Million Dollar Mystery | |
---|---|
![]() Theatrical release poster | |
Directed by | Richard Fleischer |
Written by |
|
Produced by | Stephen F. Kesten |
Starring | Tom Bosley |
Cinematography | Jack Cardiff |
Edited by | John W. Wheeler |
Music by | Al Gorgoni |
Distributed by | De Laurentiis Entertainment Group |
Release date |
|
Running time | 95 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $10 million [1] |
Box office | $989,033 [2] |
Million Dollar Mystery (also known as Money Mania) is a 1987 American film released with a promotional tie-in for Glad-Lock brand bags. This was the final feature-length film directed by Richard Fleischer and shot by Jack Cardiff.
It starred an ensemble cast of "America's new comic talent", including Tom Bosley, Eddie Deezen, Rick Overton, Rich Hall, and Kevin Pollak. The film was largely inspired by Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World .
Dar Robinson, a stuntman, died on November 21, 1986, after riding his motorcycle off a cliff while attempting to do a stunt.
Sidney Preston, a disgruntled White House aide, takes off with $4 million that belonged to the government. While on the run, he stops at a roadside diner in Arizona and has their world-famous chili, while flirting with the waitress. Two clumsy government spies named Fred and Bob are looking for Sidney. Sidney suffers a fatal heart attack and before dying asks for a kiss from the waitress, then he reveals to the onlookers the location of the first million dollars which he says is "In the city of the bridge". The onlookers are the Briggs Family (Stuart, Barbara, and Howie), nerdy newlyweds Rollie and Lollie, amateur singer Crush and his group of three blonde backup dancers (Faith, Hope, and Charity), brother/cook Tugger and sister/waitress Dotty. Soon, they meet professional wrestlers Bad Boris and Awful Abdul, cops Officer Gretchen and Officer Quinn, and deranged ranger Slaughter Buzzard.
The onlookers are skeptical, until Rollie turns on the television which is playing the news talking about Sidney Preston and the buried money. The newsman talks about his life and says he was born in El Puente, Arizona. The onlookers of the diner head out on a mad dash to find the dough. When they find the money in El Puente's famous bridge, Slaughter accidentally drops it into the canyon. They follow clues to the next million which is in Sidney's houseboat and lose it as well as it gets shredded in Sidney's table-sized paper shredder. After finding and losing the third million as it falls out of the hands of a greedy aeronaut, they all give up as the movie ends. During the closing credits, Bob informs the audience that there is one million dollars somewhere in the US and if they follow the clues in specially marked Glad-Lock bags, they have the chance to win $1 million.
Parts of the film were shot at Glen Canyon in Utah. [3]
While performing a routine stunt for this film, stuntman Dar Robinson died on November 21, 1986.
Producer Dino De Laurentiis conceived the idea for Million Dollar Mystery when he visited New York and saw a row of people lining up for what he presumably thought was a movie. A companion told De Laurentiis that they were actually lining up for lottery tickets. [4]
Glad Bags sponsored a sweepstakes timed for the film's release. The company gave away entry forms, and the audience would fill out these forms with their answer to where the last million is hiding, based on clues given in the film. De Laurentiis said of the film:
This is a really broad comedy with car chases, designed for the young major moviegoing audience, about 12 to 24 years old. The sweepstakes gives us the potential to reach even more people – the infrequent moviegoer, the person more interested in winning a million dollars than in going to the movies, and these are the kind of people who use Glad Bags, housewives who maybe go to the movies once or twice a year. [5]
De Laurentiis had high expectations for the film, but it did not turn out to be a hit. The winner of the contest ended up being 14-year-old Alesia Lenae Jones of Bakersfield, California, who successfully guessed that the loot was hidden in the bridge of the nose of the Statue of Liberty. [6] [7] [8] Apparently, thousands of contestants had arrived at the same answer, and her entry was chosen in a random drawing. [9]
Million Dollar Mystery was a box office flop grossing $989,033 against a $10 million budget.
The film received negative critical reviews. The film holds a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 6 reviews. [10]
The film was released on VHS and Laserdisc by HBO Video in 1987 with the contest info at the end of the movie omitted. It was later issued by Anchor Bay Entertainment on DVD in 2007 with the theatrical ending intact, and reissued again on DVD and Blu-ray by Kino Lorber in Spring 2021.
Comedy film is a film genre that emphasizes humor. These films are designed to amuse audiences and make them laugh. Films in this genre typically have a happy ending, with dark comedy being an exception to this rule. Comedy is one of the oldest genres in film, and it is derived from classical comedy in theatre. Some of the earliest silent films were slapstick comedies, which often relied on visual depictions, such as sight gags and pratfalls, so they could be enjoyed without requiring sound. To provide drama and excitement to silent movies, live music was played in sync with the action on the screen, on pianos, organs, and other instruments. When sound films became more prevalent during the 1920s, comedy films grew in popularity, as laughter could result from both burlesque situations but also from humorous dialogue.
Stanley Earl Kramer was an American film director and producer, responsible for making many of Hollywood's most famous "message films" and a liberal movie icon. As an independent producer and director, he brought attention to topical social issues that most studios avoided. Among the subjects covered in his films were racism, nuclear war, greed, creationism vs. evolution, and the causes and effects of fascism. His other films included High Noon, The Caine Mutiny, and Ship of Fools (1965).
