Midnight Madness (1980)

Leon picks college students to participate in his all night scavenger hunt. Five teams receive clues to solve leading them to the next clue site hidden in the city.

Directors:

Michael Nankin, David Wechter

Writers:

David Wechter, Michael Nankin

Stars:

David Naughton, Debra Clinger, Joel Kenney

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
David Naughton	...	Adam - Yellow Team Leader
Debra Clinger	...	Laura - Yellow Team
Joel Kenney	...	Flynch - Yellow Team (as Joel P. Kenney)
David Damas	...	Marvin - Yellow Team
Michael J. Fox	...	Scott - Yellow Team
Stephen Furst	...	Harold - Blue Team Leader
Patricia Alice Albrecht	...	Lucille - Blue Team
Andy Tennant	...	Melio - Blue Team
Brian Frishman	...	Barf - Blue Team
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

Storyline

Leon planned "the great all-nighter" by picking college students to participate in an all-night long scavenger hunt. The 5 teams are given clues to solve, leading them to the next clue, hidden throughout the city. Making his film debut; Michael J. Fox, as Scott, the younger brother.

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Plot Keywords:

hare krishna | psychotronic film | clue | college student | sorority | 

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Taglines:

The most fun you'll ever have...in the dark

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

The movie inspired Joe Belfiore, a high school junior in Clearwater, Florida, to create a similar game. He took the game with him to Stanford University, then ultimately to Microsoft. The Game, as it came to be called, in turn, inspired the movie The Game (1997).

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Goofs

For the first clue, the telescope readings are 38-22-23/56-10-11. When Marvin enters them, he mutters the numbers 22-23-68-22.

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Quotes

Laura - Yellow Team: [as Adam starts to drive off] And I suppose it was too much of a bother to remember that today's your brother's birthday!

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Crazy Credits

Michael J. Fox is listed as Michael Fox in the opening credits and Michael J. Fox in the end credits.

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Connections

Featured in Sneak Previews: Soldier of Orange/The Human Factor/Coal Miner's Daughter/The Europeans (1980)

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Soundtracks

Midnight Madness
By David Wechter and Julius Wechter
Sung by Donna Fein

User Reviews

A Classic Guilty Pleasure

They don't make movies like this anymore – though some may say that's a good thing. Although this was amongst the first of Disney's PG rated films, it has more of the feel of the G films their studio turned out in the‘70s (i.e. "Freaky Friday," "The World's Greatest Athlete") than the PG films that came out in the early ‘80s (i.e. "Watcher in the Woods," "Tron," "Something Wicked This Way Comes"). Because of Disney's backing, "Midnight Madness" obviously had a large budget. A huge cast and a ton of diverse locations go to show that. But zaniness, a madcap scavenger hunt, and spectacular visual style weren't enough to save the film from being an enormous flop... A failure at the box office, most of us were introduced to the film on HBO in the early ‘80s, back in the days when the same films would be shown 29 times a week (Oh, wait – they still do that!). Essentially HBO did for this film what CBS did for "The Wizard of Oz" – they created an enormous cult audience for a sugary-sweet mega-flop....

The biggest problem that makes this a "bad" film is that there's too many characters and very few of them are fleshed out – Eddie Deezen's "squad" don't even have names! The blue team, although they're the villains, are the most endearing and have the most work put into their characters (with the exception of the girl, who can't act & doesn't have enough to do). Harold, perfectly played to the hilt by Stephen Furst, is really the only one whose character is fully realized in the film. The other standout character is goof-off Melio, played with tons of charm by now-director Andy Tennant. Although then-Dr. Pepper spokesman David Naughton was supposed to be the star, his character often comes off obnoxious, particularly when pitted against his brother Adam, Michael J. Fox. While everyone has favorite characters, I don't think anyone who loves the movie could disagree that Furst and Fox are the only two characters that you really learn anything about.

Despite the film's many flaws and bad actors (most of whom fell off the face of the earth after this movie) it still works because the actors appeared to be having fun -- and fun on the set equals fun on the screen. Come on, what college jock doesn't dream of floating around in a beer vat and what zoftig girl doesn't dream of stealing the show at the local discotech... er... I guess it would be at a rave nowadays... Campy, squeaky-clean fun for anyone who was young in the ‘70s & ‘80s, it's only fitting that this has finally gotten the massive video release that it deserves. But where the hell's the widescreen DVD release with the commentary, trailer and the full version of the song that plays in the disco?

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

8 February 1980 (USA)

Also Known As:

The All-Night Treasure Hunt

Filming Locations:

Golf 'N' Stuff - 10555 Firestone Blvd., Norwalk, California, USA

Box Office

Gross USA:

$2,900,000

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$2,900,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

Walt Disney Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1