Who's That Girl is a 1987 American screwball comedy film directed by James Foley, and written by Andrew Smith and Ken Finkleman. It stars Madonna and Griffin Dunne, and depicts the story of Nikki Finn, a street-smart girl who is falsely accused of murdering her boyfriend Johnny and is sent to jail. After release, she meets Loudon Trott, who is supposed to make sure she gets on her bus back to Philadelphia, and convinces him to help her catch those responsible for her confinement. While searching for an embezzler, they fall in love with each other.

After her 1986 film Shanghai Surprise failed, Madonna decided to sign on to another comedy, titled Slammer, later renamed Who's That Girl. However, she had to convince both Warner Bros. and the film's producers that she was ready. Madonna enlisted her friend Foley to direct. Shooting began in New York in October 1986, and continued until March 1987. Production was halted during December due to snowfall. Madonna utilized the time to work on her next tour and the film's soundtrack.

The film was released on August 7, 1987, and was a box-office bomb, grossing $2.5 million in its first week, with its final domestic total being about $7.3 million on a budget between $17–20 million. Critics were highly dissatisfied with the film, and Foley's direction. However, the accompanying music tour went on to be a critical and commercial success, grossing a total of US$25 million, and playing in front of audiences totaling 1.5 million people. The soundtrack also enjoyed commercial success, selling over six million copies worldwide, in addition to the title track becoming Madonna's sixth number one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 record chart.

Plot Nikki Finn is a carefree young woman who usually wears a leather jacket and skirt, sports fire-red lips and a platinum bubble cut, and speaks in a high-pitched voice; she is also resourceful and intelligent. One day her boyfriend Johnny sees two men stealing money out of a trust fund and takes a picture of this theft. He puts the pictures in a safe deposit box and gives Nikki the key for safekeeping. The thieves catch and murder Johnny and frame Nikki by dumping his body into the trunk of her car, and she is sentenced to seven years in prison.

Four years later, tax attorney Loudon Trott is marrying Wendy, the daughter of one of the richest men in New York, Simon Worthington. Wendy is a selfish woman who is more consumed in her wedding plans than in her fiancé's well-being. Loudon, on the other hand, has many duties entrusted to him by his boss—and future father-in-law—Mr. Worthington: First he must pick up a cougar for exotic-animal activist Montgomery Bell, then he must pick up Nikki (who has been put on parole) and lastly he must make sure she catches the next bus to her home town, Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Nikki is determined to catch the actual thieves and expose the truth. After meeting Loudon, Nikki cons him into taking her shopping. After they take a Rolls-Royce into Harlem to buy a gun—and are nearly arrested during a police raid—she tells Loudon her story; believing she is innocent, he decides to help her. She is also on the run from a pimp named Raoul and his lackey Benny, the ones who killed Johnny. Only after dangling off a Cadillac limousine smashed through the top floor of a parking garage does he tell her the bank and the box number (6111) of her slain boyfriend.

Afterward, Nikki vanishes with the cougar, whom she names Murray. Later that night, Loudon visits Mr. Bell to apologize for losing the animal, then finds that Nikki had delivered Murray and was waiting for Loudon at Mr. Bell's penthouse apartment; he has created a Brazilian rainforest filled with animals on top of his roof. There Nikki and Loudon—who have become close—express love for each other; Murray also finds a mate. Loudon delivers Nikki to the bus station the next morning, but Nikki brokenheartedly realizes that she must return to Philadelphia, leaving Loudon, who is about to get married. On the bus she opens an envelope from the security box and finds the photographs that prove that Mr. Worthington is an embezzler and he was the mastermind behind the theft. Nikki gate-crashes the wedding, gets Mr. Worthington arrested, and proclaims her love for Loudon. Nikki and Loudon ride off into the sunset on a bus to Philadelphia, with Murray and his partner chasing after them.

Cast Madonna as Nikki Finn Griffin Dunne as Loudon Trott Haviland Morris as Wendy Worthington John McMartin as Simon Worthington Bibi Besch as Ms. Worthington John Mills as Montgomery Bell Robert Swan as Detective Bellson Drew Pillsbury as Detective Doyle Coati Mundi as Raoul Dennis Burkley as Benny Karen Dianne Baldwin as Heather Ron Taylor as 1st Dock Worker Carmen Filpi as Street Bum #1 Stanley Tucci as 2nd Dock Worker Mike Starr as Shipping Co-Worker Albert Popwell as Parole Chairman

Production Development

Madonna's 1986 studio album True Blue was a critical and commercial success, spawning five top-five Billboard Hot 100 singles, and selling over eight million copies worldwide, by the year-end. However, her film career was not as successful as she had hoped it would be. Following the commercially successful Desperately Seeking Susan, her 1986 film Shanghai Surprise—where she starred with her then husband Sean Penn—was a critical and box-office failure, prompting Madonna to comment that she "struggled to come to terms with her character in Shanghai Surprise, because the innocence and repressed personality I was required to portray was so at variance with my own character." Continuing to struggle with her film career, Madonna was unsure of her ability to choose a good script, and film producers were less sure about backing her up.

