One of the top 15 box-office champs of all time with takings of more than 100 million dollars at 1982 prices.

Dustin Hoffman acts both his male and female co-stars off the screen as an out-of-work actor who 'drags' up as a woman he names Dorothy Michaels to land a job on a daytime soap opera.

And he was so convincing as a woman that industry wags suggest that Hoffman should have been nominated for a Best Actress Oscar as well as the Best Actor statuette.

He himself wasn't convinced that he could pull off the deception and spent a year and thousands of dollars on screen tests.

He even fooled actor friend Jon Voight by making a pass at him in a lift at the studio! But he was sad that although he was believable, he didn't make an attractive woman.

On Oscars night, it was Jessica Lange who scooped the Best Supporting Actress Award as the girl Hoffman fancies and who Hoffman as 'Dorothy' gets to sleep with as best girlfriends, causing no end of comic complications.

The film's director, Sydney Pollack, plays Hoffman's agent, Geena Davis makes her first screen appearance, and well down the cast you'll find Estelle Getty (Sophia from 'The Golden Girls') billed in a cameo as a middle-aged woman.