Love & Money (1982)

Director:

James Toback

Writer:

James Toback (writer)

Release Date:

12 February 1982 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A billionaire businessman hires a man to influence a South American dictator. He winds up having an affair with the billionaire's wife. |

Plot Keywords:

Beautiful Woman | Adultery | Independent Film

Cast

Ray Sharkey	...	Byron Levin
Ornella Muti	...	Catherine Stockheinz
Klaus Kinski	...	Frederic Stockheinz
Armand Assante	...	Lorenzo Prado
King Vidor	...	Walter Klein
Susan Heldfond
William Prince	...	Paultz
Tony Sirico	...	Raoul (as Anthony Sirico)
Jacqueline Brookes	...	Mrs. Paultz
Daniel Faraldo
Rodolfo Hoyos Jr.	...	Gen. Sanzer
Terry Jastrow	...	Clem Dixon
Tom McFadden	...	Blair
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Cynthia Allison	...	Newscaster
Breck Costin	...	Hotel Doorman
Sonny Gibson	...	Bodyguard
Laura Grayson	...	Adela
Stephen Keep Mills	...	Hankland (as Stephen Keep)
Tony Plana	...	National Guard General
Gene Rutherford	...	Hotel Waiter
Kathy Spring	...	Melanie Dixon
Suzie Welsh	...	Sandy

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA | West Germany

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Finland:K-16 | USA:R

Company:

CiP - Europaische Treuhand AG

Quite mediocre...

but very entertaining. Byron Levin (Ray Sharkey) is a middle-class man who is working in a bank somewhere in Los Angeles. He is living together with his grandfather and a girl, who's just a friend according to Byron. Frederic Stockheinz (Klaus Kinski) is a businessman and owner of a multinational company, obviously a symbol of the bad capitalistic world. Mr. Stockheinz asks Byron to travel to Central America and talk to the president of Costa Salva (Costa Salva?), because he is afraid that Costa Salva is heading politically too far left, something that could cause a problem to his mining in the region. But wait, this is not all. Byron is also banging Mr. Stockheinzs' wife, a young and absolutely gorgeous woman (something that can be bought with money).

Mr. Stockheinz: "It's not 1949, nationalization belongs to history. In the future multinational companies will own the world."

Well... Probably true. But this movie isn't actually left-wing criticism against the rules (money) and idealists aren't always what they look like in the beginning. But I'm not convinced that all movies have a message and I'm not going to search for one here. When you try really hard, you'll probably find something deeper in it, maybe even something that never crossed the mind of the ones who made the film. I guess that is quite common in film-criticism.

To me the film is simply a black comedy, maybe a sign of perverted humour? Kinski is a lift to the film, and I admit that he was the reason why I went to see this film. I believe that "Love and Money" is something for Kinski-fans, not for any objective viewer.