Richard Pryor

In this animated film, a loveable dog with dreams of becoming a samurai sets off on an epic journey to find his true destiny.

In Los Angeles, California, petty thief Edward "Eddie" Dash (Richard Pryor) makes a meager living posing as a jazz musician on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. One day, Eddie drives to the Los Angeles County Probation Department, where he negotiates the terms of his community service. He agrees to spend 100 hours helping a patient from the Rivington Clinic sanatorium re-acclimate to outside life. George (Gene Wilder), the patient in question, is a pathological liar. When Eddie arrives, he has second thoughts about helping George, but George is elated to meet Eddie. They leave the clinic, and Eddie takes George to the Hollywood Wax Museum. There, George is frightened by "Frankenstein" and runs out of the museum, where he collides with a stranger named Al (Phil Rubenstein). The man mistakes George for his gambling partner, Abe Fielding. In order to repay a gambling debt, Al invites "Abe" to dinner that night. George protests, but Eddie sees an opportunity to make money and convinces him to go to dinner as "Abe." At the restaurant, Al asks "Abe" about his five-month disappearance, and George pretends to be "Abe" by fabricating stories about his and Eddie's recent adventures. Eddie is bewildered but tries to play along. After dinner, a woman named Elaine Fielding (Mercedes Ruehl), who claims to be the real "Abe's" wife, arrives in a limousine and demands to know how he spent the past five months. As they are driven home, Elaine tells "Abe" that she has no intention of believing his lies. She accuses him of having an affair and hints that the woman's jealous husband will seek revenge. At Elaine's house, George assumes that the real Abe Fielding has already been discovered by Elaine's husband and murdered without anyone's knowledge. He attempts to explain to Elaine that he is not Abe Fielding, but she walks around in her lingerie, and he becomes tongue-tied. The next day, Eddie drives through Beverly Hills, California, to the Fielding mansion, where George has adopted the persona of "Abe." Hoping to convince Elaine that Eddie should stay with them, "Abe" claims that Eddie is a famous retired prizefighter, and she agrees. When the friends are alone, Eddie expresses admiration for the far-fetched stories, but George is sad about succumbing to his illness as a pathological liar. That evening, "Abe" catches Eddie pilfering valuables from the mansion, but Eddie declares he is taking the objects to be cleaned. Later, "Abe" attempts to seduce his "wife," but their tryst is interrupted when a car pulls into the driveway. Eddie answers the door and Rupert Dibbs (Stephen Lang), the real Abe's business manager, storms into the house. Rupert welcomes "Abe" home, flirts with Elaine, and insults Eddie, who secretly pockets a pile of cash and several credit cards before driving away. George, as "Abe," feels bad about the ruse and tells Elaine that he must leave. He returns to his therapy group at the Rivington Clinic. Meanwhile, Elaine meets with Rupert, who reveals that she is an actress hired to impersonate "Mrs. Abe Fielding." Elaine wants out of the scheme, but Rupert convinces her to give the "role" another try. Rupert then goes to the county jail to pick up Eddie, who had been arrested for stealing the real Abe's credit cards. Rupert tells Eddie the truth about Abe Fielding. In real life, Abe was a free spirit who traveled the world, and none of his father's business associates, including Rupert, knew much about him. When Abe's father died, the young man was set to inherit a brewery fortune. After a brief search, it was discovered that Abe Fielding had died in a "freak accident." Rupert, coveting the inheritance for himself, needs to keep the estate out of probate, so he chose George to pass as "Abe," thinking the impersonation would be easy for a pathological liar. With the exception of Eddie, all of the people George met after leaving the hospital were actors hired by Rupert to corroborate "Abe's" identity. Rupert offers Eddie $10,000 to bring George back from the Rivington Clinic and continue living "Abe's" life. When "Abe" returns to the mansion, he attempts to impress Elaine, taking her to a German restaurant and delighting her with a yodeling song. They spend an intimate evening together. The next day, Elaine and Eddie take "Abe" to the dentist, per Rupert's request. While sitting in the waiting room, they realize that Rupert wants the dental records so that he can kill George, pass him off as "Abe," and claim the company fortune. Elaine and Eddie confront Rupert at his office, but the businessman denies their accusations. When Elaine leaves, Rupert admits their suspicions are true and asks Eddie to kill "Abe." Eddie is aghast, but a short while later, he drives "Abe" to the mountains under pretense of a hunting trip. At the hunting lodge, "Abe" unknowingly dons a wiretapped jacket given to him by Rupert, who listens in on "Abe" and Eddie while they hunt. Two gunshots ring out, and Rupert concludes that "Abe" is dead. A few days later, Rupert's actors meet in the tycoon's office for their final payment. Rupert asks them to attend "Abe's" memorial service at the Fielding brewery that afternoon as a final performance. At the funeral, Eddie confronts Rupert about the scam. Just then, the guests hear yodeling from the casket, alerting them to the fact that "Abe" is still alive. As "Abe" rises from his deathbed, Rupert claims he is an impostor, but the actors turn against Rupert and pretend that George is really "Abe." A chase ensues through the brewery and Rupert pushes "Abe" into a brewer's vat. However, Eddie follows and hits Rupert over the head with a bottle, rescuing his friend George. Finally able to tell the truth, George announces that his true name is "George Washington." Everyone would rather believe he is Abe Fielding, the proper inheritor of the brewery fortune. In the final scene, Elaine and George get married, and George and Eddie agree to be friends forever.

During the 1930s, a New York City illegal gambling house owner and his associates must deal with strong competition, gangsters, and corrupt cops in order to stay in business. "Sugar" Ray is the owner of an illegal casino, who contends with the pressures of vicious gangsters and corrupt policemen who want to see him go out of business. In the world of organized crime and police corruption in the 1930s, any dastardly trick is fair.

Dave is deaf, and Wally is blind. They witness a murder, but it was Dave who was looking at her, and Wally who was listening. A man is murdered. Two men witness it. A blind man who hears the killer, and a deaf man who sees them. The police don't think they're credible witnesses, but the killers don't want to take any chances. The two men must now work together to save themselves and bring the killers to justice. —Jean-Marc Rocher <tss.yh.nec.co.jp> Dave is deaf, Wally is blind. A murder occurs next to the concession stand the two work at. Dave sees the murderer, and Wally hears the murder. The police suspect the duo of killing the man, so it's up to them to find the killer and clear their names. —Sam David Lyons (played by Gene Wilder), a deaf man, runs a convenience store. He recently hired Wally Karue (Richard Pryor), a blind man. A murder is committed in front of the store and both are present but due to their impairments, can't identify the murderer. They are the police's prime suspects and are arrested for the murder. They manage to escape but now they have the police and the actual murderers after them. —grantss

