EDITOR’S NOTE: Desperately Seeing Susan was not produced by Cannon but was sold on videotape by HBO/Cannon Video. 

Inspired by Céline et Julie vont en bateau (Céline and Julie Go Boating), this movie once almost starred Diane Keaton and Goldie Hawn as Roberta and Susan, but who could be in this other than Rosanna Arquette and Madonna?

Roberta is a housewife in New Jersey whose only romance is the personals messages between Susan and Jim Dandy (Robert Joy). Meanwhile, Susan has just hooked up with a gangster named Bruce Meeker (Richard Hell!) and stolen a pair of Egyptian earings. One of his soldiers, Wayne (Will Patton) notices her decorated jacket as she leaves. He kills Meeker and she goes on with her life, unaware, stashing one earing in a Port Authority locker and wearing the other.

Roberta then starts trying to see the couple in person; hijinks ensure, she hits her head and actually believes that she is Susan. This allows her to meet Jim’s friend Dez (Aidan Quinn), who she falls for, and everyone goes on the run from Wayne, who thinks that they can implicate him in Meeker’s death.

This movie has a great cast: Steven Wright, John Turturro, Annie Golden from the Shirts, comedian Rockets Redglare, John Lurie, Carol Leifer and Ann Magnuson. It also has a scene set at Danceteria, the nightclub where Madonna first performed.

Susan Seidelman would go on to direct the American version of She Devil and three episodes of Sex and the City. Writer Leora Barish wrote Basic Instinct 2 and yes, that is a fact that I will be using all of the time.

You can watch this on Tubi.