| Million Dollar Mystery | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Richard Fleischer |
| Produced by | Stephen F. Kesten |
| Written by |
|
| Starring | |
| Music by | Al Gorgoni |
| Cinematography | Jack Cardiff |
| Edited by | John W. Wheeler |
| Distributed by | De Laurentiis Entertainment Group |
Release date | June 12, 1987 |
| 95 minutes | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10 million[1] |
| Box office | $989,033[2] |
Rotten Tomatoes, home of the Tomatometer, is the most trusted measurement of quality for Movies & TV. The definitive site for Reviews, Trailers, Showtimes, and Tickets. Crack in the Mirror 1h. The movie wants to do two things: to attract a lucrative young audience, and to deliver a heavy anti-drugs message. Crack in the Mirror. And within days has taken to coke-dealing.
Million Dollar Mystery (also known as Money Mania) is a 1987 American film released with a promotional tie-in for Glad-Lock brand bags. This was the final feature-length film directed by Richard Fleischer.It starred an ensemble cast of 'America's new comic talent'. The film was largely inspired by Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Dar Robinson, a stuntman, died on November 21, 1986 after riding his motorcycle off a cliff while attempting to do a stunt.
Plot[edit]
Sidney Preston, a disgruntled White House aide, takes off with $4 million that belonged to the government. While on the run, he stops at a roadside diner in Arizona and has their world-famous chili,while flirting with the waitress. Two clumsy government spies named Fred and Bob are looking for Sidney. Sidney suffers a fatal heart attack and before dying asks for a kiss from the waitress, then he reveals to the onlookers the location of the first million dollars which he says is 'In the city of the bridge'.The onlookers are The Briggs Family (Stuart, Barbara, and Howie),nerdy newlyweds Rollie and Lollie, amateur singer Crush and his group of three blonde back up dancers (Faith, Hope, and Charity), brother/cook Tugger and sister/waitress Dotty. Soon, they meet professional wrestlers Bad Boris and Awful Abdul, cops Officer Gretchen and Officer Quinn, and deranged ranger Slaughter Buzzard.
The onlookers are skeptical, until Rollie turns on the television which is playing the news talking about Sidney Preston and the buried money. The newsman talks about his life and says he was born in El Puente, Arizona. The onlookers of the diner head out on a mad dash to find the dough. When they find the money in El Puente's famous bridge, Slaughter accidentally drops it into the canyon. They follow clues to the next million which is in Sidney's houseboat and lose it as well as it gets shredded in Sidneys table sized paper shredder. After finding and losing the third million as it falls out of the hands of a greedy aeronaut, they all give up as the movie ends. During the closing credits, Bob informs the audience that there is a million dollars somewhere in the US and if they follow the clues in specially marked Glad-Lock bags, they have the chance to win $1 million.
Crack In The Mirror Movie 1988 Free
Cast[edit]
- Tom Bosley as Sidney Preston
- Eddie Deezen as Rollie
- Wendy Sherman as Lollie
- Rick Overton as Stuart Briggs
- Mona Lyden as Barbara Briggs
- Douglas Emerson as Howie Briggs
- Royce D. Applegate as Tugger
- Pam Matteson as Dotty
- Daniel McDonald as Crush
- Penny Baker as Charity
- Tawny Fere as Faith
- LaGena Hart as Hope
- Mack Dryden as Fred
- Jamie Alcroft as Bob
- Rich Hall as Slaughter Buzzárd
- Gail Neely as Officer Gretchen
- Kevin Pollak as Officer Quinn
- Hard Boiled Haggerty as Awful Abdul
- Bob Schott as Bad Boris
- Peter Pitofsky as Toxic Werewolf
- Greg Travis as 2nd Toxic Man
- Tommy Sledge as Private Eye
- Christopher Cary as Chuck
- Rudy De Luca as Money Counter
- Paul Stader as Old Man in Car
- Jack Carpenter as Biker in Window
Production[edit]
Parts of the film were shot at Glen Canyon in Utah.[3]
While performing a routine stunt for this film, stuntman Dar Robinson died on November 21, 1986.
Marketing contest[edit]
Producer Dino De Laurentiis conceived the idea for Million Dollar Mystery when he visited New York and saw a row of people lining up for what he presumably thought was a movie. A companion told De Laurentiis that they were actually lining up for lottery tickets.[4]
Glad Bags sponsored a sweepstakes timed for the film's release. The company gave away entry forms, and the audience would fill out these forms with their answer to where the last million is hiding, based on clues given in the film. De Laurentiis said of the film:
This is a really broad comedy with car chases, designed for the young major moviegoing audience, about 12 to 24 years old. The sweepstakes gives us the potential to reach even more people – the infrequent moviegoer, the person more interested in winning a million dollars than in going to the movies, and these are the kind of people who use Glad Bags, housewives who maybe go to the movies once or twice a year.[5]
De Laurentiis had high expectations for the film, but it did not turn out to be a hit. The winner of the contest ended up being 14-year-old Alesia Lenae Jones of Bakersfield, California, who successfully guessed that the loot was hidden in the nose of the Statue of Liberty.[6][7][8] Apparently, thousands of contestants had arrived at the same answer, and her entry was chosen in a random drawing.[9]
Reception[edit]
Million Dollar Mystery was a box office flop grossing $989,033 against a $10 million dollar budget.