In New York City, real estate investor Kevin Lenahan (Richard Pryor) has a hair-brained scheme to buy a 32-screen movie theater complex in which each theater only has eighteen seats. When banks deny his loan request, he approaches a loan shark named Palazzi (Joseph Ragno), who is actually a gangster. Police raid Palazzi's office while Kevin is making his loan request and arrest him in the process. Kevin's lawyer works out a plea deal by which Kevin will only do one year in prison, but Palazzi, who has vowed revenge, will be in the same prison, serving a ten-year sentence. In the courtroom, Kevin pretends to be insane to avoid going to prison. The court sends him to Empire General Hospital for evaluation. When psychiatrists determine he is faking his mental condition, hospital administrator Arthur Chambers (Joe Mantegna) plans to send Kevin back to jail in the morning. Meanwhile, a storm named Hurricane Sam approaches New York City. Since Empire General is located on a small island in New York harbor, Maggie (Sylvia Miles), the head nurse, requests some of her nurses remain overnight in case there are problems, but Chambers refuses the overtime request. He tells his administrative assistant, Rachel Atwood (Rachel Ticotin), that a fill-in emergency room doctor, Edward Slattery, will arrive shortly to help out. When Kevin starts a ruckus in the psychiatric wing, Chambers tells guards to lock him in a private room for the night. When the other psych patients protest Kevin's punishment, Chambers threatens to have them all transferred to a hospital for the criminally insane. Just then, the hurricane knocks out the electricity. The patients take this opportunity to escape, locking Chambers and the guards in the psych ward. Kevin goes to Chambers' office to look at his file as Rachel Atwood finds him there when she goes to the office to consult the disaster preparedness manual. She assumes Kevin is the missing Dr. Edward "Eddie" Slattery and tells him to go to the emergency room (ER) right away. Kevin puts on a white coat and finds chaos in the ER. Dr. Foster (Bob Dishy), a longtime physician at Empire General, refuses to treat any patients and recommends they not admit anyone since dealing with patients during a blackout is a "malpractice time bomb." Kevin spies the exit door, rushes out, gets in an ambulance and drives away. However, the rainstorm is so intense, he cannot see well and drives off the causeway connecting the island hospital to the mainland. He escapes before the ambulance sinks into the water. The hospital's back-up generator comes on briefly, but soon goes out again. First-year intern, Dr. Joffe (Bob Saget), suggests they connect the generator to the ambulance batteries. When Kevin returns to the ER, nurse Maggie gives him files on a half dozen patients needing treatment. Kevin acts authoritative and gives the responsibility to other ER staff, saying he will trust their recommendations. When people obey his orders, Kevin realizes it is easier to pass himself off as a doctor than a lunatic. However, Louis (Ruben Blades), an orderly, recognizes him from the psych ward, but decides not to say anything and enjoy the fun. Kevin goes to the waiting room, advising patients that exercise is good for them and recommending they treat each other. Young Dr. Joffe comes to him with questions, but Kevin suggests he trust his own gut instincts. Worried about malpractice lawsuits, Dr. Foster has concerns about Kevin's methods, calling him a "gypsy doctor." Meanwhile, in the psych ward, the patients have Arthur Chambers tied up. They start a list of changes they want implemented before they agree to release him. Chambers refuses to sign their list of demands and tells them Kevin was an undercover agent from the board of health, but they do not believe him. A pipe bursts, flooding the basement and orderlies say it will be morning before they can possibly get the generators working again. Kevin suggests they move a generator from the helicopter landing pad to power the ER. Rachel Atwood goes to the drug detoxification unit to get help moving the generator, but none of the patients are willing to help. Kevin goes to the detox unit promising to give the patients their methadone pills if they will help move it, and they all pitch in. Soon the ER has power again, but the rest of the building does not. Since the upper floors have no air circulation, Kevin suggests moving the helicopter into the building and placing it beside the elevator shaft to get air moving to the upper floors. Kevin and Rachel go to the kitchen to fix sandwiches for the patients and develop a bond while discussing how to help the patients. Kevin visits Tommy Pinto, a patient who fell off the hospital roof and has no feeling in his legs. Tommy requires immediate surgery or he will be crippled for life. A make-shift operating room is set up in the ER and Kevin persuades Dr. Foster to do the surgery. In the psych ward, Chambers finally signs the list of demands and the patients contact Rachel via walkie-talkie to get her to implement the demands before they will release Chambers. When Rachel is resistant, Box (Randall 'Tex' Cobb), the hulking leader of the psychiatric patients, demands to deal with Kevin Lenahan. Rachel does not know anyone named Kevin, but when they describe him, she realizes they are talking about the man she knows as Edward Slattery. Rachel confronts Kevin over his charade, fearful she will get in trouble for all the things she authorized at his recommendation. Kevin assures her they dealt successfully with a crisis and refuses to help get Chambers released if they intend to send him back to jail once the crisis is over. He makes his own list, demanding to be set free and also demanding none of the other psych patients be sent to the institute for criminally insane. Rachel agrees. Kevin gives the word to free Chambers, and Rachel gives him the keys to a speed boat docked at the pier. Chambers is upset to see what has happened to the hospital and lashes out at Foster and Rachel. However, Dr. Joffe insists they did what had to be done under the circumstances. Nonetheless, Chambers fires Rachel. Kevin speeds off in the boat, but as he glances back at the hospital, he sees plumes of smoke from a fire set by a patient. Kevin rushes back and orders the hospital evacuated. He uses a hose to put out the fire, but when Chambers makes threats against him, Kevin turns the hose on him. The patients and staff defend Kevin, saying he saved the hospital. Kevin lambastes Chambers for criticizing his staff rather than empowering them. If Chambers had done proper maintenance, many of the problems would not have occurred. He suggests the press will be interested in covering this story. Meanwhile, Stucky (Joe Dallesandro), the patient who set the fire, takes Rachel hostage. Seeing that Stucky has a walkie-talkie, Kevin pretends to be several people talking on the device to confuse Stucky. Kevin and Stucky fight and Kevin knocks him out. Grateful, Chambers tells Kevin to leave, suggesting that his file was likely destroyed in the fire. As Kevin gets into the speedboat, Rachel follows him, asking why he could not have been the real Dr. Slattery. Kevin invites her to dinner and she accepts. The two speed off toward New York City.

