Rosalie Goes Shopping *** (1989, Marianne Sägebrecht, Brad Davis, Judge Reinhold) – Classic Movie Review 11,851

Director Percy Adlon’s 1989 English-language German comedy film Rosalie Goes Shopping stars Marianne Sägebrecht, Brad Davis and Judge Reinhold.

Rosalie is a hefty German housewife, played by Marianne Sägebrecht, collaborating for the third time with director Adlon in this frantic tale of a thieving shopaholic’s fraud and forgery in small-town Arkansas.

Rosalie Greenspace (Marianne Sägebrecht) is an ex-patriate German woman living in rural Arkansas with her eccentric American husband Ray ‘Liebling’ Greenspace (Brad Davis), a crop-duster airplane pilot, and their seven children. Each day she goes on shopping sprees to her nearby small town of Stuttgart (also the name of her German home town), where she forges cheques and uses false credit cards.

While supposedly making a serious point (Western materialism’s effect on innocent immigrants), the plot is just too flimsy to carry weighty messages.

As light comedy it is terrific though, with Sägebrecht captivating as the compulsive hausfrau running up a million-dollar bill.

It is shot in Arkansas locations including Stuttgart, Little Rock and DeValls Bluff.

It follows Sugarbaby [Zuckerbaby] (1985) and Bagdad Café (1987).

Marianne Sägebrecht stars as Rosalie Greenspace.

The cast are Marianne Sägebrecht as Rosalie Greenspace, Brad Davis as Ray ‘Liebling’ Greenspace, Judge Reinhold as The Priest, Erika Blumberger as Rosalie’s Mother, Willy Harlander as Rosalie’s Father, John Hawkes as Schnucki Greenspace, Patricia Zehentmayr as Barbara Greenspace, Courtney Kraus as April, Alex Winter as Schatzi Greenspace, Lisa Fitzhugh as Greenspace Twin, Lori Fitzhugh as Greenspace Twin, David Denney as Kindi Greenspace, Dina Chandel as Herzi Greenspace, Ed Geldart as Burt, Bonnie Pemberton as Linda, and John William Galt as Bank President.

Films directed by Percy Adlon: Céleste (1980), Sugarbaby [Zuckerbaby] (1985), Bagdad Café (1987), Rosalie Goes Shopping (1989), Salmonberries (1991), Younger and Younger (1993), Hawaiian Gardens (2001), Koenig’s Sphere (2001), and Mahler on the Couch (2010).

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,851

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