Darryl F Zanuck
The film received negative critical reviews. The film currently holds a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on six reviews.[10]
Home media[edit]
The film was released on VHS, Laserdisc, CED videodisc, and DVD.
Award nominations[edit]
- Nominated: Worst Original Song, Barry Mann & John Lewis Parker (1988)
- Nominated: Worst Supporting Actor, Tom Bosley (1988)
- Nominated: Worst Supporting Actor, Jamie Alcroft (1988)
- Nominated: Worst Supporting Actor, Mack Dryden (1988)
References[edit]
- ^'De Laurentiis PRODUCER'S PICTURE DARKENS'. latimes.com. LA TIMES.
- ^Million Dollar Mystery at Box Office Mojo
- ^D'Arc, James V. (2010). When Hollywood came to town: a history of moviemaking in Utah (1st ed.). Layton, Utah: Gibbs Smith. ISBN9781423605874.
- ^Frankel, Mark. 'The Little Producer That Couldn't.' Spy (August 1989).
- ^Darnton, Nina. 'Million Dollar Mystery (1987): At the Movies.'New York Times (May 1, 1987).
- ^'Film flop a bonanza for girl, 14.' Chicago Sun-Times (April 7, 1988).
- ^BAKERSFIELD TEEN-AGER WINS MILLION DOLLARS IN MOVIE MYSTERY CONTEST, Associated Press, Apr. 6, 1988.
- ^http://articles.latimes.com/1988-04-06/entertainment/ca-395_1_sweepstakes Movies April 06, 1988, LA Times.
- ^'Million Dollar Mystery' movie review tvguide.com, accessed 9/4/15.
- ^https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1013919_million_dollar_mystery
External links[edit]
- Million Dollar Mystery on IMDb
- Million Dollar Mystery at the TCM Movie Database
- Million Dollar Mystery at AllMovie
- Million Dollar Mystery at Rotten Tomatoes
| Crack in the Mirror | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Richard Fleischer |
| Produced by | Darryl F. Zanuck |
| Written by | Darryl F. Zanuck |
| Starring | Orson Welles Juliette Gréco Bradford Dillman |
| Distributed by | Twentieth Century-Fox |
| |
| 97 minutes | |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Box office | $1,000,000 (US/ Canada)[1][2] |
Crack in the Mirror is a 1960 drama film directed by Richard Fleischer. The three principal actors, Orson Welles, Juliette Gréco, and Bradford Dillman, play dual roles in two interconnected stories as the participants in two love triangles.
The script was ostensibly written by producer Darryl F. Zanuck (under his frequent pseudonym 'Mark Canfield'), but in his 1993 autobiography Just Tell Me When to Cry, Richard Fleischer revealed that it was in fact ghost-written by Jules Dassin, who was unable to work openly in the American film industry at the time, because he was on the Hollywood blacklist.
Plot[edit]
In a rundown Paris dwelling, an angry Hagolin accuses mistress Eponine of seeing a man named Larnier behind his back. In a party at a stately home, meanwhile, prosperous attorney Lamerciere's guests include his longtime mistress, Florence, and his young law partner, Claude.
Eponine wants to murder Hagolin and attempts to, but fails. Larnier intervenes on her behalf, but merely wanted to gag Hagolin with a scarf before Eponine strangles the man with it. The body is dismembered and dumped, then Eponine is placed under arrest.
Claude, who is secretly Florence's lover, feels he deserves credit for much of Lamerciere's courtroom success. He leaps at the opportunity when Eponine asks him to defend her. Lamerciere caustically remarks that Claude and Florence could do to him exactly what the accused woman and lover Larnier did to their victim Hagolin.
In court, Lamerciere manages to persuade Claude to let him make the closing argument. He paints such a lurid picture of Eponine's crime that it gets her convicted. His gaze at Florence makes it clear that he knows she has been unfaithful.
Cast[edit]
- Orson Welles as Hagolin/Lamerciere
- Juliette Gréco as Eponine/Florence
- Bradford Dillman as Larnier/Claude
- Alexander Knox as President
- Catherine Lacey as Mother Superior
- William Lucas as Kerstner
- Maurice Teynac as Doctor
- Austin Willis as Hurtelaut
- Cec Linder as Murzeau
- Eugene Deckers as Magre
Reception[edit]
In a letter to the editors of Playboy magazine in April 1967, Darryl F. Zanuck, president of 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation, observed that 'when I won three prizes for a very second-rate film called Crack in the Mirror,' at the Cannes Film Festival, '[t]his dubious victory was achieved by the political activities of a group of friends who accompanied me to the festival (Orson Welles, Juliette Gréco and Françoise Sagan).'[3]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^'Rental Potentials of 1960', Variety, 4 January 1961 p 47. Please note figures are rentals as opposed to total gross.
- ^Solomon, Aubrey. Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History (The Scarecrow Filmmakers Series). Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 1989. ISBN978-0-8108-4244-1. p228
- ^Zanuck, Darryl F., 'Festival Faux Pas', 'Dear Playboy', Playboy Magazine, Chicago, Illinois, April 1967, Volume 14, Number 4, page 12.
External links[edit]
| Wikimedia Commons has media related to Crack in the Mirror. |
- Crack in the Mirror on IMDb
- Crack in the Mirror at the TCM Movie Database
- Crack in the Mirror at AllMovie