African-American comedian Jo Jo Dancer (Richard Pryor) calls friends to invite them to a Friday night party. He does not expect they will come, but when they accept his invitation, he must throw the party. After hanging up the telephone, he gets on his hands and knees, searching for pebbles of crack cocaine in the carpet. He stares at his puffy face in the mirror and has a panic attack. He throws empty glass bongs, liquor bottles, and cocktail glasses into the fireplace, repeatedly yelling, "I am through!" In the pockets of his jacket, he finds a tab of heroin, smokes it, and later, sets fire to himself. As paramedics wheel him into the hospital with second and third-degree burns covering 30% of his body, Jo Jo's alter ego rises up intact from his charred body and warns that he better not die. The alter ego walks out of the hospital and takes a car ride back to his hometown of Morton, Ohio. There, he sits by the schoolyard and watches himself as an eight-year-old racing home with friends. Little Jo Jo delivers his report card to his grandmother, a madam who runs a brothel, and she is pleased with his grades. They show off his report card to the prostitutes inside. As his father signs his report card, Little Jo Jo remarks that he does not like living at the brothel. The boy tells his alter ego that he lied at school when his teachers asked him what his parents did for a living. As Big Jo Jo tells him that he was clever to lie, the boy recognizes his older self and knows he can expect trouble when he grows up. He wants to know if Big Jo Jo can change the future. The alter ego tells Little Jo Jo he can try. Big Jo Jo visits his mother in her room at the brothel. She hugs him and says that she loves him, although she never told him so as a child. Back at the hospital, Big Jo Jo stares at his body, wrapped from head to toe in white gauze. He announces that he is going back in time to figure out how his life became such a mess. At a dinner table sometime in the past, Jo Jo's father, Charles, is angry when he discovers his son has quit his job cleaning hog guts to go into show business. They fight, and Charles kicks his son out of the house. The next day, Jo Jo boards a bus to leave town, but his wife, Grace, refuses to go with him, claiming she does not want to leave her parents behind. She tells him that he can always come back home, but he insists that he is never coming back. In Cleveland, Ohio, a nightclub owner named Mr. Spencer, who previously promised Jo Jo a job, turns him away. Jo Jo's sleazy hotel room is robbed, and the hotel clerk insists that he pay for his stay with his last remaining dollars. Jo Jo finds work shining shoes, and buys new clothes at a thrift store. At the Shalimar Club, he goes backstage and introduces himself to a stripper called "Satin Doll." She recognizes him from an amateur night at another nightclub, and agrees to help him. The following week, Satin Doll arranges for Jo Jo to do his routine at the Shalimar. On stage, Jo Jo is terrified, but he wins over the audience with his impression of a baby being born. Satin Doll and club host Johnny Barnett congratulate Jo Jo. Later, Johnny comments that Jo Jo talks too fast, so that some of his punch lines are lost. He gives Jo Jo some drugs to help him relax. Jo Jo loses his inhibitions, and performs in drag, mimicking Satin Doll's striptease act. After Jo Jo's performance, club manager Sal tells Satin Doll that performers will not get paid until the following week. When Satin Doll relays the news to Jo Jo, he grabs a fake gun and confronts club owner Gino. Before tensions erupt, Satin Doll's boyfriend, Detective Lawrence, barges in and sways Gino to pay Jo Jo his wages. Gino hands over a wad of bills, and tells Jo Jo that their business is finished. Later, Satin Doll and Det. Lawrence warn Jo Jo that the Italians will come after him, and advise him to flee. Satin Doll gives him a book, and stashes $200 in the pages, promising to send his possessions. Back in the present, a doctor announces on television that Jo Jo has developed respiratory complications. Elsewhere, Jo Jo's wife assures their daughter that her father will not die. Back in the past, Jo Jo falls in love with a white woman named Dawn. He wants to marry her, but she is content to live together. After a rough night in which Jo Jo battles a female heckler, Dawn assures him of his talent. Jo Jo takes a walk in the neighborhood to clear his head, and gathers more material for his stand-up act. He talks about winos directing traffic, asks why white people do not make noise when they speak, and does impressions of black people and their mannerisms. Soon, he develops a following and begins earning money. He gives Dawn a fancy ring. A fan invites Jo Jo and Dawn to party at his house, where he offers them cocaine. In the early hours, Jo Jo discovers Dawn having a threesome with the man. As Dawn meets up with Jo Jo in the hallway, the fan offers a weak excuse for their behavior, and Jo Jo punches him in the face. At the hospital, Big Jo Jo gazes at burn victim Jo Jo, and remarks that he cannot change anything that has happened, but he can conjure up memories to revisit. Burn victim Jo Jo remembers the first time he met his girl friend, Michelle Jensen, at a club: He invites her back to his house and they play pool. Michelle has other lovers and a confident air. They make love. Eight months later, a drunken Jo Jo argues with a film director about cutting scenes from a movie they are filming. Jo Jo wants the scenes to stay, but when Michelle, now his wife, appears, the director suggests she talk her husband out of his opinion. As they drive along the coast, Jo Jo discovers that Michelle's lover, George, bought her the car they are driving. He is incensed, and asks her to pull over. Before the fight can escalate, his alter ego appears in the back seat, and reminds Jo Jo that he loves Michelle, cautioning him not to start a fight. Jo Jo apologizes for losing his temper but makes the mistake of admitting that he slept with other women. When a fight breaks out, Jo Jo sends the car crashing into the ravine. Michelle insults him and runs off. As Jo Jo watches Michelle ranting, his alter ego asks him, "What's the matter with you, boy?" The phrase reminds him of his grandmother, and the advice she gave him when three bullies jumped him at the railroad tracks. She was the only person who understood him, loved him, and cared about him. He was devastated when she died. Later, Jo Jo spends his days smoking drugs, but he denies it when anyone calls him a junkie. He tells his alter ego to leave him alone. The alter ego guesses that he just wants to die. Jo Joe cries out that he wants his soul back, pleading with his alter ego to help him before emptying a liquor bottle onto his clothes. The alter ego urges him not to harm himself, but Jo Jo cannot stop. He sets himself on fire with a cigarette lighter. At the hospital, one doctor believes Jo Jo has lost the will to live. Burn victim Jo Jo asks his alter ego for help, and Big Jo Jo returns to his broken body. The comedian recovers from his injuries and resumes doing stand-up. One night some time later, a recovered Jo Jo does a show, delivering a mock eulogy for his former self-destructive self. The audience loves it and gives him a standing ovation.

