10 Things to Know About 'Best Defense' (1984)

There are numerous misconceptions about Best Defense, notable but not entirely wrong. The role played by Eddie Murphy was grafted onto the movie following poor test screenings in early 1984 but Murphy was signed to appear in Best Defense way before his role was beefed up so that producers could pretend that he’d co-starred with Dudley Moore.

Here are 10 Things to Know About Best Defense

10 Posters billed Eddie Murphy as ‘Strategic Guest Star’ Eddie Murphy.

Posters for Best Defense were eventually forced to be honest about Eddie Murphy’s small role in Best Defense. Dudley Moore received star billing above the title. And right below Moore is the surprisingly honest credit “Strategic Guest Star Eddie Murphy.’

Throughout the shooting of the film

9 “bringing together two of the screen’s … comic giants.”

Well… actually. Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy never appear on screen together in Best Defense. A scene of the two meeting in a comic wrap-up of the story was shot and stills of Murphy and Moore together on set were captured but the scene itself is lost media.

8 Eddie Murphy Actually Signed on to Appear in Best Defense Before Production Began

Despite reports and gossip to the contrary, Eddie Murphy signed on to join Best Defense in August of 1983. He was attached to the film for the entirety of production. His role was increased in reshoots in 1984 after a test screening of a version fully set on Moore with little more than a cameo by Murphy tested poorly

7 The Mid-80s Were a Tough Time for Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz

After co-writing monster hits with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, things looked to be going great for Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz. Then they made Best Defense and the film tanked in test screenings and flopped on release.

In an effort to recover their lost momentum, Huyck and Katz reunited with George Lucas on a promising project aimed at getting them back to their winning ways. Their follow-up to Best Defense? The film intended to give them a comeback? 1986’s biggest turkey, er, Duck, Howard the Duck.

6 While portraying a Conflict between Iraq and Kuwait, Best Defense Was Shot in Israel

It was a little too dangerous to film in Kuwait near the Iraqi border in 1983 so the producers took Eddie Murphy to Israel to film his few exterior tank scenes. The reshoots that added more of Murphy to the film were done in Los Angeles and kept Murphy safely locked away in the tank, riffing his dialogue.

5 Eddie Murphy Destroyed the Movie While Hosting Saturday Night Live in December of 1984

In his monologue opening his December 10th, 1984 hosting gig on Saturday Night Live, Eddie claimed that he returned to the show due to the failure of Best Defense. He claimed that the film flopped so badly that he begged to get his old dressing room back.

In the same monologue, Eddie stated that he made the movie just for the money, referring to himself as a whore.

4 Dudley Moore Never Spoke Publicly About Best Defense

While Murphy was vocal with his criticism of the film, Dudley Moore made no public statements regarding the film. Extensive searches of contemporary interviews and profiles and Moore’s own biography have no comments on Moore’s feelings regarding the film, its poor test screenings or Murphy’s beefed up role.

3 Tagline Fun, It’s as Bad as the Movie

“Unfortunately, they’re both on our side” referring to Moore and Murphy

2 The State of Film Journalism in 1984 *Ugh”

While Vincent Canby wrote a wonderfully negative review of Best Defense, as only he could, other film-entertainment ‘journalists’ were eager to perform studio P.R in newspaper form. An author with no byline is credited for a story in the August 8th edition of a Louisiana newspaper called The Southwest Builder was so unfamiliar with the book the film was based on, Robert Grossbach’s 1974 novel, Easy and Hard Ways Out, that he or she willingly printed that Murphy’s character was as prominent in the book as Moore’s character. In fact, Murphy’s Lt. character was entirely created for the film and does not exist in the book.

1 Audiences Punished Paramount for lying About Eddie Murphy

Best Defense opened in a strong second place at the box office on July 20th, 1984. However, after the opening weekend, the backlash was swift. The film was marketed on the back of Eddie Murphy, prominent in trailers and posters, but Murphy’s total screen time in Best Defense was a mere 15 minutes.

The film dropped more than 60% at the box office in its second week and was dead in the water by August, 1984.

Bonus

Best Defense was the highest grossing Tank based comedy of 1984 beating James Garner’s Tank 19 million to 11 million. However, Tank made more in profits, 11 million dollars against a 6 million dollar budget versus a 19 million dollar gross versus an 18 million dollar budget.