The incredible kidnapping of crazy Mrs. Stone

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Movie
German title The incredible kidnapping of crazy Mrs. Stone
Original title Ruthless People
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1986
length 91 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Jim Abrahams , David Zucker , Jerry Zucker
script Dale Launer
production Michael Peyser
music Michel Colombier
camera Jan de Bont
cut Give Jaffe , Arthur Schmidt
occupation

The Incredible Abduction of Mad Mrs. Stone (Original Title: Ruthless People ) is a 1986 comedy film with Bette Midler , Danny DeVito , Helen Slater and Judge Reinhold . Bill Pullman played a supporting role, making it his first appearance in a feature film. It was also the first film for screenwriter Dale Launer . Directed by Jim Abrahams , David Zucker and Jerry Zucker . The title track Ruthless People is sung by Mick Jagger .

action

Fashion tycoon Sam Stone is a millionaire and hates his wife Barbara, whom he married for financial reasons in order to get her father's money. He decides to kill her and lead a life with his lover, Carol Dodsworth, whom he shares in his plan. Before the crime can be carried out, however, Barbara is kidnapped.

The kidnappers are Ken Kessler and his wife Sandy, a really kind-hearted couple with financial problems. Sandy was an aspiring fashion designer, but was stripped of her designs by Sam Stone, who celebrated success with her intellectual property. They're bluffing and threatening to kill Barbara if Sam doesn't pay the $ 500,000 sum. He doesn't even think about delivering the ransom, since this development suits him, but mimes the desperate husband in front of the police and the press. Kessler, who never intended to kill Barbara, ultimately reduces the ransom from $ 500,000 to $ 10,000, but Sam still refuses to pay. Meanwhile, Barbara is pleased to find that she has lost a lot of weight during her captivity with her kidnappers through sporting activities, which she had previously not been able to do despite numerous efforts. When she asks Sandy if she has clothes to try on, Sandy gives her some of the pieces she has designed, whereupon Barbara recognizes Sandy's talent. The two women become friends, and Barbara learns that Sam was not willing to pay the money for them, which offends her.

In a parallel plot, Carol Dodsworth and her boyfriend Earl try to blackmail Sam, who think the kidnapping is just a staged act. They send Sam a supposedly incriminating videotape, assuming that it shows Sam murdering his wife. In truth, however, Earl filmed the local police chief having a love game. When Sam was amused when he received the video and said he would do the same to Carol, she sent another copy to the police. There the video gets into the hands of the police chief, who is completely irritated and understands that Carol wants to blackmail him with the sexual recordings. Believing the tape showed evidence, she asked him to arrest Sam. In fact, the police found in his apartment the paraphernalia he had obtained for his original but not carried out murder plan, as well as evidence of the affair with Carol. Sam becomes the main suspect and now has a massive interest in seeing his wife come back alive so that suspicion is no longer on him.

Sandy has since released Barbara, who promised her to make her big as a fashion designer. When Ken Kessler returns and hears about it, he thinks Barbara will call the police. Shortly thereafter, a police officer actually rings the doorbell, but only wants to warn the residents of the area about a psychopath. Barbara returns to the Kesslers after finding out about her husband's liaison and arrest in a newspaper. However, she is surprised by the fugitive psychopath who tries to kill her first and then Ken. However, the murderer falls down a flight of stairs and dies.

As revenge on Sam, Barbara now works with the Kesslers to get as much money out of her husband as possible and helps them to correctly estimate the amount of Sam's fortune. He responds to the kidnappers' last demand - $ 10,000 - which Ken and Sandy now reject. In total, he should now pay a ransom of two million dollars from his own property not belonging to the community of property. When talking to Sam on the phone, Barbara makes noises as if she was being tortured. Sam then agrees to hand over the ransom.

The handover of the money takes place in a public square. The police present let the masked Ken run to lead the police to the hiding place. Suddenly Earl appears trying to steal the money. He will be arrested on the spot. When Ken drives away with the car and the prey, there is a chase in which he drives the car into the sea. The police later find the psychopath's corpse in the water, which was draped by the Kesslers and Barbara along with the mask worn by Ken. Meanwhile, Barbara goes to her husband, who until then thought she was dead, and pushes him into the sea. In the last scene, Ken emerges from the water in diving gear, the suitcase with the ransom in hand. Sandy is already waiting for him on the beach, and Barbara also arrives shortly afterwards to celebrate their triumph with her new friends.

Reviews

Roger Ebert wrote in the June 27, 1986 Chicago Sun-Times review that it was hard to play a lovable villain, but Danny DeVito did it with such ease. His portrayal was highly praised.

"(...) brightly colored parody of everyday American life with a parade role for show star Bette Midler."

- Adolf Heinzlmeier and Berndt Schulz in the dictionary "Films on TV"

“A superbly constructed and perfectly staged comedy in which violence and immorality are exposed to laughter as 'normal behavior' of society. Questionable in the cynical attitude and the sometimes too drastic comedy. "

- Lexicon of international film

“The directing team relies on the loud tones, the shrill laughs from experience: [...] This reveals the horror of the everyday, the obscenity of the banal. In The Unbelievable Kidnapping , ZAZ go even further and show how the laughable is hidden in the repetition of the terrible, how the random reproducibility of the world through television turns the shocking into a running gag. Then it would have to be: What you always wanted to say - but haven't dared to think so far. "

- Süddeutsche Zeitung

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Review by Roger Ebert
  2. ^ Lexicon "Films on TV" (extended new edition). Rasch and Röhring, Hamburg 1990, ISBN 3-89136-392-3 , pp. 727-728
  3. ↑ The Incredible Kidnapping of Mad Mrs. Stone. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  4. ↑ Review. Süddeutsche Zeitung , accessed on December 20, 2015 .
  5. ^ Artios Award 1987 Web site of the Casting Society of America