Montgomery "Monty" Brewster (Richard Pryor) is a second-rate minor league baseball pitcher with the Hackensack Bulls. One night after winning a game, Monty and his best friend, the Bulls' catcher, Spike Nolan (John Candy), are flirting with two women at a local bar. When they try to leave with them, they're confronted by two large men who claim they are the women's husbands. Monty and Spike are punched out by the men and a large bar brawl starts. They are later arrested and thrown in jail. Their coach, Charley (Jerry Orbach), tells them that management has decided to kick them off the team. In court, Monty tries to explain the fight to the judge, who is wholly unsympathetic. A photographer that had been following Monty (whom Monty thought may be a professional baseball scout) suddenly rises and tells the judge that he represents an unidentified party that will post bail for both Monty and Spike if they plead guilty. The photographer, named J.B. Donaldo (Joe Grifasi) takes Monty and Spike to New York City with him. At the Manhattan law office of Granville & Baxter, Brewster is told that his recently deceased great-uncle Rupert Horn (Hume Cronyn), whom he has never met, has left him his entire fortune because Monty is his only living blood relative (by way of Monty's grandmother, Rupert's half-sister), but with several conditions. Rupert's last will is on film and features the wheezy and ill-tempered Rupert himself. He relates a story from his youth where his father made him smoke a whole box of cigars to punish him for smoking just one. Rupert tells Monty that he wants to teach Monty to hate spending money. Monty will be given $30 million to spend in 30 days. If he's successful, he'll be awarded the full inheritance of $300 million. Brewster is challenged to either take $1 million upfront (as part of a "Wimp" clause), or spend $30 million in 30 days. If he chooses the former, the law firm becomes executor of the estate and divides the money among various charities (after taking a sizable fee). In the latter case, he must spend the entire $30 million within one month under the following rules: 1.) With the exception of those who witnessed the will reading, whom are the firm's two senior partners George Granville (David White) and Norris Baxter (Jerome Dempsey) and Rupert's lawyer and executor of the estate Edward Roundfield (Pat Hingle), Brewster cannot reveal to anyone the will's terms. He may only tell everyone else he inherited $30 million. Rupert doesn't want anyone directly helping Monty in his quest. 2.) Brewster must spend the money on tangible items. If anything he buys accrues value, such as an investment or property that earns money, that is considered part of the money he inherited and he must spend that as well. 3.) Directly giving away money is capped at 10%; split between 5% ($1.5 million) in gambling losses and another 5% ($1.5 million) maximum to be donated to charity. 4.) Brewster may not willfully damage or destroy anything he buys with the money. 5.) After 30 days, he must be penniless and may not own any assets that are not already his (in other words, nothing but "the clothes on his back"). If any one of these five rules are violated, the challenge is forfeited. Also, if Brewster fails to meet the 30 day challenge to spend the $30 million, any remaining money that he has after the 30 day deadline (regardless if it's a few dollars or a few million dollars) will go to the law firm and Brewster will inherit nothing. Despite the tempting offer just to "wimp out" and walk away with a one-time payment of $1 million, especially after the law firm reveals that they already did a background check on him and showed that the highest annual salary he ever earned was $11,000-a-year while a member of the Toledo Mud Hens, Monty decides to take the $30 million challenge. After leaving the offices, Monty goes to a bank across the street where the money is waiting for him in cash. He appoints Spike as the vice president of an investment corporation he's building and hires one of the bank's security guards as his personal guard for the next month. He also asks to rent the bank vault where the cash is stored and is granted a 30-day lease and refuses an account that will earn him interest. On the street, Monty hires a Russian taxi driver (Yakov Smirnov) to be his personal driver. He has the cabbie rent a fleet of limousines and other drivers. He takes everyone in earshot out for an expensive dinner in Manhattan. At dinner he talks with the accountant that Granville and Baxter have assigned to him, Angela Drake (Lonette McKee), an attractive woman and law student clerking in the firm, who Monty is instantly smitten with. Monty tries to convince her that he's not another newly rich snob and asks her out, thinking he can hire someone to do her work for her. He is coldly rebuffed by Angela, who has a fiance, Warren (a junior partner at the law firm). Monty rents a large penthouse in the Plaza Hotel and a large amount of office space in the same building, beating the rental fee proposed by another client. He has also hired a couple of high-priced tailors to make custom suits for him, renting the clothes themselves. With the salary that Monty is paying him, Spike fixes himself up. Down in the new office that Monty is renting, he meets Angela's boyfriend Warren (Stephen Collins) and his former wife Marilyn, whom Monty has hired to redecorate the office space. (Over the next few weeks, Monty changes his mind several times regarding the stylistic choices Marilyn presents to him, thereby using up more of his inheritance.) In Monty's office over the next few days are hundreds of people looking to either do business with Monty or scam him. One man has an investment offer; a large iceberg will be outfitted with giant engines and be sailed to the Middle East where the ice will be used to supply water to the farmers in the region. Monty is also allowed to gamble 5% of his $30 million, so he hires a bookie to bet on every long shot racehorse he can and even puts down a sizable amount on the field hockey team of Drake's alma mater, Loyola University. Monty calls his old Bulls coach and tells him he plans to fix up their old playing field in Hackensack and that he'll arrange a three-inning exhibition game where the Bulls will play the New York Yankees. Monty continues his spending campaign for a few weeks. One night he's inspired by an idea from Spike to invest in expensive items like stamps. Monty goes to a fine collectibles store and asks to see the most expensive stamp the owner has. The stamp is the infamous Inverted Jenny which Monty buys for $1,250,000. Granville and Baxter read the story in the newspaper, thinking Monty has flagrantly violated the terms of the will. Baxter finds a postcard in the daily mail that has a photo of the Hackensack Bulls and a bland message from Monty. After a few moments, Baxter realizes that Monty has used the Inverted Jenny stamp to mail the card, thereby making it their property and devaluing it. Both men are furious and have a private meeting with Warren where they show him the will (the conditions of not revealing the $30 million spending plan in 30 days does not apply to the others of the will reading). They then order him to cause a small error in bookkeeping amounting to $20,000 that will be discovered at the last moment. They promise Warren that he'll be made full partner and that Monty's real $300 million inheritance will go to the firm. Spike and the rest of Monty's friends and associates become very worried about Monty's frivolous spending and try to convince him to curtail it. They go so far to trick Monty into meeting Spike's financial adviser, Eugene (David Wohl), who tells Monty that he'll only require a modest fee of any earnings that pay off. Monty hires him on the spot and shows some resentment toward Angela for tricking him. When Monty finds out that the iceberg investment has turned out to be lucrative, he immediately wants to sell his stock in it. Moments later, the bookie he hired storms in and furiously tells him he's won a large amount of money on all the long shot bets he placed and that he's banned from any more gambling in New York. Monty decides to donate the money he won to charity. Note: the amount that Monty wins, ($1,500,000) is all of the 5% of the $30 million that he can be allowed to donate. Spike and Eugene, both rush into Monty's office one day with exciting news. Spike had invested a large amount of Monty's money in a venture and earned Monty's company $10 million. Monty becomes upset, realizing that he's "right back where he started" and orders everyone out of his office. On television, he sees a news commentary about New York's upcoming mayoral election. The reporter says that his news station has chosen not to endorse either of the sleazy, possibly mob-funded candidates. Monty enters the race himself, declaring a ticket called "None of the Above" where he wants to buy the votes of New York. The campaign involves a large amount of advertising, staffing and televised ads and drains much of the $30 million in a short amount of time. Monty is unabashed in attacking his opponents openly, insulting them publicly in media spots and public appearances. When Monty's two opponents, Heller and Salvino, figure out that Monty's campaign could defeat them both, they both agree to sue him for libel. Monty settles out of court for $4 million. Meanwhile, Angela has grown increasingly cold toward Monty, thinking he's foolish for spending the $30 million so rapidly. Earlier, Monty had tried to give her a new Aston-Martin convertible -- a violation of the will that Monty can't tell Angela about. While he talks to her on the street, he's overseen by both Warren and Marilyn, who mistakenly assume Monty and Angela are having an affair. The day of the big Bulls vs. Yankees game arrives. At the game, the Bulls start out doing very well against the Yankees, until the Yanks battle back and defeat the Bulls early in the third inning, hitting a grand slam home run off Monty. Defeated, Monty leaves the game. In the locker room, Roundfield approaches Monty in the locker room and tells him that he is actually leading the election for mayor at the polls, but that if he wins the election, the $60,000 annual salary given to him as mayor could be considered an asset in accordance with the will. Monty announces to the crowd that he's withdrawing from the election. He also invites everyone to a final party which he'll pay for with his last $38,000. At the party, Monty plans to get very drunk. Spike and Melvin take up a small collection to give to Monty so he won't be flat broke. Monty refuses the money, knowing it would also violate the conditions of the will. Spike suggests that he and Monty buy a nice sports car and leave New York for a new life. Monty still turns him down. The next morning (on the 30th day), the landlord for Monty's offices and penthouse politely evicts him. The tailors take back all the clothes he rented and he finds his old Chicago Cubs jersey in the closet. He checks in on Marilyn, who'd finished the latest iteration of interior decorating of Monty's offices; she orders everything to be taken back when Monty tells her he approves of the work. Monty leaves the Plaza in his old street clothes and wanders off into Manhattan... alone. That evening, the local newscaster Chuck Fleming (Peter Jason), wondering where Monty has vanished to after declaring that he is now flat broke, announces that the mayoral race will be held again in a run-off election after primary election results showed that Monty's campaign had worked to sink the campaigns of Heller and Salvino, with the voters indeed voted for "none of the above". The run-off election will be held in a few days with neither of Monty's opponents running for office ever again. At 11:50 pm, Monty reappears at Granville & Baxter to finalize the will, not a dime to his name. Before he enters the meeting with the two, he's stopped by Warren who eagerly gives him the $20,000 he'd withheld. Monty is immediately upset, believing he'd lost and, with the clock about to strike the midnight deadline, agrees to sign whatever paperwork the two men have. While Warren watches, Angela suddenly appears. Warren discloses the conditions of Monty's will and shows her the furniture company receipt she'd missed for the money he'd given Monty. Angela is furious and rushes in to stop Monty from turning over the money to the firm, saying that Warren had cheated him, drawing an immediate termination from her bosses. Warren tells Monty and Angela that he'd suspected they'd been having an affair all along and Angela tries to hit him. Monty stops her and punches Warren himself, which Warren promises to sue him for. When offered an out-of-court settlement for the money he'd been given, Warren refuses. Monty suddenly decides to hire Angela on retainer for $20,000. She frantically writes him a receipt by the stroke of midnight and Roundfeld declares Monty's inheritance complete. He also promises to investigate Granville and Baxter for any wrongdoing for revealing to Warren the terms of the will. Monty and Angela leave the office together where they agree to talk about his legal options and of his new inheritance.

