Midnight Madness (1980)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

Directors:

Michael Nankin
David Wechter

Writers:

Michael Nankin (writer)
David Wechter (writer)

Release Date:

8 February 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Family | Comedy

Tagline:

A Wacky College Adventure

Plot:

Leon planned "The Great Allnighter" by picking college students to participate in his night long scavenger hunt...

Plot Keywords:

Scavenger Hunt | College | Sorority | Contest | Volkswagen Beetle

Cast

David Naughton	...	Adam Larson - Yellow Team Leader
Debra Clinger	...	Laura - Yellow Team
David Damas	...	Marvin - Yellow Team
Michael J. Fox	...	Scott Larson (as Michael Fox)
Stephen Furst	...	Harold - Blue Team Leader
Patricia Alice Albrecht	...	Lucille - Blue Team
Andy Tennant	...	Melio - Blue Team
Brian Frishman	...	Barf - Blue Team
Joel Kenney	...	Flynch - Yellow Team (as Joel P. Kenney)
Sal Lopez	...	Blade - Blue Team
Maggie Roswell	...	Donna - Red Team Leader
Robyn Petty	...	Berle - Red Team
Betsy Lynn Thompson	...	Peggy - Red Team
Carol Gwynn Thompson	...	Lulu - Red Team
Eddie Deezen	...	Wesley - White Team Leader

Also Known As:

The All-Night Treasure Hunt (USA) (working title)
The Great All-Nighter (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

USA:112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Walt Disney Pictures

Trivia:

Feature film debut of Michael J. Fox.

Goofs:

Continuity: When entering the hotel, the landlady is handcuffed with her hands in front of her. When they are in the hotel room, her hands are now behind her back.

Quotes:

Leon: See you at the finish line... wherever that may be.

Movie Connections:

References It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)

Soundtrack:

Don't Know Why I Came

Embrace the "Madness"...

I had completely forgotten about "Midnight Madness" until just now when I found it while surfing the IMDB. Now, it's all coming back to me....

It was one of Naughton's first movies (as well as Fox's) and sharp-eyed connoisseurs will also pick out Kaplan (Henry from TV's "Alice"), Fiedler (he does the voice of Piglet in the "Winnie the Pooh" cartoons) and Blocker (son of Dan "Hoss" Blocker from TV's "Bonanza").

But the two that stand out in my mind are Furst (from "Animal House") and the superdude himself - Eddie Deezen. Furst plays a baddie this time out and has one of the best scenes when he asks his dad, "Why can't you just accept me for who I am?" His dad looks over his obese, slovenly frame and gives a simple, one-word response - "Yuck!"

And Deezen... well, he's a show in himself. As a latter-day Jerry Lewis he stumbles around, wades through mini-golf ponds, puts melon halves on his ears and ends up having Maggie Roswell fall for him. My hero.

As for the film, it's typical early-'80s stupidity with college kids staying up after curfew and going on a city-wide scavenger hunt to prove which division of students is the best on campus: the jocks, the nerds, the rich kids, the feminists or the group made up of a little of each.

Who wins? Who cares, you'll have a lot of fun watching Disney Pictures' first foray into PG territory before creating Touchstone Pictures.

Seven stars. Catch "Midnight Madness" any way you can!

Long live Leon!