They All Laughed is a 1981 American romantic comedy film directed and co-written by Peter Bogdanovich.
Three men work as detectives in a New York City detective agency. John (Ben Gazzara) is a middle-aged man who has an easy confidence with women, bedding various babes, like beautiful cab driver Deborah, while sort-of being in a relationship with lovely country music singer Christy (Colleen Camp). Arthur is a dope-smoking, long-haired hippie. Charles (John Ritter) is a nervous, nerdy type.
The detectives are, like most real private detectives, investigating infidelity cases. John is following one Angela Niotes (Audrey Hepburn), suspected of cheating by her rich industrialist husband. Arthur and Charles are tag-teaming the surveillance of a shockingly gorgeous young blonde, Dolores (Dorothy Stratten), who is stuck in an unhappy marriage. Arthur and Charles's investigation confirms that Dolores is indeed cheating on her husband with her neighbor. Charles becomes infatuated with Dolores, and John eventually begins to develop feelings for Angela.
Barely a month after filming wrapped on They All Laughed, Dorothy Stratten was murdered by her jealous estranged husband, who then killed himself. The film is dedicated to her.
Tropes:
- Author Avatar: Bogdanovich considered playing the part of Charles himself. Instead he cast John Ritter, wearing oversized glasses like Bogdanovich wore, in a love story opposite Bogdanovich's Real Life girlfriend Dorothy Stratten.
- Catapult Nightmare: Arthur sees the four women he's been dating over the course of the movie pursuing him with various weapons. But it was a dream. He bolts awake catapult nightmare style, and finds himself in bed with Rita.
- Double Entendre: As Deborah's cab reaches the destination, John says "Get off here?" The cheerfully slutty Deborah says "I'd like to."
- Ethical Slut: Deborah, who asks John to come home with her and says plainly to John that "I just don't like to sleep alone, I guess." John then mentions the old practice of bundling
and suggests that they literally sleep together. They do. - Everybody Knew Already: Leon eventually confesses that he's having an affair with Amy the secretary, only for John to answer that everybody in the office already knew and has known for years.
- Follow That Car: Charles waves down a taxi and says "Follow that cab!" when Dolores leaves her house with Jose.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: As Charles looks up at Dolores's window, he sees her holding a stuffed unicorn.
- The Klutz: Charles is always stumbling around, bumping into things, falling. He's drinking tomato juice when Dolores leaves a hotel lounge, and when he follows he gets up so fast he sticks the straw up his nose.
- Meet Cute: Charles has tailed Dolores to a roller skating rink. He's so infatuated by her that he puts on skates and gets in the rink, despite not knowing how to roller skate. He falls down as he's tailing her and she falls on top of him.
- Off-into-the-Distance Ending: Ends with a helicopter taking Angela, her husband, and their son away.
- Operation: Jealousy: Christy plants a long, passionate kiss on Charles and then asks him to give her a ride, purely to make John jealous. This fails completely, as John actually suggests Charles take Christy as a "beard" so his tail of Dolores will be less obvious.
- Pair the Spares: Christy (rejected by John for Angela, and eventually Deborah) and Jose (rejected by Dolores, who winds up with Charles), get married as half of the double wedding at the end.
- Sexy Secretary: Amy, the very pretty secretary at the detective agency, is dating the boss, Leon. After she fields a call from his wife and tells her that Leon's out of the office, they start kissing.
- Titled After the Song: Titled after the George and Ira Gershwin song "They All Laughed". Frank Sinatra's version of the song plays as John follows Angela around Rockefeller Center.
- Video Credits: At the end of the film. Arthur's video credit comes in the form of a Catapult Nightmare sequence where he dreams all the women he's been juggling throughout the film are chasing him with weaponry.