The Robert Downey Jr. Film Guide: Rented Lips (1988)

A documentary filmmaker resorts to shooting a porno and many strange things occur.

Medium. He’s got a decent amount of screen time, although he is definitely a supporting player.

Wolf Dangler, a pornstar who takes his acting craft very seriously.

Moustache and beard, often not wearing any pants, occasionally sports an afro wig.

If we weren’t going for a PG rating, I’d tell you to go fuck yourself. But I’m a gentleman, and there’s ladies around.

Mainly Southern, with a bit of German in the film-within-the-film.

No love interest but there is some grainy footage of the grabby pornstar in action.

Jennifer Tilly, Martin Mull

Robert Downey Sr.’s Hugo Pool, Pound, Up the Academy, America, Moment to Moment, Too Much Sun, Greaser’s Palace, in The Last Party and Johnny Be Good. Jennifer Tilly in Johnny Be Good.

In my father’s films, I always wind up with my pants off, half-dressed, barking verbally abusive commands at someone. There’s obviously something to this ... Working with dad on Rented Lips was great because he always called me by my character’s name. He went out of his way to make sure that there were no concessions made to me because I was his son. Meanwhile, I was playing a porn star in fishnet underwear, doing a scene with Edy Williams. I don’t know where that came from. He’d let me sing songs and do improv ... In most of the film, I wear fishnet underwear, and I don’t give a shit. I stuffed my underwear, too. I had this huge wad of toilet paper, and I kept asking the camera guys to please just keep panning around from the front to the side. So you could see from the front angle it looked really big. But when you panned to the side, it looked so obviously fake ... He’s by far the sickest character I’ve ever played. He’s into wigs and slipping into and out of accents ... If you thought Julian [from Less Than Zero] was unbalanced, wait until you see this guy Wolf Dangler. He’s the sickest, craziest character I’ve ever played and it’s great fun.

Released in theaters 1 July 1988. Never released on DVD.

Brazil: Corpo de Aluguel (A Body for Rent)
Spain: Labios de Alquiler (Lips for Rent)

1. Complete your viewership of the triumvirate of films where he plays a character who pretends to be German and/or a Nazi.
2. Two words: no pants.

With a contrived plot, musical numbers and a series of characters who are weird just for the sake of being weird, calling this movie quirky would be the understatement of the century. Downey Sr. movies are not everyone’s cup of tea. They may be your cup of tea if you like your tea served by a midget tap dancer in a clown suit.