As Clark Kent and Lana Lang become reacquainted, a megalomaniac tycoon hatches a plan to use the supercomputer to achieve world domination - and only Superman can stop it.

A Vietnam veteran returns home as a hero, but is quickly forgotten and discovers the harsh realities of survival in his own country. A Vietnam vet returns home from a prisoner of war camp and is greeted as a hero, but is quickly forgotten and soon discovers how tough survival is in his own country. —JD-2 <Badge19@hotmail.com>

Walking onto the stage of the Palladium Theater in Hollywood, California, Richard Pryor opens his comedic routine by declaring that Americans have been having less sex since President Ronald Reagan took office. He recounts various personal sexual escapades, from his childhood discovery of masturbation in the bathtub to an encounter with a Playboy magazine "Bunny." In the wake of his recent film career success, Pryor says that he has more money than he ever imagined, but laments having recently spent so much of it to pay lawyers to keep him out of prison for drug possession. Returning to the subject of relationships, he compares his former brief flings with his current marriage, remarking on the struggles of long-term commitment when you know that you must wake up next to the same person every morning. A benefit, however, is that his wife has helped him learn to express his emotions. He believes women often remain cool and collected when dealing with their feelings, particularly during break-ups. He discusses the difficulty of dating new people after a separation, which is often made worse when the man bumps into his former girl friend and discovers she has become even more attractive. Next, Pryor describes his experience researching and filming a movie with Gene Wilder at the Arizona State Penitentiary, which he notes was comprised of mostly African American inmates. Providing examples of the multiple murder convicts who intimidated him, he fantasizes about being held at gunpoint and claims people often talk about acting braver than they would actually be in that situation. After listing the wide variety of racial groups he observed in prison, Pryor mocks the image of the white cowboy and comments that getting by in everyday life is difficult enough without the added problems of racism. He recounts his recent trip to Africa and the excitement of being surrounded by only black people, many of whom, he says, resembled his friends in America. Of the African jungle, Pryor describes the ferocity of wild animals such as cheetahs and lions, which chased down bison and gazelles with vigor unlike anything he is accustomed to seeing in a zoo. He also recalls picking up a hitchhiker with terrible body odor, but claims the man was so offended by Pryor's cologne that he asked to be let out of the car. Returning to his earlier remarks on race relations, Pryor explains that he only feels comfortable with black people using the "N" word. He describes his former job as a teenage emcee at a Mafia-owned nightclub in Youngstown, Ohio, and remembers attempting to use his race, along with a fake gun, to frighten his Italian boss into paying money that was owed to the club's dancer. The owner, however, was not frightened by the boy's intimidation, and Pryor imagines the Mafioso laughing about the incident years later. While affecting an Italian accent, he dictates a scenario in which a gangster brutally kills someone who wronged him. Pryor remembers the often stony expression of his former boss, comparing it to the glares given by the characters in the 1972 film, The Godfather. Responding to an audience member yelling, "Do 'Mudbone!,'" Pryor sits on a stool and improvises a story in the elderly voice of his recurring stand-up character, "Mudbone," reflecting on the fleetingness of life and the value of living well, having fun, and partaking in frequent sex. Pryor returns to his routine by discussing his relationship with his former drug dealer, who treated him as a subordinate. Referring to the 1980 incident in which he lit himself on fire while "freebasing" cocaine, Pryor facetiously tells the audience that the flames were caused by an explosion that occurred while dunking cookies into a glass of milk before bedtime. He recounts his first time preparing to smoke cocaine, claiming he burned his bed and ended up with scars all over his body. As his drug addiction worsened over the course of a year, he felt increasingly controlled by his crack pipe, imagining it whispered him words of encouragement until even dealers refused to sell him more drugs. The comedian speaks about his friend, Jim, who repeatedly tried to convince him to quit, but Pryor only came to his senses after he literally caught fire and ran down the street outside his Los Angeles, California, home. He claims that his burns and the nerve damage left him unable to feel anything for three days while his skin healed, which he only realized once an orderly attempted to bathe him. He recalls the strangeness of lying in the hospital bed watching a news report stating that he had died, or being approached by a fan asking for his autograph. Although grateful for having survived, he thanks God for leaving his penis unharmed from the burns. Pryor ends the routine by asking a member of the audience for a match to light his cigarette, and thanks them for their support throughout his recovery.

