Fun with Dick and Jane (1977)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Ted Kotcheff

Writers:

Gerald Gaiser (story)
David Giler (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

18 March 1977 (West Germany)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Bonnie and Clyde they ain't.

Plot:

When an upwardly mobile couple find themselves unemployed and in debt, they turn to armed robbery in desperation.

Plot Keywords:

Unemployment | Robbery | Heist | Cynical | Strauss Also Sprach Zarathustra

Cast

George Segal	...	Dick Harper
Jane Fonda	...	Jane Harper
Ed McMahon	...	Charlie Blanchard
Richard Gautier	...	Dr. Will (as Dick Gautier)
Allan Miller	...	Loan Company Manager
Hank Garcia	...	Raoul Esteban
John Dehner	...	Jane's father
Mary Jackson	...	Jane's mother
Walter Brooke	...	Jim Weeks
Sean Frye	...	Billy Harper
James Jeter	...	Immigration officer
Maxine Stuart	...	Blanchard's secretary
Fred Willard	...	Bob
Selma Archard	...	Beverly Hills woman
John Brandon	...	Pete Winston

Runtime:

95 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Metrocolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Finland:K-16 (cut) (1977) | Australia:M | Singapore:PG | Iceland:L | South Korea:12 | UK:PG | Finland:K-15 (uncut) (2006) | Sweden:11 | USA:PG

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

When Ed McMahon was announcer on "The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson" (1962), he wanted to show a clip from this movie on the show to help promote the film. When he explained he could not because the clip was damaged when he was a guest on the show hosted by rival talk show host Merv Griffin, his boss Johnny Carson ribbed him a little bit about being on another talk show.

Quotes:

Charlie Blanchard: You can tell me anything.
Dick Harper: We just robbed your safe.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "3rd Rock from the Sun: Fun with Dick and Janet: Part 2 (#3.2)" (1997)

Soundtrack:

Ahead of the Game

creative comedy with questionable moral standards

Fun with Dick and Jane serves as an entertaining satire on the upper middle class standards of living, produced in the presumably stifling corporate environment of the mid-1970's. A drunken Ed McMahon lays off overpaid executive George Segal. Lovely wife Jane Fonda, who handles matters fairly well when their landscapers tear up all their unpaid work, finds herself forced to find some source of income to maintain their expensive lifestyles – it would seem Segal's unemployment only takes them so far. Fonda secures a job as a model while Segal manages to lose his benefits when a gay unemployment officer spots him working as a bit character in the opera. When Fonda loses her apparently not very secure job, the now poor couple head out to get a loan. There they stumble upon a holdup, get taken hostage, and somehow wind up with all the loot. Enjoying their first taste of crime, the pair bungles their way through a series of hold-ups and eventually become near pros. They manage to restore their house to its previous splendor, cockily inviting McMahon to a chic pool party so he can have a gander at their newfound success. Of course, a sip only gets you thirsty, so the greedy couple find themselves faced with the quest for the Big Gulp. The story is funny for the most part, with memorable moments akin to Segal discussing music with a record store clerk during a robbery. There's healthy dose of anarchy for good measure, with destruction happily joining hands with the nouveau pauvre and the will to get back what has been lost. By having its characters steal primarily from the allegedly greedy or malevolent – the phone company, loan sharks, the Climax Court Motel – the film does maintains some shaky moral standards. In addition, Fun contains a few instances of dated racism, with jabs at homosexuals, Hispanics and African-Americans (who hold a pajama dance party in McMahon's office as Segal and Fonda crack his safe, their loud drill protected by the celebrants' louder music). A startlingly racist part goes to Hank Garcia, as an unemployed cleaner who works a bad influence on Segal. Nevertheless, the film on the whole manages to function well as a thoroughly entertaining comedy, with an ample dose of anarchism for good measure.