Fun with Dick and Jane (1977)

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

Director:

Ted Kotcheff

Writers:

David Giler (screenplay), Jerry Belson (screenplay)

Stars:

Jane Fonda, George Segal, Ed McMahon

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
George Segal	...	Dick Harper
Jane Fonda	...	Jane Harper
Ed McMahon	...	Charlie Blanchard
Dick Gautier	...	Dr. Will
Allan Miller	...	Loan Company Manager
Hank Garcia	...	Raoul Esteban
John Dehner	...	Jane's Father
Walter Brooke	...	Mr. Weeks
Sean Frye	...	Billy
Mary Jackson	...	Jane's Mother
James Jeter	...	Immigration Officer
Maxine Stuart	...	Charles' Secretary
Fred Willard	...	Bob
Selma Archerd	...	Beverly Hills Matron
John Brandon	...	Pete Winston

Storyline

Manager Dick Harper and his attractive young wife Jane are used to a comfortable lifestyle. They just build a swimming-pool when Dick is fired very unexpectedly - leaving him with $70,000 debt on the house. They try to hide this from the neighbors and just cut down their expenses, but soon it's obvious: living from unemployment bonus drives them crazy, it's uncertain if they can keep the house. Dick doesn't see another way out than robbing drug stores - but this takes more skill than expected! Only as a team Dick and Jane can succeed.

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Plot Keywords:

unemployment | heist | robbery | what happened to epilogue | toe socks | 

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Taglines:

Bonnie and Clyde they ain't.

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Movie Channel [United States]

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

18 March 1977 (West Germany)

Also Known As:

No robarás a menos que sea necesario

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$30,000,000, 31 December 1977

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

95 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Included among the American Film Institute's 2000 list of the 500 movies nominated for the Top 100 Funniest American Movies.

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Goofs

[All goofs for this title are spoilers.]

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Quotes

Jane Harper: What kind of lunatic spends $1000 on lunch when he's out of a job and deeply in debt?
Dick Harper: The kind that knows you can't get a job if you look like a loser.
Jane Harper: If I was Diners Club, I'd your stomach bronzed and put it in the Hall of Fame.

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Crazy Credits

End of film, ticker-tape message: BULLETIN, FEBRUARY 11, 1977 . . . THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF TAFT AEROSPACE ANNOUNCED TODAY THE APPOINTMENT OF RICHARD HARPER AS PRESIDENT, REPLACING CHARLES BLANCHARD WHO RESIGNED . . . THE BOARD PRAISED HARPER, 42, FOR DISPLAYING "THE IMAGINATION AND INGENUITY THAT HAS MADE AMERICAN INDUSTRY WHAT IT IS TODAY."

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Alternate Versions

Two additional scenes were added to the broadcast television premiere on ABC. One that stands out is a scene with Jane (Fonda) getting a job behind a cosmetics counter and having to confront a very difficult obese older female customer. This was a very funny scene that seems to now be lost forever and Is NOT going to be included in the new DVD release.

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Connections

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

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Soundtracks

Ahead of the Game (Title Song)
Written and sung by The Movies

User Reviews

Anti-heroes in suburbia

It's a sign of the times (i.e., the 1970s) when Dick and Jane rob the telephone company at gunpoint and all the customers applaud. It's distinctly un-PC now, but very funny back then. As usual, it's a "Jane Fonda movie" that thinly conceals a social message underneath its comic scenario, but I didn't feel it got too preachy until near the finish-line. George Segal works very easily with Fonda, and there are some hugely funny scenes after an arduous opening wherein Segal loses his cushy job. The desperation of unemployment is touched upon briefly (for a comic effect), but there are some stabs at social commentary that do not work (as with two bad caveats involving a transsexual and a man with no vocal chords). But for every foul ball there comes along something fresh and groovy, like the sequence where Fonda acts her way out of neighborhood humiliation once the gardeners start rolling up her lawn, or when the gentleman from Food Stamps shows up at an inappropriate moment (a ritzy family dinner) confessing he just had a Big Mac and a Coke. **1/2 from ****