Jack Brown (Richard Pryor) is an unemployed newspaper reporter living in Baton Rouge, Louisiana who is in danger of losing his house to the bank since he and his wife, Angela (Annazette Chase), cannot make their mortgage. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to get a job working for the local paper, The Bugle, he becomes so desperate that he ends up taking a job as a "cleaning lady" for U.S. Bates (Jackie Gleason), an uptight and ruthless businessman who owns the paper and many other businesses in Louisiana. Jack is humiliated as he clumsily attempts to serve food at a luncheon. He is fired, but quickly lands a part-time job as a janitor in a department store owned by Bates. The following evening, "Master" Eric Bates (Scott Schwartz), the 10-year-old, spoiled-and-rotten, brat son of the boss, arrives home from the military academy where he attends and his father sends him to the store and he is told that he "can have anything he wants in the store". Amused at seeing Jack goof around in the store's toy section, Eric informs his father's long-suffering right-hand man, Sydney Morehouse (Ned Beatty), that what he wants is Jack Brown himself. Morehouse fails to convince Eric that human beings cannot be owned. Jack is literally "boxed up" and taken to the large Bates mansion that sits on the outskirts of the city. At first, Jack refuses to have any interaction with the brat Eric, but Bates offers him a deal: in exchange for a generous financial settlement, Jack reluctantly agrees to be Eric's live-in friend during Eric's one-week spring break from military school. Emotionally estranged from his father, Eric takes a liking to Jack but still manages to humiliate him with numerous pranks during the first day and night. After a particularly humiliating incident in the mansion incited by Bates' ditsy and floozy, much younger trophy wife Fancy (Teresa Ganzel), who literally introduces him at a dinner party as Eric's new "toy," Jack grows tired of the situation and leaves. The next day, Jack agrees to return only when U.S. Bates (with Morehouse as his proxy) offers Jack so much money to be Eric's live-in friend for one week, that Jack will not only pay back the bank and numerous bill collectors, but Jack will be able to pay back the entire mortgage on his house as well. Jack returns to the Bates estate, determined to teach Eric how a friend is supposed to be treated. Over the next several days, they slowly bond while participating in mini-cart racing, video games, and even fishing in a stream filled with piranha. Both Jack and Eric begin to open up to one another with stories about their personal lives. Jack tells Eric about him growing up poor and having to look out for oneself. Eric tells Jack about his mother's death when he was very young which his grumpy father tries to forget about by putting all his time in work and leaving no time for anything else while marrying again and again. Over time, Jack sees that Eric isn't the "bad seed" that he puts out to people, but just a mistreated and neglected boy who wants attention and whom is spoiled by his father. Used to getting things his way since all his father ever does is give him gifts and money (calling it love and affection) Eric throws fits when things do not go his way. Eric is so spoiled and hyper-competitive that he enjoys beating Jack at video games, mini-cart racing and board games a little too much. One day, when Jack begins winning at a two-person basketball game, Eric, seeing that he is losing, refuses to play anymore and walks off the court. When Jack scolds Eric for quitting because he is losing asks if he would like to tell Eric's father that he is a quitter as well as a sore loser. Eric replies with the most touching and dramatic line in the movie: "my father doesn't care what I am... as long as I stay out of his way." Another day later, Jack and Eric decide to start a newspaper of their own for fun. After witnessing multiple examples of Bates' cruelty to his housekeeping staff and workers, they dig up dirt on him, such as a story of how he won his elderly and long-suffering butler, Barkley (Wilfrid Hyde-White), in a game of billiards. Jack and Eric then break into Bates newspaper office after-hours as well as the factory to print their paper, but get discovered by the police. At a police station, Eric manages to create a diversion by setting off some firecrackers creating confusion and panic in which Jack and Eric quietly walk out of their jail cell, and out of the front door. Afterwards, Jack and Eric publish their paper, titled 'The Toy' and distribute free copies of it throughout the city. Morehouse finds a copy and, being the ever loyal toady that he is, shows it to Bates and he is outraged. Bates quickly calls Jack and Eric to his office to confront them both, but he keeps his anger in check. Bates orders Jack and Eric to shut down their paper which he sees as humiliating to him and the Bates dynasty. However, Eric is unapologetic and wants to continue the paper. To prove to his son that money can buy anything (including loyalty), Bates offers Jack a reporting job with his newspaper at the end of the week... which is what Jack wanted all along. When Jack accepts, Eric becomes upset and runs out of the office. Outside, Eric scolds Jack for selling out as all of the people that Bates does business with. Jack tells the boy that most men (especially disenfranchised African-American men such as himself) need jobs, just as his priority is to support himself and his wife. At the climax, an swanky outdoor party is held at the Bates estate, attended by prominent citizens who are supporters of a senator (Ray Spruell). They are unaware that members of the KKK are also in attendance. Jack's wife, Angela, tries to bring attention to this with her anti-Klan group that are camped on the Bates mansion in a protest demonstration, but Jack convinces her to leave. He learns the true reason for the party is to get the KKK Grand Wizard (Orwin Harvey) and Senator Newcomb together in a picture, which Bates would then use to blackmail the senator. Senator Newcomb's daughter Honey Russell (Linda McCann) is also in attendance at the party and is accompanied by her husband (Stocker Fontelieu) who is a local district attorney investing Bates for shady business deals and corruption, in which Bates is also hoping to get D.A. Russell a photo op with the Grand Wizard to blackmail him too to stop his investigation of his business activities. Jack and Eric team up one last time to disrupt the party and they crash the events on their mini go-carts where Jack announces to everyone about the Grand Wizard's identity. Jack embarrasses the Grand Wizard by causing him to fall into a bowl of chocolate fudge. The Grand Wizard throws a pie at Jack, but hits a policeman instead, leading to his arrest. Chaos ensues which leads to Jack and Eric driving their mini-carts around the party, knocking down tents, ruining displays, and people jumping out of the path of Jack and Eric's mini-carts into various desert trays which leads to a huge pie-throwing fight among the guests. Bates chases after Jack in a golf cart but ends up crashing into the pool. Jack saves him from drowning since Bates cannot swim, and it seems all is forgiven. That evening with the week up, Jack packs up and returns to his neighborhood to his wife, riding away on a bicycle while Eric sadly waves goodbye. The next day, while riding with Eric in a limousine to the airport to return to military school, Bates tries desperately to have a heart-to-heart talk with his son, but he is not very good at it. All Eric talks about is Jack and that he misses him. Bates tells Eric to forget about Jack. While on the runway to board Bates' private jet, Eric runs off, making his way to Jack's house. Jack refuses to let Eric live with him and gently admonishes Eric to give his father a chance. Bates shows up and offers the newspaper job to Jack again and promises Eric that next year for spring break he can spend one week with him and one with Jack, much to Eric's joy. After they leave, the senator's daughter, Honey Russell, shows up in another limo informing Jack that Fancy has recommended him to look after her son, Eugene, for a few weeks who is home from his own military academy on spring break. Eugene (Davis Hotard) peeks out from the top window and shoots Jack in the forehead with a toy dart... revealing that he is MORE spoiled and obnoxious then Eric. A crazed Jack runs away down the road in fear over this 'here-we-go-again' situation as the end credits roll.

