Tricks of the Trade (1988) (TV)

User Rating:

6.1/10   

Director:

Jack Bender

Writer (WGA):

Noreen Stone (written by)

Release Date:

6 December 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Mystery

Plot:

Catherine's world goes to pieces when she learns from the police that her husband Donald got killed - shot in the apartment of a prostitute...

Plot Keywords:

Shirtless | Sex Scene | Massage | Adultery | Undressing Scene

Cast

Cindy Williams	...	Catherine
Markie Post	...	Marla
Scott Paulin	...	Frank
James Whitmore Jr.
Chris Mulkey	...	Lt. Stryker
John Durbin
Armin Shimerman	...	Criminal
John Ritter	...	Donald Todsen
Tanya Boyd	...	Beverly
Laura Owens	...	Liz Morgenson
Nancy Morgan
Cain Devore	...	Rental Agent
John DiSanti	...	Tony
Jack Nance
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Cheryl Carter	...	Victoria Van Adams
Lisa Dalton		(as Lisa Loving)
S.A. Griffin	...	Bartender

Runtime:

USA:100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Company:

Leonard Hill Films

You wanna go into my booth and hear some great music, I've got the new Jim Nabors cassette

(There are Spoilers) About to close the deal of the century, for him at least, Brentwood stock broker Don Todson, John Ritter, tells his yuppie wife Kathy, Cindy Williams, that he'll be working at the office all night taking care of business. By tomorrow Don tell Kathy they'll be rich enough,with a whopping $5,000,000.00, to never have to work again.

It turns out that Don goes instead of to his office at Bryce/Donbar to the sleazy L.A red light district to have a night of wild and crazy fun with his favorite hooker Marla, Maukie Post. After Marla goes out to get a bottle of scotch the doorbell rings and as Don opens it, thinking that it's Marla, he gets blasted by a gun not a bottle of booze.

Getting the shocking news the next day about her husbands murder Kathy goes on her own to Marla's pad in order to find out for herself what Don was doing there like she was just too naive and clueless to figure it out by herself. Kathy ends up getting her car stolen her pocket book, with some $2,500.00 in cash and credit cards, ripped off and then kidnapped by these two creepy looking hoods demanding $700,000.00 that the late and departed Don supposedly stole from them.

With the police not getting anywhere in solving Don's murder Kathy is forced to first get friendly and then have Don's hooker girlfriend Marla team up with her in finding his killer. Which leads to a number of crazy encounters with individuals that Kathy would have never in a million years, with the company that she's used to mixing with. Kathy come in contact with hookers pimps porno shop owners and junkies but as it turned out the person who did in Don was a lot closer to her then any of them.

Amusing comedy/murder mystery with Cindy Williams and Maukie Post as the odd couple pair of amateur detectives Kathy & Marla tracking down Kathy's husband. Marla's john customer killer finding out at the end of the movie that Don was the master-mind behind a slick money laundering operation that was involved in the hold-up of a number of armored cars in and around L.A.

Really played more for laughs then anything else "Tricks of the Trade" has a number of very funny moments mostly at the expense of the nerdy and out-of-touch, with the world outside of Brentwood Calif, Kathy Todsen. Kathy together with her hooker friend Marla make not only the oddest of odd couples but one of the funniest pair of comedians, or comediennes, since Ralph Kramdon & Ed Norton of the 1950's award winning TV series The Honeymooners.