Electric Dreams

Miles Harding is a reserved San Francisco architect working on an earthquake-resistant brick. Struggling to keep his life organized, he buys a top-of-the-line home computer, then accidentally spills champagne into its circuits. Instead of destroying the machine, the mishap gives it a mind of its own: it learns, thinks, and feels, eventually naming itself Edgar. Miles accepts the situation and even befriends the machine, but trouble arrives when Madeline, a cellist who has moved in nearby, catches the attention of both man and computer. The two of them end up competing for her, an unusual love triangle in which one rival lives inside the house.

Electric Dreams was the first film directed by Steve Barron, who had come from music videos and went on to make Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Coneheads and The Adventures of Pinocchio, among others. Rusty Lemorande wrote the screenplay and produced alongside Larry DeWaay. Lenny Von Dohlen plays Miles, Virginia Madsen plays Madeline, Bud Cort provides Edgar's voice, and Maxwell Caulfield appears as Bill.

Released in July 1984, the British-American production cost about six million dollars and returned roughly two million worldwide, a poor result at the box office. Reception has stayed modest: on IMDb it holds 6.4 from about 11,000 votes, and on TMDB it also sits at 6.4, from around 215 votes, while a critics' rating of 5.6 from 20 reviews places it slightly below both audience scores.