Death Becomes Her 🎥 1992 Movie Info

Plot Summary

Narcissistic fading actress Madeline Ashton performs in a poorly received Broadway musical. She invites long-time friend and rival, meek aspiring writer Helen Sharp, backstage along with Helen’s fiancé, plastic surgeon Ernest Menville. Smitten with Madeline, Ernest breaks off his engagement with Helen to marry Madeline. Seven years later, Helen—now obese, depressed, and impoverished—is committed to a psychiatric hospital where she swears revenge on Madeline. Another seven years later, Madeline and Ernest live an opulent but miserable life in Beverly Hills: Madeline is depressed about her withering beauty and career, and Ernest has become an alcoholic, reduced to working as a reconstructive mortician.

After receiving an invitation to a party celebrating Helen’s new book, Madeline rushes for beauty treatments. Desperate to look younger, she is given the business card of Lisle Von Rhuman, a mysterious socialite who specializes in rejuvenation. At the party, Madeline and Ernest discover that Helen is now slim, glamorous, and youthful, despite being 50. Overcome with envy, Madeline visits her younger lover but discovers he is with a woman his own age. Despondent, she visits Lisle’s mansion. The youthful Lisle claims to be 71 and offers Madeline a potion that promises eternal life and youth. Madeline drinks the potion, which restores her to her physical prime. Meanwhile, Helen seduces Ernest and persuades him to kill Madeline.

After returning home, Madeline belittles Ernest, who snaps and pushes her down the stairs, breaking her neck. However, she inexplicably survives and Ernest takes her to the hospital, where she is deemed to be clinically dead. Ernest considers her reanimation to be a miracle and repairs her body at home. When Helen arrives and secretly tries to discuss her plan with Ernest to murder Madeline, Madeline shoots Helen with a shotgun. The blast leaves a large hole in Helen’s torso but she remains alive, revealing that she has also taken Lisle’s potion.

Meet the Cast