| | | | Splash
(1984) |
nly in the 80’s could you have a film about a mermaid who arrives naked in New York to track down a man she saved from drowning and falls in love with, in between flapping around in a bath trying to keep her enormous fishtale a secret.
Splash was the movie that made stars out of Tom Hanks, Darryl Hannah and John Candy, whilst at the same time promoting former ‘Happy Days’ actor Ron Howard to Hollywood heavyweight director.
Allen (Hanks) and Freddie Bauer (Candy) are unlikely brothers, who run their own business. Candy is the fun loving brother who’s ultimate ambition is to get a letter published in Penthouse, whilst Allen is a much more sincere, hardworking and all round good guy who has just been dumped by his girlfriend.
One day the young Allen, whilst on a boat trip from Cape Cod with his parents, stares pensively out to sea and for reasons that are not entirely clear, decides to jump in...
...Not being able to swim starts to sink and sees a beautiful young mermaid -just for a moment- prior to being rescued by the panicked adults who throw themselves into the sea after him.
Years later on a small boat, he accidentally falls in on the same stretch of water and, after being knocked out trying to get back on the boat, is rescued by a gorgeous mermaid who we are left to assume is the same one, now grown up into the lovely Darryl Hannah.
Gorgeous mermaid then finds his wallet and decides to take five days leave from the ocean to track Allen down and get to know him. So off she goes completely nude for a stroll through New York City in search of Allen.
She promptly gets arrested for nudity and the police call Allen as it is the only ID she has on her. He takes her back to his apartment and they begin to fall in love...
Some wondeful classic 80's musical montages follow as our young aquatic heroine discovers New York and Bloomingdales.
...However, a small spanner in the works of this glorious new romance is the fact that darling Madison turns back into a mermaid if she gets wet and regularly needs to roll out her fin and douse it down with water, cue lots of near misses and a wonderful scene in the bath with Allen outside the door. She also manages to master English in one afternoon spent watching television – eat your heart out Sesame Street!
Things take a turn for the worse when during one of her spells as a mermaid on land she is caught by the government, who haul her off to live in a tank in a laboratory where she is so broken hearted that she is on the brink of death when the ever resourceful Allen brothers break in disguised as Swedish scientists and risk all to save the fish of Allen's dreams.
A surprisingly good film for such a ludicrous proposition and well worth watching a couple of times to get all the bits you missed the first time around.
 Don't forget that Splash is now available to order on Widescreen DVD using our special 80s Retro Assistant...
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It’s all massively improbable, but entertaining and fun nonetheless -due in no small part to Howard's wonderful fairy tale direction. He injects so much warmth and good hearted humor into the movie that you can't help but love it.
Much of this style was be seen again and again from Howard in the 80's with such equally implausable premises as "Cocoon".
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This was the first film released by Disney under the label of Touchstone Pictures, initially created for more mature audiences. It also has the first nude scene in a Disney movie. 
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Daryl Hannah also played Priss in "Blade Runner" and Cathy Featherstone in "Summer Lovers" both 1982. -Thanks to Greg
In addition to his father Rance, director Ron Howard's wife Cheryl and brother Clint can be seen briefly at the wedding. The three would also appear in his next effort "Cocoon." -Thanks to Robert Baum
Director Ron Howard followed up on the success of "Splash" by also directing "Cocoon" (1985), "Willow" (1988) & "Parenthood" (1989).
Ron Howard's father Rance Howard makes a cameo appearance. In the beginning of the movie, warehouse scene, a man is screaming about the bad cherries they are trying to sell him. When offered other fruit at cost, he says, "DEAL!"
Writer Brian Grazer teamed up with director Ron Howard again for ‘Parenthood’ (1989).
Splash was a Nominee for Best Original Screenplay at 1984 Academy Awards.
Daryl Hannah is a niece of cinematographer Haskell Wexler and has a younger sister who is also an actress.
A sequel entitled "Splash Too" starring Amy Yasbeck and Todd Waring was made for TV in 1988. In the words of our editor, "it really sucked!".
