Ruthless People

Ruthless People
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Jim Abrahams David Zucker Jerry Zucker
Produced by	Michael Peyser
Written by	Dale Launer
Starring	Danny DeVito Bette Midler Judge Reinhold Helen Slater
Music by	Michel Colombier
Cinematography	Jan de Bont
Editing by	Gib Jaffe Arthur Schmidt
Distributed by	Touchstone Films
Release date(s)	June 27, 1986 (1986-06-27)
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$71,233,101 (USA)

Ruthless People is a 1986 black comedy written by Dale Launer, starring Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold and Helen Slater. It also features Bill Pullman as a supporting role in his film debut. A couple kidnap their ex-boss's wife to get revenge and extort money from him. They soon realise he does not want her back and was planning to kill her himself. Meanwhile the boss's mistress plans a blackmail attempt on him which also does not go as planned. The film was directed by David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker, best known for the zany Airplane! and Naked Gun comedies. This film, by contrast, is a straight comedy bordering on farce, with very few of the innumerable sight gags, puns and jokes of the other movies^{[citation needed]}.

Plot

Millionaire Sam Stone (DeVito) intends to murder his hated wife, Barbara (Midler) to gain control of her family fortune and run off with his mistress Carol. However he is pre-empted by a phone call from an anonymous man announcing that Barbara has been kidnapped and that Sam must pay a ransom or she will be killed. Overjoyed, Sam deliberately disobeys all of the kidnapper's demands believing this will ensure his wife's death, failing to pay, calling the press and speaking to the police.

The kidnappers are Ken (Reinhold) and Sandy Kessler (Slater), who want revenge on Sam for stealing Sandy's fashion design along with the Kesslers' life savings. Barbara is imprisoned in the Kessler's basement, where she proves a handful to the amateur kidnappers. When Sam doesn't show up with the ransom on several occasions it becomes obvious to Ken that Sam doesn't want his wife back, and would rather she were dead.

Carol secretly intends to blackmail Sam with the help of her handsome but dim-witted boyfriend Earl (Bill Pullman). Knowing Sam plans to dump his wife's body in the Hollywood Hills at night, Carol has Earl lie in wait with a video camera. He mistakenly films a rendezvous between a prostitute and her client performing noisy sex. Earl, hearing the woman's screams, thinks the murder is happening right in front of him. Without watching the tape, Carol sends an anonymous copy to Sam, who sees the sex act and thinks Carol has sent it to him as a titilating birthday present. Carol sends another anonymous copy to police chief Henry Benton (William G. Schilling) — who happens to be the man featured in the video. When Carol calls him, Benton, thinking that he is being blackmailed, asks for her demands and she tells him to arrest Sam Stone for murdering his wife. Benton orders a search of Sam's house, planning to plant evidence in it, but real evidence turns up; a bottle of chloroform Sam intended to use to sedate his wife and pictures of Sam with Carol. The kidnapping investigation, which has led to Ken by now, is immediately called off and Sam is arrested. Sam now faces the dilemma of having to get his wife back in order to prove his innocence.

Taking up exercise to relieve her boredom Barbara loses 20 pounds. She and Sandy bond unexpectedly over this and Sandy lets Barbara wear some of her dress designs to show off her new figure. Barbara loves them and offers to go into business with Sandy, so Sandy decides to let Barbara go. Barbara leaves the house, but comes back as soon as she finds out from the newspaper about Sam's mistress and realizes he wanted her dead. She returns and is attacked by a notorious local serial killer, The Bedroom Killer, who falls down the basement steps and dies. Barbara, Ken and Sandy plot revenge on Sam. Now desperate to prove his wife is alive, Sam offers to pay the ransom the moment Ken calls him again. Armed with Barbara's inside knowledge, they have increased the ransom to precisely equal Sam's own net worth: over $2 million. Sam is outraged, but has no choice. He withdraws the cash, but begs the police to watch the drop site. Carol realizes Earl's mistake, and that Barbara really was kidnapped. She calls Sam and learns the time and place of the ransom drop.

At the ransom drop, Sam waits with the cash (his life savings). Ken arrives in disguise, but then so do scores of hidden police, and Earl with a gun. In the ensuing confusion, Earl is captured and Ken drives his car off the end of Santa Monica pier with the ransom cash inside. The police search the water and bring up the car, with the body of the Bedroom Killer inside, dressed in Ken's clothes. Only a few thousand dollars of money are recovered from the sea. Although he has lost his money Sam holds out hope that Barbara will now definitely be killed. But Barbara shows up, telling the police that her kidnapper (the serial killer) was schizophrenic, believing himself to have accomplices, and so she was able to escape as soon as he left. The police walk away in satisfaction. Sam meanwhile is taken aback by how thin Barbara is. As they embrace she beats him up, tells him that she wants a divorce and pushes him into the water. On a beach not far away, Ken emerges from the water in scuba gear, carrying the briefcase with the ransom cash. Sandy runs to meet him and embraces him lovingly. They are joined by Barbara.

Cast

• Danny DeVito – Sam Stone
• Bette Midler – Barbara Stone
• Judge Reinhold – Ken Kessler
• Helen Slater – Sandy Kessler
• Anita Morris – Carol Dodsworth
• Bill Pullman – Earl Mott

Reception

The movie was a smash hit grossing $71,600,000 in box office receipts. Ruthless People received mostly positive reviews from critics and currently holds a 90% rating on review aggragator Rotten Tomatoes based on 21 reviews.

Influence

The film's theme song was co-written by Mick Jagger, Daryl Hall and Eurythmics co-member Dave Stewart and performed by Jagger. Assuming the song would be a hit, "Weird Al" Yankovic requested (and received) permission from Jagger to record a parody version, "Toothless People", for his upcoming Polka Party! album. When Jagger's song failed to crack the Top 40, Yankovic considered not recording his version; because Jagger had "authorized" the parody, however, he decided failing to produce it would be an insult to the artist and recorded it. Another song that was featured in the soundtrack which became moderately successful was Modern Woman by Billy Joel.

The movie version features different lyrics from the single version.

This movie contains one of Roger Ebert's favorite lines in movies in 1986. When Midler's character discovers that the kidnappers keep having to drop the ransom amount to the bargain basement amount of $10,000, Midler says while crying, "I've been kidnapped by Kmart!"

The film was later loosely remade in India twice: as the Telugu film Money (1993), as the Hindi film Mujhe Meri Biwi Se Bachaao (Save Me From My Wife) in 2001. It was also remade in Hong Kong as Mo deng pu ni ti in 1996.

All of these versions are based (however loosely) on the O. Henry story, "The Ransom of Red Chief".

External links

• Ruthless People at the Internet Movie Database
• Ruthless People at Rotten Tomatoes