Thomas Edward Bosley was an American actor, television personality and entertainer. Bosley is best known for portraying Howard Cunningham on the ABC sitcom Happy Days (1974–1984) for which he received a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series nomination. Bosley also did a variety of voiceover work such as playing the lead character in the animated series Wait Till Your Father Gets Home, and the narrator of the syndicated film history documentary series That's Hollywood. He's also known for his role as Sheriff Amos Tupper in the Angela Lansbury lead CBS mystery series Murder, She Wrote (1984–1988), and as the title character in the NBC/ABC series Father Dowling Mysteries (1989–1991).
Richard Overton is an American screenwriter, actor and comedian. His writing credits include Dennis Miller Live (1994–2002), and his acting credits include Willow (1988), The Rocketeer (1991), Eight Legged Freaks (2002) and Northfork (2003).
Conan the Destroyer is a 1984 American epic sword and sorcery film directed by Richard Fleischer from a screenplay by Stanley Mann and a story by Roy Thomas and Gerry Conway. Based on the character Conan the Barbarian created by Robert E. Howard, it is the sequel to Conan the Barbarian (1982). The film stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Mako reprising their roles as Conan and Akiro, the Wizard of the Mounds, respectively. The cast also includes Grace Jones, Wilt Chamberlain, Tracey Walter, and Olivia d'Abo.
Edward Deezen is an American actor and comedian, best known for his roles as "nerd" characters in films including Grease, Grease 2, Midnight Madness, I Wanna Hold Your Hand, 1941, and WarGames. He has had larger starring roles in independent films such as Surf II, Mob Boss, Beverly Hills Vamp, and Teenage Exorcist.
Richard Owen Fleischer was an American film director whose career spanned more than four decades, beginning at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood and lasting through the American New Wave.
Midnight Madness is a 1980 American comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and starring David Naughton, Stephen Furst, Eddie Deezen, and Maggie Roswell.
Empire International Pictures was an American independent small-scale theatrical distribution company. Charles Band formed Empire in 1983, prompted by his dissatisfaction with distributors' handling of films made by his previous business, Charles Band International Productions. Empire produced and distributed a number of low-budget horror and fantasy feature films, including Re-Animator, Troll, Ghoulies, Trancers, and From Beyond.
Tai-Pan is a 1986 adventure drama film directed by Daryl Duke, loosely based on James Clavell's 1966 novel of the same name. While many of the same characters and plot twists are maintained, a few smaller occurrences are left out. Filmed under communist Chinese censorship, some portions of Clavell's story were considered too offensive to be filmed as written and considerable changes were made.
King Kong Lives is a 1986 American monster adventure film directed by John Guillermin. Produced by the De Laurentiis Entertainment Group and featuring special effects by Carlo Rambaldi, the film stars Linda Hamilton and Brian Kerwin.
Howling: New Moon Rising is a 1995 British direct-to-video comedy horror film, directed, produced, and written by Clive Turner, the seventh film in The Howling film series. The film reuses footage from the previous three sequels in the Howling series, and features characters from each film. The plot has a detective in the film uncover several clues that connect events of the latter part of the series. It was followed by The Howling: Reborn in 2011.
The Glad Products Company is an American company specializing in trash bags and plastic food storage containers.
De Laurentiis Entertainment Group (DEG) was an entertainment production company and distribution studio founded by Italian producer Dino De Laurentiis. The company is notable for producing Manhunter, Blue Velvet, the horror films Near Dark and Evil Dead II, King Kong Lives, and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, as well as distributing The Transformers: The Movie.
Maximum Overdrive is a 1986 American horror film written and directed by Stephen King. The film stars Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington, and Yeardley Smith. The screenplay was inspired by and loosely based on King's short story "Trucks", which was included in the author's first collection of short stories, Night Shift, and follows the events after all machines become sentient when Earth crosses the tail of a comet, initiating a world-wide killing spree.
Surf II is a 1984 American comedy film written and directed by Randall M. Badat and starring Eddie Deezen, Linda Kerridge, Eric Stoltz and Jeffrey Rogers. The plot follows two dim-witted surfers attempting to thwart the plans of a mad scientist attempting to rid the beaches of surfers by turning them into zombie punks through chemically-altered soda pop.
Red Sonja is a 1985 American epic sword and sorcery film directed by Richard Fleischer, and written by Clive Exton and George MacDonald Fraser. It is based on the character created by Robert E. Howard, Red Sonya of Rogatino, who also inspired the comic book character of the same name.
Radar Secret Service is a 1950 action film starring John Howard, produced by Barney A. Sarecky and directed by Sam Newfield. The film was featured on the American television show Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Sweepstakes Winner is a 1939 American comedy film directed by William C. McGann, written by John W. Krafft, and starring Marie Wilson, Johnnie Davis, Allen Jenkins, Charley Foy, Jerry Colonna and Frankie Burke. It was released by Warner Bros. on May 20, 1939.
The 10th Stinkers Bad Movie Awards were released by the Hastings Bad Cinema Society in 1988 to honour the worst films the film industry had to offer in 1987. As follows, there was only a Worst Picture category with provided commentary for each nominee, as well as a list of films that were also considered for the final list but ultimately failed to make the cut.