielding Pass). Eddie then has Carlos wheel Dibbs back out to the service to show him that George is alright, and when Dibbs brings up that he saw George lying on a slab in the morgue, Carlos explains that the morgue attendant owed Eddie a favor and made George to look like he was dead. As George starts to explain to the people what is going on, Dibbs manages to get back inside, and after security gets him out of the chair, he tells everyone that George is not Abe Fielding before demanding for George’s therapist to confirm that. However, the therapist tells him that he told him that he IS Abe Fielding, and when Dibbs then challenges anyone to say that he is not Fielding, the actors continue to play their roles and yell out that George truly is Fielding.

Following a short but loud argument with the actors and mourners, Dibbs approaches George, Eddie, Elaine, Gloria, and Carlos and insincerely apologizes to them and admits defeat to them before asking them to join him in “Abe’s” office for a beer so they can bury the hatchet. However, after he escorts George out of the room first, he barricades the door to keep everyone else trapped in there and then chases after George, intending to kill him himself. Everyone in the chapel smashes the door open by using George’s casket as a battering ram and then follow after them. Dibbs catches up to George at one of the beer vats and throws him into it, then locks the doors, turns on the mixers, and raises the temperature in the vat in the hope that that will kill him. Fortunately, Eddie, Elaine, and Gloria find him while he is in the middle of executing this crime, and Eddie grabs a full beer bottle, sneaks up behind him, and breaks it over his head to knock him senseless. He, Elaine, and Gloria then frantically shut down the machinery and get George out before he can drown.

As the rest of the crowd finally catches up to everyone, two police officers seize Dibbs and place him under arrest. However, as he gets taken away, he tells George that, if he lies about being Abe Fielding now, he will be lying about it for the rest of his life. George asks Elaine if she will ever be able to believe him again if he doesn’t tell the truth right now, and she replies that she loves him. George thus stands up on top of the beer vat and announces to the assembly that Dibbs was telling the truth about him; he IS a pathological liar. He also admits to having spent the last three years in a sanitarium, previously worked as a Volvo dealer, and that his name truly is George. However, the people think that he is just joking around and decide to start calling him “George”. George gets down from the vat and shakes Eddie’s hand before kissing Elaine, and Eddie and Gloria share a kiss as well.

The movie ends with George, Eddie, Elaine, and Gloria out in Hawaii, where we find out that George and Elaine have just gotten married. The movie ends with George and Eddie taking a picture with each other while George holds a sign in front of them saying “Partners Forever”, an indication that Eddie has become a co-owner of the Fielding Brewery with him.