Million Dollar Mystery (1987)
Picture:
C+ Sound: C+ Extras: C- Sound: C-
Hoping to
be a new It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
but with a cheapness much more like Scavenger
Hunt and a contest like Inchon,
Richard Fleischer’s lame Million Dollar
Mystery (1987) was written by the Revenge
Of The Nerds scribes in what is almost a 94-miuntes-long ad for Glad
plastic bag products. Fleischer
apparently was in it for the money himself, because this material is very weak
and this was one of the last films DeLaurentiis Entertainment Group released as
a studio before folding. Watching this,
you can see why.
The film
stars Happy Days dad and national Glad spokesman Tom Bosley as a rich man with
a big fortune to give away to whichever idiot can find it first. With $4 Million of stolen money hidden
“somewhere”, the various quirky nuts go to find it. Kevin Pollack shows up, Rich Hall is here in
an early appearance and they even threw in a Playboy Playmate. I guess Penny Baker knew all kinds of things
about Glad Bags.
The film
had the additional gimmick of a contest to the public with the prize at a
million dollars. However, the film made
just under that amount and the producers still
had to give away the money. Bosley’s
character does not last long and when he dies, this just gets worse. It even feels like the film version of the
board game Clue, which knocked off
Neil Simon’s great Murder By Death
(1976) to begin with, leaving this at least two generations away from an
original comedy idea. As a matter of
fact, watching Bosley’s Glad TV ads in a compilation would have been more
entertaining. Too bad they are not bonus
features. All in all, this is one big,
embarrassing yawn!
The
anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image was actually shot by the legendary
cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who has directed and shot so many classics that
this wacky work is at the bottom of his credits. The transfer is adequate, with fairly good
color. The sound was distorted analog
Ultra Stereo, a lesser, cheaper version of Dolby A and it shows with limited
surrounds and fidelity. The only extra
is the trailer, but it is amusing.
- Nicholas Sheffo
