Theme Song:
Randy Newman’s “It’s Money That I Love” plays a few times. For the actual soundtrack music, there’s a shit ton of sax-jazz that has so much reverb it should have it’s own genre designation.
Interesting Dated References: Stuff that was funny in the late-80s, such as lawsuits, alimony, palimony, lawyers, pastel colors, glass block, neon lights, and terrible abstract artwork.
Social Context: Though the premise is a bit well-trodden (rich person hides wealth to live among the common man), this is a decidedly ‘80s update on the trope. Successful author Sean Stein (Michael Caine, Jaws: The Revenge, The Swarm) is repeatedly taken to court by ex-lovers. 90% of the dialogue in this movie is about lawyers or money and the overall focus on wealth, which is very characteristic of American culture in the ‘80s.
Summary: Pushed to the breaking point by alimony, Stein decides to give it all up and move to Kuwait where women “are flogged” (his words). During a final night out at a well-to-do soire, terrorists descend, make everyone strip, rob them, and tie them up in pairs.
Enter Daisy Morgan (Sally Field, Heroes). Stearns is enamoured with her common touch and also aroused by her nude body, so much so that even under this stressful situation, he becomes partially erect. Daisy is herself in the middle of a crisis as she has recently grown tired of her lawyer boyfriend, Marty (Guttenberg, Don’t Tell Her it’s Me). Stearns then tracks Daisy down and proceeds to woo her into a relationship where they struggle with finances and life in general.
Then things completely fucking fall apart because the filmmakers couldn’t decide how to end the movie. While in Vegas to marry Stearns, Daisy wins $2 million dollars right as he’s telling her he’s rich, which gives her a change of heart, but also Marty has returned from a pro bono mission and wants to turn over a new leaf, which also gives her a change of heart. Then Stearns decides to leave the country and all his possessions again. The twists and diversions go on and on and make no goddamn sense, and any goodwill the film held from Fields, Caine, and Guttenberg trying their best is lost.
Worth Mentioning:
– Daisy works at a hilarious painting manufacturing facility that’s featured heavily in a few scenes. Workers on a line frantically paint wide swaths on canvases and then specialty workers add accents. It’s awesome, and this is truly how they used to do this stuff before they got printing equipment big enough to do this stuff and then ship this stuff ship directly to Target where you purchase the stuff to hang in your garbage apartment.
Poster and Box Art: The U.S. poster makes it look like a scat film.
The home video release had to shoehorn-in Guttenberg since this was post-Cocoon.
There’s also a German poster that puts Field in a weird shirt and underwear, which were never in the movie.
This second German poster, though risque, captured the film best, and should have been used for the wide release.
She’s even holding her brushes and there’s terrible art in the background.