I was a big John Candy fan through the 1980's. In this movie, John Candy plays TV producer Jack Gable who is in love with his leading actress played by the stunningly beautiful Emma Samms and struggling to keep creative control over his series from his co-producers played by Jerry Orbach and Renee Taylor. Meanwhile, he keeps stumbling quite literally into Mariel Hemingway as the struggling potential actress trying to get a role on his show and as a rival TV writer named Fetterman tries changing his universe even with his own typos creating havoc. After mysteriously ending up on his show, he keeps trying to write the plot to win Samms's heart through gleefully far-fetched fantasies, but he instead keeps running into Hemingway. The best parts of this movie are its ability to parody the soap opera theme (brain tumors, favorite sons, absurd declarations, diabolical scheming, series contradictions, etc). Samms seems to enjoy herself in this movie playing a conniving vixen while the versatile Hemingway plays the All-American girl-next-door type with a bit of whimsical awkwardness, but much of the comedy comes from the male co-stars, particularly Raymond Burr as the head of the Hedison clan. Playing the comedy straight, Burr delivers almost every line as a catchphrase."Delirious" is a sort of "Twilight Zone" affair in which a soap mogul is haunted by his old characters, even those he has killed off. ("Len? Len? We killed him off two seasons ago!") Even though this side of the plot is barely explored, what we have left is a "Brady Bunch"-level fantasy-comedy with all the raucous humor of a spoof of a daytime drama. At its core, "Delirious" is a love story linking Candy with Hemingway to discover what he really wants instead of what he thinks he wants. It has a strong cast, a script that bounces from the weak to the absurd to the amusing and an enterprising premise. The movie "Delirious" gently penetrates the issue of what could happen when a man or woman can simply "write the outcome" of their inner and outer world.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Jack Gable (John Candy) is the writer of a successful soap opera in NYC. He's in love with manipulative diva Laura Claybourne (Emma Samms). Louise (Mariel Hemingway) is the bumbling new actress. The Sherwoods are interfering producers looking to kill off Laura's character. He gets hit on the head and finds himself in the soap opera in Ashford Falls Community Hospital after a car accident. He discovers that he can manipulate the characters by rewriting the story.John Candy's ample amount of charms can't salvage this movie. The problem is that the soap opera is fake and the only compelling character is Candy. It also doesn't help that the best he has to work with in this movie is Mariel Hemingway. At least, she's game even if she's not that able. This is a miss.

I guess that "Delirious" was mostly one of John Candy's innocuously silly placeholders in between his really great roles, but it's still a fairly entertaining one. Maybe not rip-snorting hilarity - after "Planes, Trains and Automobiles", it's hard to imagine Candy in a funnier role - but an OK way to pass time. As a screenwriter who gets knocked out and wakes up a character in his own show, Candy makes the most of his role. Among the other cast members are Mariel Hemingway, Raymond Burr (in his final theatrical role), Jerry Orbach, Robert Wagner and Margot Kidder.Oh, and if you think that you recognize "Hungarian Rhapsody #2", the classic Looney Tunes cartoons often used it: "Rhapsody in Rivets", "Rhapsody Rabbit", "Wise Quackers" and "What's Up, Doc?", to name a few. Later, "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" had Daffy Duck and Donald Duck play it on pianos and undermine each other's performances.

John Candy made this film.The story involves a soap opera writer (Candy) who gets knocked out, and enters his own, type-written, created world, where all the characters are alive and playing their roles - or so he thinks. They are actually living them. So, Candy finds that whatever he writes on the 'ol typewriter happens in the world he's in, because, after all, he created it on the typewriter, right? Built off the same foundation as "Groundhog Day," Delirious is by no means great, and not John Candy's best, (I give that to Planes, Trains and Automobiles) but it does have an actual soap opera feel to it - that cheap feel - and has some laughs along the way. Not great, but worth watching. Candy was one of the best comedians of his time, God rest his soul...John "Candy" Ulmer