I confess to loving comedies of the '80s, preferring them to what now passes for comedy. Ruthless People is a classic example of the genre, an extremely clever and funny film with a wonderful cast: Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold, Helen Slater, Anita Morris, and Bill Pullman.
The story concerns a wealthy clothing manufacturer Sam Stone (DeVito) who wants to see his wife Barbara (Midler) dead and informs his mistress Carol (Morris) that he's going to kill her. The mistress sends her boyfriend (Pullman) to get the murder on tape so they can blackmail him. He gets something on tape, but it's not Stone killing Barbara. Carol doesn't look at the tape, and her boyfriend has never seen Stone, so they don't know what they have. Sam isn't able to murder Barbara because she's been kidnapped by two nice people who just want some money (Reinhold and Slater). Sam is thrilled - all he has to do is disobey all their orders, not pay up, and someone else will kill his wife.
This is a very engaging comedy about blackmail, attempted murder, mistaken identity, infidelity, stealing ideas -- none of which is a great premise for a comedy but all of which work beautifully here. Danny DeVito is hilarious, and Bette Midler gives probably her best performance as his wife, who just wants to lose a few pounds. Reinhold and Slater are as adorable as they are guileless.
Highly recommended.
Ruthless People
1986
Action / Comedy / Crime
Ruthless People
1986
Action / Comedy / Crime
Plot summary
Sam Stone (Danny DeVito) is a clothing manufacturer who married his wife Barbara (Bette Midler) for the money that she was supposed to inherit from her dying father, but her father didn't die for another 15 years. He is now planning to kill her and he tells his girlfriend Carol Dodsworth (Anita Morris) what he intends to do. He then goes home to do just that, but when he gets there, she's not there. He soon receives a call from someone claiming to have kidnapped Barbara and threatening to kill her if he informs the police--which he does, hoping that they do. What Stone doesn't know is that the kidnappers, Ken (Judge Reinhold) and Sandy (Helen Slater) Kessler are a couple whose idea for a garment he stole and made a fortune with, are not that lethal' actually, Barbara is more lethal. Stone also doesn't know that Carol has another boyfriend, Earl Mott (Bill Pullman),and they plan to blackmail Sam by videotaping him disposing of Barbara's body. When Earl goes there to do that, the person who goes there is not Sam but a man with a hooker (Jeannine Bisignano),and he instructs the hooker to scream her head off. Earl mistakenly believes that Barbara's not dead and that Sam is killing her there; he's so freaked out that he doesn't think to make sure it's actually Sam. Carol tries to activate her plan by sending Sam a copy of the tape; Sam thinks that it's for something kinky that Carol wants and when Sam tells her that he'll do to her what was done on the tape and she assumes that he will kill her, so she sends another copy of the tape to the Chief of Police (William G. Schilling),and tells him that she wants him to arrest Sam for murdering Barbara, and the Chief is happy to oblige--because he is the man on the tape. The Chief manages to find the instruments that Sam intended to use to kill Barbara and arrests him. Now Sam must get Barbara back, alive, so he can prove he didn't kill her. Meanwhile, Barbara starts to bond with Sandy.
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gotta love those '80s
great black comedy
Sam Stone (Danny DeVito) married the boss's daughter Barbara (Bette Midler) expecting he would quickly die. Instead it took him 15 years to die and now Sam wants all of the family fortune. He relishes his plan to kill her with his mistress Carol. To his surprise, Barbara has been kidnapped by nice couple Ken (Judge Reinhold) and Sandy Kessler (Helen Slater). The amateur kidnappers demand $500k but Sam has no intention of paying and would love to have them kill her. The Kesslers blame Sam for stealing her spandex ideas. Carol plans to blackmail Sam with her real boyfriend idiot Earl (Bill Pullman).
The team of Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker try their hands in a black comedy and deliver. It doesn't have the same silliness of Airplane! and Top Secret!. It is still hilarious and much darker. I might even like it more darker. Devito and Midler are wild. The whole cast is great. It is super fun.
old-style zany comedy meets 1980s excess
Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker started out making movies like "Airplane!". With "Ruthless People", they took the style epitomized by 1960s comedies - a scheme snowballs - and turned it into a satire on the nouveau riche. Upon learning that his wife has gotten kidnapped by a pair of designers angry about a stolen prototype, a clothing designer celebrates, hoping that he can run off with his mistress. And before too long, more and more people get pulled into the fiasco.
Danny DeVito's character is the typical slimy businessman; he even buys a dog and names it Adolf! Bette Midler looks bizarre wearing a wig. I think that Helen Slater's character was my favorite, but Anita Morris's was also enigmatic. And then there's Bill Pullman (whom I never confused with Bill Paxton): he has bleached hair! It's not the funniest movie but I enjoyed it. It's got a lot of "oh no...oh yes" scenes. You'll like it and you'll like Midler's other 1986 movie poking fun at rich Angelenos: "Down and Out in Beverly Hills".
PS: "Weird Al" Yankovic spoofed the theme song as "Toothless People".