Madonna felt that comedy was more of her repertoire, and proceeded to sign a comedy film titled Slammer, written by Andrew Smith and Ken Finkleman. She wanted to play the part of a street smart girl called Nikki Finn, who was jailed for a crime she did not commit. However, in light of the bad publicity surrounding her and Penn, and of the very public failure of Shanghai Surprise, Madonna had to persuade producers Rosilyn Heller and Bernard Williams, as well as Warner Bros., that she was up for the part. In addition, she wanted friend James Foley to direct the film. Foley had been Penn's best man at his marriage to Madonna, and had directed the music videos of Madonna's singles "Live to Tell" (1986) and "Papa Don't Preach" (1986). He was ecstatic at having the opportunity to make a major feature film, as previously he had only directed the small-budgeted film At Close Range, starring Penn. As author Andrew Morton pointed out in his biography on Madonna, "the combination of a dubiously talented movie star and a first-time movie director hardly guaranteed a box-office hit, but the film received the go-ahead from Warner, who wanted to encache more on Madonna's success." Madonna plowed gamely on, saying: "All Warner's executives were real positive about the project. It was a process—with the writers—of honing the script, making it better."

Casting Casting for the film began as soon as Madonna had signed up for it. Griffin Dunne was signed to play the part of Loudon Trott, a lawyer whose job was to help Nikki get on a bus, after she was released. Initially, Madonna had thought of asking Penn to play the part of Detective Bellson, but Penn was serving a 60-day jail term, having violated the probation he received in 1986, for assaulting a friend of Madonna. The part went to Robert Swan, followed by the signing of John McMartin, Haviland Morris and Bibi Besch as Trott's father-in-law Simon, fiancée Wendy, and mother-in-law Mrs. Worthington respectively. Madonna commented that she had a lot in common with the character Nikki. "She's courageous and sweet and funny and misunderstood. But she clears her name in the last, and that's always good to do. I'm continuously doing that with the public. I liked Nikki's tough side and her sweet side. The toughness is only a mask for the vulnerability she feels inside." Madonna was also offered the lead role Nadia Gates in the Blake Edwards comedy film Blind Date opposite to Bruce Willis, but she refused it in favor of Slammer. She said, "The thing I had planned to do after Shanghai Surprise was Blind Date at Tri-Star. I was supposed to have the approval of the director and the leading man, but they didn't tell me they'd already hired Bruce Willis. That... just didn't work out. But I was really excited about doing a real physical, screwball comedy, so when Jamie brought this up, it was like my reward." Coati Mundi, member of Kid Creole and the Coconuts and Madonna's long-time friend, joined the cast to play the role of Raoul, Nikki's enemy. Costume designer Deborah Scott was signed to create the wardrobe for the film. Madonna, who visualized the character of Nikki as a dizzy screwball blonde, started watching screwball comedies, especially the work of actors like Cary Grant, Clark Gable, Carole Lombard and Judy Holliday. She asked Scott to create comical rah-rah and ballet tutu skirts for the character, with fishnet tights and loud make-up. Scott also designed a glamorous Marilyn Monroe-esque dress for the love scene between Nikki and Loudon.

Filming Filming began in New York in July 1986. Madonna would ask for five minutes to study the script for the scene they were filming. For example, before a scene in which she needed to appear out of breath, she did a series of push-ups before going on set. Dunne observed that "[Madonna] likes her first take best. I think my best is around fourth. She always says, 'You got it, you got it,' and she was driving me crazy just like her character would. We had to make a compromise as to which take is the best." Madonna wanted Foley to give her proper direction on set, but he preferred her to be her real self, rather than the persona in her music videos. Regarding her acting abilities, Foley stressed the fact that Madonna was very uptight and into every detail, determined to have the correct portrayal. "That's probably why it wasn't so good. In Desperately Seeking Susan, when she didn't know what she was doing, she was being natural and at her best."

As December arrived, production was halted for a few days due to snowfall in New York City. Madonna decided to utilize the time by working on the film's soundtrack and her next concert tour. While recording the title track, Madonna decided to change the film's name from Slammer to Who's That Girl as she felt it to be a better title. Filming commenced in January 1987, where the scene involving a cougar was shot. During the second take, the cougar accidentally escaped from the cage, resulting in filming being paused for a few hours. By February 1987, Madonna's scenes were already shot although she proceeded to linger on the set to watch Foley and his team work. Foley described her being around the set and not acting as a "pain-in-the-ass", since she "won't skimp especially on cost and she should know that Warner had a tight schedule and constraints on the budget. They still did not trust Madonna when it came to acting. Hell they even gave a greater percentage of the budget to the soundtrack." Filming ended in March 1987, with post-production continuing till July 1987. During the development of the opening credits, Madonna asked Foley if they could have a cartoon figure of her character introducing the film credits. Foley liked the idea, and Warner enlisted Broadcast Arts to create the cartoon. The sequence was animation directed by Richard Machin, produced by Peter Rosenthal, animated by Glen Claybrook, John Canemaker, Doug Frankel, Dan Haskett, Norma Rivera-Klingler, April March, Bob McKnight, Edward Rivera and Bob Scott, with concept art and character designs by Daniel Melgarejo, assisted by Neil Martinson; and edited by James Romaine and Conni X.

Music and soundtrack