Failed parolee Joe Braxton has one last shot at redemption: by driving school kids from Philadelphia to Washington State. After violating his probation, ex-con Joe Braxton is given a second chance at freedom: schoolteacher Vivian Perry hires him to repair an old school bus and use it to drive a group of special-education kids from Philadelphia, where their home, The Clarmont Center for Children, is being shut down, to their new home at Ms. Perry's Washington Farm. The kids have severe mental problems and Joe is not looking forward to the trip, but he starts to bond with them and Vivian and offers his support and love as he changes his outlook on life. But social worker Donald, who gave Joe his break (and is Vivian's lover), is hot on their trail and wants Joe back in prison. Joe and Vivian must now stop Donald from sending the children back to Philadelphia, where they'll have no future. —Geoffrey A. Middleton <gamidd01@morehead-st.edu>

A naive monk, named Brother Ambrose (Marty Feldman), is sent by the abbot on a mission to raise $5,000 in order to save their monastery from closing. He goes to Hollywood where he encounters a number of eccentric characters. He is at first robbed and later befriended by con artist Dr. Sebastian Melmoth (Peter Boyle), and meets a prostitute named Mary (Louise Lasser) who lets him stay at her apartment. Mary grows to care for Ambrose and seduces him while he is taking a cold shower to try to alleviate his lustful thoughts about her. While he is in Hollywood, he visits several churches including a service at the Church of Divine Profit, performed by the televangelist Armageddon T. Thunderbird (Andy Kaufman) in which he sees the focus of the sermon being a request for money in exchange for salvation. Ambrose is angered by this message and tries to meet a number of times with Thunderbird, being ejected each time. Dr. Melmoth and Ambrose travel the city in a modified schoolbus, in which they hold church services for donations. During one service, the brakes of the bus release and the bus rolls downhill into a river. The passengers escape safely in the river and are shown on the local news being baptized by the pair, which catches Thunderbird's attention. He prays to G. O. D. for guidance and it tells him to work with Ambrose to make more money because Ambrose is an innocent and has a clean image. Thunderbird has his minions kidnap Ambrose and bring him to his office where he outlines a plan for his own brand of church on wheels. He says he will pay Ambrose the $5,000 the monastery needs if he assists him. While they are talking, Thunderbird mentions that G. O. D. (Richard Pryor) audibly talks to him when he prays to him and Ambrose is surprised because he himself has never heard from God in this way. Ambrose agrees to work with Thunderbird and they go across the country from town to town holding services in their own bus. One day at Thunderbird's headquarters, Ambrose overhears Thunderbird praying to G. O. D. in his private chamber and when he hears G. O. D. speak back to him, he is intrigued. When Thunderbird leaves, he sneaks into the chamber and discovers that G. O. D. (General Organizational Directivatator) is a sophisticated master computer, linked to all of Thunderbird's finances and operations. He talks with G. O. D. and reads the Bible to it, giving it morality and a conscience. G. O. D. decides to give all of Thunderbird's money away and tells Ambrose what to do to accomplish this, which results in bags of money being poured out of the office's window. Thunderbird discovers someone has been interfering with the computer and rushes back to headquarters where he tries to capture Ambrose and destroys the computer. Ambrose grabs the paid monastery mortgage certificate from Thunderbird's office and escapes in a chase through the city. While Mary and Dr. Melmoth look for Ambrose during his escape, she learns that Melmoth is the father that left her family when she was a child, due to a distinctive tattoo she sees on his leg. They eventually find Ambrose and rescue him from the people chasing him. Ambrose goes back to the monastery and gives the abbot the mortgage certificate, then leaves and marries Mary, who is pregnant from their single night together. The end titles show Melmoth's bus traveling down the road, saying they "all lived happily hereafter".

