Thu 2 May 2019
February 4.
HOW TO BEAT THE HIGH COST OF LIVING. Filmways, 1980. Susan Saint James, Jane Curtin, Jessica Lange, Richard Benjamin, Eddie Albert, Cathryn Damon, Dabney Coleman, Director: Robert Scheerer. [Watched on HBO.]
Essentially a time-waster, and I’m sorry I did. The only moral to this sad story of three suburban ladies trying to cope with double-digit-inflation seems to be that the only solution is to turn to crime. And of course, that way nobody loses but the insurance company.
It’s supposed to be a comedy,but we have a problem right there, It’s not very funny. There are a couple of scenes worth laughing at. Unfortunately one of them — as Susan St. James tries to hold up a supermarket at the checkout counter — was spoiled by overexposure: I’d already seen it in the coming attractions.
(One of my favorite spots on HBO, by the way — the best way tp id out which movies to avoid. It didn’t work this time.)
Dabney Coleman, who was superb as Dolly Parton’s lecherous boss in Nine to Five, plays a lecherous policeman in this one, and he is superb again. Otherwise the movie is essentially Jane Curtin’s; the others are along solely for the ride.
Rated PG, for bad language again (although not the ‘F’ word, which may be the difference) and (surprisingly) or a brief look at the conclusion of a topless strip tease act, performed admirably by Jane Curtin. (Since it was headless, too, as I recall, the body may actually have been someone else’s. Since we had already seen a panting Richard Benjamin stripped to his shorts earlier in the movie, we do know it was not his.)
May 2nd, 2019 at 3:17 pm
You are correct. They were ‘stunt boobs’ rather than Jane Curtin’s. Also correct that the movie was lame and unfunny, which hasn’t stopped Hollywood from making new versions of this story (three suburban women turn to crime) to this day.
May 2nd, 2019 at 5:24 pm
I wonder if ‘stunt boobs’ ever got their names in the credits — the ladies involved, not the boobs themselves — and if so, what would the job be called?
I also wonder why I watched the entire movie, of which I remember nothing, if I thought so poorly of it. Did I not know that I could have turned it off?
It must not have been THAT bad.
May 2nd, 2019 at 5:57 pm
I didn’t read the review of the movie, just the comments made about the review. It’s because I saw this movie, and I can remember why I saw all of it. It was on a long flight. I was trapped. It was a terrible movie.
May 2nd, 2019 at 7:13 pm
Wonderful cast, but the script seems to have been written by the “stunt boobs” mentioned above.
May 3rd, 2019 at 6:23 am
Moe,
How many walked out?
May 3rd, 2019 at 11:39 am
The job is a long-established one–“body double.” Surprised we haven’t had even more films called that. Not sure how often they get credits.
Didn’t hate this, but it is carried as far as it gets by the cast…the series KATE AND ALLIE presumably arose from this, given two thirds of the leads were the series stars. This film was also a kind of offspring of the likes of FUN WITH DICK AND JANE, which also, and even more so, hasn’t aged well. (I refer to the Jane Fonda/George Segal original.)
May 3rd, 2019 at 11:49 am
You’re quite right about DICK AND JANE, Todd. My review of the latter, which came out three years before HIGH COST, is here:
https://mysteryfile.com/blog/?p=55565
May 3rd, 2019 at 11:43 am
KATE AND ALLIE was Not a sequel nor continuation, I hasten to add, but it also deals with married women facing economic hardship after breakup…
May 3rd, 2019 at 4:20 pm
Dan, haha. The worst flight movie I saw was Xanadu. Fortunately I fell asleep.