| Tzipporah and Moses pre-The-Prince-of-Egypt... Michelle and Val Kilmer in One Too Many |
Michelle's Biography
Part 5: The Story of Us
After her trip abroad Michelle was more than willing to invest some time and effort, not only in her marriage, but also in her husband, Peter Horton's career. She said, 'Marriage takes a huge investment of time and devoution. The more demanding your work is, the harder it is to put in the kind of energy that it takes. That's probably why so many showbiz marriages don't work. You have to cope with the problem of "I have the time" versus "Well, I don't." It's important to make time for each other.'
| And so she did for her husband. She executive produced Three Hours Between Planes, a video production of the Scott Fitzgerald short story that was directed by Horton. She was even more hands-on when she actually starred alongside a very young Val Kilmer in One Too Many, also directed by Horton. The film was in fact a return to the made-for-TV genre for Michelle, but as an impressionable high school student who has to deal with an alcoholic boyfriend (Kilmer) and the issue of drunk driving, she received good reviews from several respected critics. |
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Michelle's next big screen venture was Into The Night, alongside Jeff Goldblum and a whole host of famous faces making cameo appearances: including David Bowie, Dan Akroyd and a slew of directors like Johnathan Demme, Jim Henson and David Cronenberg. Directed by John Landis, the film can only be described as a madcap '80s thriller with its tongue firmly in its cheek. Michelle played Diana, a mysterious blonde who hops into the car of aerospace engineer, Ed Okin (Goldbum), when insomnia leads him to drive aimlessly around Los Angeles International Airport. As it turns out, Diana is being pursued by hitmen after the emeralds she has smuggled into the country. She and Ed are forced to flee 'into the night,' and as a result delve into the bizarre nightlife of Los Angeles where they come into contact with all the eccentric characters who occupy it.
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On the set, Michelle and Landis
became friends and the director took a special interest
in the eating habits of the rather skinny actress who had
yet to regain the weight and colour she had lost for Scarface
and Ladyhawke respectively. Michelle said, 'I
always start a film at the same weight, but once I get
into it I sometimes forget about eating. He [Landis] was
always shoving bagels and cream cheese at me and saying:
"Here, eat!".' When Into The Night was released in cinemas it did little business but on video it has since become a cult 80s classic, adding yet another to those Michelle has been involved in. And one reviewer called Michelle 'the best Hitchcock blonde that the master never had.' |
| Michelle's friendship with Landis resulted in her working with her husband again, but this time on screen together playing, surprise, surprise, a young married couple. Landis was involved in the ambitious Amazon Women on the Moon, a film which combined Hollywood talent of the past with that of the present in 30 different stories, each with their own director. Peter Horton was one of those directors as well as an actor in the Landis-directed Hospital, which had him and Michelle playing new parents baffled by their treatment by hospital staff. . | 
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The film was ultimately too much of an oddity for the studio and the public alike and remained on the shelf for well over a year before it was released to minimal exposure
| Michelle next went on to steal the show in Alan Alda's Sweet Liberty. The movie was a light comedy dealing with the insanities of film making, and the chaos a filmcrew create when they arrive in a small town to film a movie based on a prize winning novel by a history professor actually living in the town. In typical Hollywood-fashion, a truthful depiction of the American Revolution is thrown aside and replaced by a focus on youth and sex. Michelle played the dual role of bitchy actress Faith Healy and in the film within a film, revolutionary heroine Mary Slocomb. Once again she received plenty of good reviews, but was still lacking the publicity that comes with a sure-fire hit. | 
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What was more important about Sweet Liberty was that while making it Michelle met who was to become her best friend and future production partner: Kate Guinzburg, who was acting as production coordinator for the film. Michelle said years later, 'I think that my relationships with women have become more important the older I become.'
But while Michelle's friendship was thriving, the same could not be said for her marriage. There was a lot of strain in the Horton-Pfeiffer household: while Michelle's career soared from strength to strength, Peter's progressed slowly, and work continued to divide their attentions. Also contributing to the stress was the fact that their personalities were changing as they got older, with Michelle's confidence directly proportional to the progress of her career. One story also had it that Michelle's parents, Richard and Donna, when travelling with the couple in a limousine to the set of The Tonight Show where Michelle was going to be interviewed, heard Horton instructing Michelle what to say. Richard Pfeiffer would later refer to his son-in-law as a 'very domineering person,' while Michelle was 'obediant' in the marriage.
However it happened, Michelle's marriage was splintering, and would soon be over.
