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A Fine Mess

  • 19861986
  • PGPG
  • 1h 30m
IMDb RATING
4.7/10
1.6K
YOUR RATING
A Fine Mess (1986)
ActionComedyCrime
An actor and a chef fathom a plot to fix a horse race and attempt at capitalizing it, while striving to tackle two of the hitmen responsible for the scheme.An actor and a chef fathom a plot to fix a horse race and attempt at capitalizing it, while striving to tackle two of the hitmen responsible for the scheme.An actor and a chef fathom a plot to fix a horse race and attempt at capitalizing it, while striving to tackle two of the hitmen responsible for the scheme.
IMDb RATING
4.7/10
1.6K
YOUR RATING
    • Blake Edwards
    • Blake Edwards
  • Stars
    • Ted Danson
    • Howie Mandel
    • Richard Mulligan
    • Blake Edwards
    • Blake Edwards
  • Stars
    • Ted Danson
    • Howie Mandel
    • Richard Mulligan
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 19User reviews
    • 9Critic reviews
    • 35Metascore
  • See production, box office & company info
  • See more at IMDbPro
  • Photos32

    Ted Danson in A Fine Mess (1986)
    Ted Danson and Julianne Phillips in A Fine Mess (1986)
    Ted Danson and Howie Mandel in A Fine Mess (1986)
    Ted Danson and Howie Mandel in A Fine Mess (1986)
    Ted Danson and Howie Mandel in A Fine Mess (1986)
    Ted Danson, Howie Mandel, Stuart Margolin, and Richard Mulligan in A Fine Mess (1986)
    A Fine Mess (1986)
    A Fine Mess (1986)
    A Fine Mess (1986)
    A Fine Mess (1986)
    A Fine Mess (1986)
    A Fine Mess (1986)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Ted Danson
    Ted Danson
    • Spence Holden
    Howie Mandel
    Howie Mandel
    • Dennis Powell
    Richard Mulligan
    Richard Mulligan
    • Wayne 'Turnip' Parragella
    Stuart Margolin
    Stuart Margolin
    • Maurice 'Binky' Drundza
    Maria Conchita Alonso
    Maria Conchita Alonso
    • Claudia Pazzo
    Jennifer Edwards
    Jennifer Edwards
    • Ellen Frankenthaler
    Paul Sorvino
    Paul Sorvino
    • Tony Pazzo
    Rick Ducommun
    Rick Ducommun
    • Wardell
    Keye Luke
    Keye Luke
    • Ishimine
    Ed Herlihy
    Ed Herlihy
    • TV Reporter
    Walter Charles
    • Auctioneer
    Tawny Moyer
    Tawny Moyer
    • Leading Lady
    Emma Walton Hamilton
    Emma Walton Hamilton
    • First Extra
    Carrie Leigh
    • Second Extra
    Sharan Lea
    Sharan Lea
    • Young Girl
    Rick Overton
    Rick Overton
    • Companion
    John Short
    John Short
    • Assistant Director
    Teddy Wilson
    Teddy Wilson
    • Covington
    • (as Theodore Wilson)
      • Blake Edwards
      • Blake Edwards
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Location manager Ron [Ronald M. Quigley] scoured Los Angeles for the right kind of drive-in, only to find that nowhere in the megalopolis was one to be found. The solution was to locate a suitable parking lot and build the eatery to the specifications of the script. On a Brentwood corner lot, production designer Rodger Maus and his art and construction departments built a working drive-in dressed both inside and out with neon and jukeboxes, counter and kitchen. As soon as the building took shape, the local office personnel and residential neighbors began dropping by asking when it would open. They were very disappointed to learn that it wouldn't.
    • Goofs
      When the thugs chase Spence and Dennis away from the racetrack in their car, they wind up crashing into a vending table full of stuffed toys with the collision seen in an interior shot. In the exterior shot that follows, the camera can be seen in the car's back seat.
    • Quotes

      Dennis Powell: We're gonna die, Spence! We're gonna die!

      Spence Holden: No we're not...

      Dennis Powell: I still have orders!

    • Connections
      Referenced in The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: Howie Mandel/Mimi Kennedy/Calvin Trillin (1984)
    • Soundtracks
      A Fine Mess
      Written by Henry Mancini and Dennis Lambert

      Produced by Peter Bunetta and Rick Chudacoff for Ripe Productions

      Performed by The Temptations

    User reviews19

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    6/10
    A Fine Mess, not a Fine Movie
    When Spence Holden (Ted Danson), a womanizing actor, overhears the mob drugging a race horse he thinks he's hit pay dirt-- except that the two mobsters discovered him. Undeterred by two criminals pursuing him he rounds up his buddy Dennis (Howie Mandel) to help him place a bet on the doped-up horse. Although they succeed in placing the bet it wasn't happily ever after.

    Ted Danson plays a role he was very accustomed to in Cheers with some physical acting added in. Howie Mandel was the many-voiced ham of the duo. They were OK but they didn't deliver many laughs. The plot was silly but worked. The movie was watchable but nothing I'd watch over and over.
    helpful•0
    0
    • view_and_review
    • Aug 9, 2019

    Details

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    • Release date
      • August 8, 1986 (United States)
      • United States
      • Sony Movie Channel (United States)
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Laird International Studio - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Blake Edwards
      • Columbia Pictures
      • Delphi V Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • 1 hour 30 minutes
      • Color
      • Stereo

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