Ernest Goes to Jail (1990)

User Rating:

4.6/10   

Director:

John R. Cherry III

Writer (WGA):

Charlie Cohen (written by)

Release Date:

6 April 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Family

Plot:

Bumbling Ernest P. Worrell is assigned to jury duty, where a crooked lawyer notices a resemblance with crime boss Mr...

Plot Keywords:

Jury Duty | Court | Electrocution | Electric Chair | Sequel

Cast

Jim Varney	...	Ernest P. Worrell / Mr. Felix Nash / Auntie Nelda
Gailard Sartain	...	Chuck
Bill Byrge	...	Bobby
Barbara Tyson	...	Charlotte Sparrow (as Barbara Bush)
Barry Scott	...	Rubin Bartlett
Randall 'Tex' Cobb	...	Lyle
Dan Leegant	...	Oscar Pendlesmythe
Charles Napier	...	Warden
Jim Conrad	...	Eddie
Jackie Welch	...	Judge
Melanie Wheeler	...	Prosecutor
Jeffrey Buckner Ford	...	Defense Attorney (as Buck Ford)
Daniel Butler	...	Waiter
Charlie Lamb	...	Another Con
Mac Bennett	...	Con

Runtime:

81 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:L | Australia:PG | UK:PG | USA:PG

Filming Locations:

Nashville, Tennessee, USA

Company:

Touchstone Pictures

Trivia:

There were a few extended and deleted scenes that were not featured in the original version of the movie, but were in some made-for-TV versions. 1. There was an extended scene where Ernest was washing himself in a washing machine, and was staggering after he stepped out. 2. A scene where Ernest was trying to sneak out of jail and was found by the searchlights. Then, he was making shadow puppets. 3. An extended scene where Nash (as Ernest) was in Mr. Penalsmythe's office negotiating the clerk job. 4. A deleted scene where Ernest was working as a bank clerk.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: When Ernest becomes magnetic and locks himself inside the vault, the drawer about to get attracted to Ernest has a number showing "175." But when the drawer is trying to bust open, the number says, "183."

Quotes:

Ernest P. Worrell: Like in real, really, really, really, really real prison? The hoose-gow, the slammer, the joint, Alcatraz, San Quentin, Sing Sing, Oh no. I'm in... I'm in... jail!

Movie Connections:

Spoofs Take the Money and Run (1969)

Soundtrack:

Doin' Time

The Unseen Ernest

Though long believed to be Jim Varney's creation, the character Ernest is steeped in literary lore. This stock character was created by the expatriates in Paris during the early twenties. Several scholars have attributed it to Gertrude Stein herself, citing evidence that "Earnst" -- the name taken from Dadist Max Ernst -- was her nickname for specific ubiquitous prostitutes she more frequently solicited. This is debatable, though, since there are three specific short stories by expatriate writers using the stock Earnst character: Fitzgerald's "Earnst Isn't Rich," Joyce's "Day in the Life of the Janitor," and Hemingway's "Dead Whore on a Mountain." All of these stories, and an accumulated history on this character that was passed by some of the great writers of the twentieth century, can be found in the forthcoming "The Importance of Being Earnst," edited by Joyce Carol Oates.

It was this literary tradition that led director, former ad executive, and "co-creator" John Cherry to take the dare and approach one of the days finest writers, Philip Roth, to tackle a tale of Ernest. Roth was apparently a fan of the early stories, and he took the opportunity to graft Ernest into a tale he was already writing as an expose on prisons -- a muckraking masterpiece he was concocting in the tradition of Upton Sinclair. But when Roth turned in his first draft, Cherry was surprised to find an all-prose script that involved Ernest being trapped in an Israeli prison with an sadomasochistic literary fan and Roth himself. Cherry rejected the script, citing a lack of "Knowhatimean's," though Roth would later tell confidants that Cherry was simply anti-Semitic.

Cherry then gave the script to his pet arragutang to re-write. The simean grafted the script onto the other Ernest movies, including a several references to the ever-present anti-holiday-consumerism themes of "Ernest Saves Christmas." Unfortunately the arragutang, Benny, died before he could finish, and his trainer Charlie Cohen ending up getting final credit.

But the tale doesn't end there. Roth and Cherry later reconciled, and this led to Roth contributing to the unfinished "Ernest the Pirate"; supposedly these scenes involve the rescue of a nubile great-granddaughter of a Holocaust survivor who was attending Columbia University before being trapped on the high seas. He also worked in thinly veiled criticisms of the Ernest movies in between "Goes to Jail" and "Pirate," including a line that went, "I've been scared stupid, I've rode again, I've slam dunked, I've even been in the army, but I've never been a pirate before. Now, suck my **** while I read Dosteyeksky."