This movie may have been inspired by the 1948 movie " Mr.Peabody and the Mermaid" with the suave star Wiliam Powell and Ann Blyth. The 1948 movie was a take-off from the British movie " Miranda "(1947) in which a doctor catches a mermaid on a holiday back to London disguised as an invald patient! Glynnis Johns was the mermaid! -Thanks to Randor Guy
A scene in the movie with an additional character, known as 'The Sea-Hag' was cut from the film as Ron Howard felt it confused the viewer too much. The deleted scene has never been released but a short clip of it can be seen on the bonus material for the remastered DVD of 'Splash'.
On the original DVD release, if you switch the audio language to 'Dutch' the track 'Love came for me' plays as an instrumental version at the end and Rita Coolidge's vocals are removed. -Thanks to Elle Richardson
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Find much more great trivia in the filmmaker's commentary on the Splash DVD.
Rediscover your favorites! If you like
Splash or 80's Romantic Comedy classics, then be sure to
check out this list: ..... Can't Buy Me Love ..... Say Anything ..... Some Kind Of Wonderful ..... Sixteen Candles ..... Valley Girl ..... Switching Channels ..... Grandview, U.S.A. ..... Dance 'til Dawn ..... Don't Tell Her It's Me ..... Mannequin ..... Teen Wolf ..... Secret of My Success ..... Secret Admirer ..... Pretty In Pink ..... She's Having a Baby ..... Dream A little Dream .....[More]
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When Daryl Hannah saves Tom Hanks, the beach is actually an island owned by Disney in the Bahamas. Their cruise ships use it for a getaway for their passengers. -Thanks to Marty Lawson
Bill Murray turned down the role of Allen. -Thanks to Jonathan Lim
John Travolta originally read for the lead role, but he backed out on advice from his agent, since it was rumoured that Warren Beatty was fixing to make his own mermaid film, which never materialized. -Thanks to Kenneth Sutton
In the restaurant scene, you see Daryl Hannah's character eating a lobster. We all know the scene is faked because she happily devours shell and all. However, less well known is that the lobster you see is actually stuffed with mashed potatoes. Daryl is a devout vegetarian. -Thanks to Amanda Clement
Alan, Tom Hanks, lives in 25 Tudor City Place, a charming pre-war complex located in mid-town Manhattan next door to the United Nations. This Gothic style neighborhood is a favorite of film scouts as it has appeared in Serpico, F/X, The Peacemaker, The Godfather III, both recent Spiderman movies and The Intrepreter. -Thanks to Jeana Hong
The tail took a very long time to put on and caused Daryl a lot of discomfort, especially in the blistering 1984 heat where all she could do was lay on a towel until it was her scenes.
After each day of shooting, the tail needed to be repainted.
For the famous 'bath scene' they used a special air pocket to make the fish scales appear.
When Daryl Hannah emerges out of the water for the first time, she is supposed to be naked, but you can clearly see jean shorts on her behind
Madison has 6 days to stay in N.Y.C. before the next full moon. When you see the moon, it is more and more full each time. But the moon gets fuller from the right side to the left side and the moon in the movie gets full from the left to the right. Waxing and waning are the stages. -Thanks to Sian
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Locations |
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 Featured Movie Location: The Department Store
Wanna see the real life filming location used for The Department Store in the movie? These scenes were actually shot at Bloomingdales, located in New York, New York. [New! Show Google Map]
Allen's (Tom Hanks') apartment is at Tudor City Place. He works at the Fulton Fish Market, Fulton Street.
78 Water Street, New York. [Thanks to Hannah Gallagher]
Statue of Liberty-unfortunately, the interior is no longer accessible, the result of the events of September 11, 2001. [Thanks to Jonathan Lim]
Can you help? Do you know any of the New York, New York (or any other) filming locations used for Splash? [Please send them in]
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The score for the film was composed by famed 80's composer Lee Holdridge. It was only released on CD by the Supertracks label in 2000 (LHCD-02) but has since been deleted. Use our serach feature to try and locate a used copy.
The film features the song 'Love came for me' as performed by Rita Coolidge, which, to this day, has never been released commercially in any format.
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Soundtrack Available:
Used On CD
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