The Robert Downey Jr. Film Guide: The Pickup Artist (1987)

A compulsive ladies’ man falls for one girl and together they help her sad sack father get out of a jam with a mobster.

High. This was his first starring role.

Jack Jericho, a young New Yorker who reconsiders his sexually indiscriminate lifestyle after meeting Molly Ringwald.

Young, gap-toothed but pretty good.

Fair. He does the best he can under the circumstances.

Did anyone ever tell you that you have the face of a Botticelli and the body of a Degas?

Blue Suede Shoes, I’m Just a Lonely Boy.

He hooks up with Molly Ringwald but you don’t really see it.

Molly Ringwald, Dennis Hopper, Harvey Keitel

James Toback’s Two Girls and a Guy, Black and White and in The Outsider. Christine Baranski in Bowfinger. Harvey Keitel in The Outsider.

I thought The Pickup Artist would give me a chance to have a real career and it didn’t turn out that way ... When I was shooting The Pickup Artist I was running and jumping and flipping out and [James] Toback would say, “Okay, that was great. Let’s try another. Take ninety!” ... The press kept asking me about legal and moral issues. I’m like, “Come on, man, I just hope it does well at the box office.” Of course it’s a sexually irresponsible film, but if AIDS had happened six months later, maybe the film would have made more than six bucks ... Everyone thought The Pickup Artist must have had heavy sex scenes that were cut. Molly and I only kissed once in the movie. Well, actually, we kissed like forty times for the one scene. That was because Warren Beatty was helping Toback. Beatty’s really knowledgeable in a lot of areas, especially fucking. Especially kissing and making actors do something forty times ... [James Toback] used a lot of humor to get the best from us. After a take, he might tell me, “You suck,” and I could laugh and agree ... We were doing a scene where [Molly Ringwald] is walking away from me and she drops a bottle of [antacid]. I have to pick it up before she can get it and say, “God, is there something wrong with your stomach?” She has ulcers because of all the stuff going on with gambling. There’s usually this understood thing between actors that if something has to happen in a scene, we help each other make it happen. But while we were doing it, she dropped the bottle and I went to pick it up. But she picked it up before I did, and the scene was over. What she was saying was, “Listen, if you’re really going to be in the moment, you’ve got to get it before I can.” It was just a really ballsy thing to do. It was probably one of the more important lessons I learned, especially because it’s so easy to be desensitized and wish to be in the station wagon going home.

Present day (1987), New York and Atlantic City.

Warren Beatty was originally involved as a producer, but he was unhappy with how the movie turned out and wouldn’t put his name on it.

Released in theaters 18 September 1987. On DVD in Region 1, 2 and 4.

Argentina: El Cazachicas (The Girlhunter)
Brazil: O Rei da Paquera (The Pickup King)
Denmark: God til piger (Good to Girls)
Finland: Katujen Casanova (Street Cassanova)
France: Le Dragueur (The Dredger)
Germany: Jack der Aufreisser (Jack the Ripper)
Italy: Ehi... Ci Stai? (Hey... Are You There?)
Poland: Podrywacz Artysta (A Fast-Working Artist)
Sweden: Galen i Randy (Crazy for Randy)
Venezuela: El Cazachicas (The Girlhunter)

54% Fresh | 13 Reviews

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: That leaves Robert Downey as the film’s star, an honor he does nothing to deserve. He is the “pickup artist,” a 21-year-old grade-school teacher who tries to pick up everything that is female, attractive and appears in his field of vision. He practices his come-ons in front of a mirror and eventually gets to be almost clever enough to pick up the ugly little sister in a 1940s musical ... The notion that anyone could get anywhere with a Manhattan woman using his dialogue in 1987 is the single funny thing in the movie.

Desson Howe, Washington Post: Anyone want to watch some guy pick up women? Especially a fat-lipped, insincere kid who says “Did anyone ever tell you you have the body of a Botticelli and the face of a Dégas?” Me neither.

1. It’s his first leading role.
2. Serge Handfeld will be real ticked if you don’t see it.

The plot is stupid but Downey and Ringwald bring a charm that makes their characters more likeable than they should be.