Writer Skip Donahue (Gene Wilder) and actor Harry Monroe (Richard Pryor) are fired from their jobs in New York, and leave for Hollywood to find a new way to make a living. Along the way, they take odd jobs to make ends meet. In one such job, Skip and Harry dress up as two woodpeckers, performing a song and dance routine as part of a promotion for a bank. Harry and Skip remove their costumes to take a break, and two men who have been watching steal the costumes and perform the routine as though they were Harry and Skip. The men then use the costumes to rob the bank, and in the confusion Harry and Skip are immediately arrested, whisked through a absurd speedy trial and handed 125-year jail sentences. Their court-appointed lawyer, Len Garber (Joel Brooks), advises them to wait until he can appeal their case. Life in a maximum-security prison proves difficult for both Skip and Harry. After a failed attempt at faking insanity, they make friends with Jesus Ramirez (Miguel Ángel Suárez), a real bank robber, and Rory Schultebrand (Georg Stanford Brown), a gay man who killed his stepfather. Rory takes an immediate fancy to Harry, much to Harry's chagrin. Having been there a while, Jesus and Rory inform Skip and Harry of the numerous goings-on in the prison, as well as the other members and who to watch out for, such as Jack Graham (Jonathan Banks), who runs the cell block, and is in charge of the contraband that comes in; and ax murderer Blade (Charles Weldon), who runs the "third-world" side of the cell block. The most feared inmate, however, is Grossberger (Erland Van Lidth), a convicted mass murderer of incredible size and strength who refuses to speak and is feared by the inmates and guards alike. Seeing something "kind" in Grossberger, the naive Skip attempts to talk with him, unsuccessfully. After being in prison for three months, Skip and Harry are brought to see Warden Walter Beatty (Barry Corbin) and Deputy Warden Wilson (Craig T. Nelson), the head guard. They wish to run a "test" with Harry and Skip on a mechanical bull in the warden's office. To everyone's surprise, Skip rides the bull at full power, so Beatty selects him to compete in the prison's annual rodeo competition. Out in the yard, Jesus and Rory inform Harry and Skip of the truth behind the rodeo: it's really a crooked operation run by Beatty and Warden Henry Sampson (Nicolas Coster), who heads the neighboring prison. The money from the rodeo, which is supposed to go to the prisoners, really ends up in the wardens' pockets. Knowing that Skip will be selected as the prison's new "champion", Jesus and Rory hatch a plan for escape. In order for it to work, Skip must refuse to participate in the rodeo: the longer he holds out, the better chance he has at "striking a deal" with the warden. After Skip refuses to participate, the angry warden orders Deputy Wilson to "straighten him out", which Wilson is only too happy to do. Prison life soon becomes more difficult than ever for Harry and Skip as Wilson and the guards attempt to break them down. First they are put on hard labor detail and deprived of both water and sleep. When this fails, the guards lock Skip up, overnight, hanging by his wrists and ankles. Skip awakens the next morning to discover that his bad back is cured. Wilson then puts Skip in solitary confinement; Skip asks for an extra day. Being returned to his cell, Skip discovers that he and Harry have a new cell mate: Grossberger, whom they quickly befriend. Harry and Skip are visited by Garber, along with his cousin Meredith (JoBeth Williams), who is fighting to prove their innocence. Skip takes an immediate liking to Meredith, who informs him she never gets personally involved with clients. Meanwhile, Warden Beatty is furious at Wilson for not breaking Harry and Skip yet, and decides to handle things himself. Soon afterward, Harry is sent to the prison's hospital ward for appendicitis. A prisoner in the neighboring bed (Franklyn Ajaye) tells Harry of the horrors of the ward: he himself was admitted for a hernia operation, and the doctor castrated him in the process. As soon as Harry sees the doctor (Alvin Ing), he runs screaming from the ward. Skip meets with Warden Beatty to make a deal. In exchange for Skip's participation in the rodeo, Skip requests his own crew (Harry, Jesus, Rory, and Grossberger), along with a much bigger jail cell, all according to the plan. Warden Beatty agrees, telling Deputy Wilson to have an inmate guard watch them at all times. Willson assigns Graham and Blade to the task, who anxiously voice their resentment: Graham, who resents being "pushed aside" for Skip, and Blade, who regard the group as "brown-noses". Wilson tells Graham of his own agenda: Skip will not leave the rodeo alive. Training Skip and Harry for the rodeo, Graham ensures that their lives - especially Harry's - are made difficult. While practicing for the rodeo, Skip, Harry, Jesus, Rory and Grossberger acquire the numerous tools they require for their escape, using the prison's metal shop to transform them into seemingly everyday items. In their new large jail cell, the quintet have numerous comforts: books, a television, a radio, and a guitar, among other things. While relaxing in their cell, Grossberger breaks his silence when he sings "Birmingham Jail" during an awkward moment. Meanwhile, Meredith has gotten a job as a waitress in a country western strip club, so she may search for possible suspects. When she meets the real crooks - recognized by a tattoo on one of their hands that a witness (Tracy Lee Rowe) saw on one of them - Meredith calls Len Garber, and the police. The rodeo begins, and Skip, Harry, Jesus, Rory and Grossberger all perform their tasks flawlessly, arousing no suspicions, in spite of Wilson and Graham's attempt to kill Skip: Graham spikes a horse Skip is riding, but Skip manages to stay on the horse and dismount, unhurt. Graham then puts a lock on the gate, trapping Skip inside with an out-of control bull, but Grossberger breaks the lock off, allowing Skip out through the chute with the bull. During every major event when everyone is distracted, one of them slips out through a secret opening, taking them through air vents to either a restroom, where Jesus' wife Teresa (Karmin Murcelo) waits to provide them disguises, or through a vent to a hollow pushcart, manned by Jesus' brother Ramon (Henry Kingi). Once through, they put on their disguises and re-enter the grounds as customers. Skip is set to compete against reigning champion Caesar Geronimo (Joe Massengale) to swipe the prize: a bag of money (in reality the wardens' side bet) from the horns of a large, Brahman bull. Skip asks Caesar if he's tired of being his warden's stooge, suggesting that they give the money to the prisoners, even offering to help Caesar win if he chooses to do so. Both contestants play hard, but Caesar is the winner, grabbing the bag. Inspired by Skip's words, Caesar throws the bag over the fence to the inmates, much to the shock and outrage of wardens Beatty and Sampson. Skip prepares his own escape through the secret opening, but Graham shows up, suspicious. Grossberger knocks Graham out and Skip makes his escape into the waiting pushcart. He's herded off into the waiting camper, and the group drives off. Arriving at a secret meeting spot, Jesus and Rory quickly make introductions, then bid Harry and Skip farewell as they all pile into a waiting car, heading off to Mexico. Harry and Skip hop in the other waiting car, only to be stopped by another car containing Len Garber and Meredith. She tells Harry and Skip that, thanks to her work, the police have captured the real crooks, who have confessed to the bank robbery that wrongly convicted them. Harry and Skip, ecstatic, decide to resume their original plans of heading to Hollywood. Skip asks Meredith to go with him, and Meredith, on a whim, says "yes".

When three automotive factory workers who're struggling financially try to steal from their own labor union, they discover corruption, and reluctantly decide to use this information for blackmail. Three workers, Zeke (Richard Pryor), Jerry (Harvey Keitel), and Smokey (Yaphet Kotto), are working at a car plant and drinking their beers together. One night, when they steal away from their wives to have some fun, they get the idea to rob the local union's bureau safe. First they think it is a flop, because they get only six hundred dollars out of it, but then Zeke realizes that they also have gotten some "hot" material. They decide to blackmail their union. The best reason for that is the union itself. All three are provoked by the fact that the union claims to have lost ten thousand dollars by their robbery. —Oliver Heidelbach Three auto workers at a car factory in Detroit rail against the injustice they see and their lot in life. They are barely getting by and factory management are always hounding them and generally making their life a misery. Their union should be looking out for them but does nothing. They then decide to rob the union's head office but find something much more valuable: evidence of shady dealings by the union. However, what should have been their ticket to a reasonable amount of money turns into a life-threatening situation. —grantss

A shy, twenty-four-year-old school teacher named Dorothy (Diana Ross) prepares a holiday supper at the New York City apartment of her adoptive parents, Aunt Em (Theresa Merrett) and Uncle Henry (Stanley Greene). While her family enjoys the festivities, Dorothy wonders why she is unable to share their happiness. Later, Aunt Em encourages Dorothy to accept a new job and venture out of Harlem, but Dorothy is afraid to leave home. Just then, her dog, Toto, runs outside into a snowstorm. Dorothy chases after Toto, and the two are swept up in a magic tornado, created by Glinda, "The Good," (Lena Horne) a sorceress who lives in the mystical Land of Oz. When the storm subsides, Dorothy finds herself a sandbox at a dark playground, where children are embedded in the concrete of city walls. Peeling themselves free, the youths show Dorothy that her arrival in Oz killed Evermean, the Wicked Witch of the East. Her surviving sister, Evillene (Mabel King), is the Wicked Witch of the West. Evermean was the city parks commissioner, and she turned the young "munchkins" into graffiti when she saw them painting on the playground walls. As Dorothy is praised for liberating the youngsters, a shopping bag-toting sorceress named "Miss One" (Thelma Carpenter) arrives and magically transfers Evermean's silver shoes onto Dorothy's feet. The young woman is terrified and wants to go home, so Miss One advises her to keep Evermean's slippers on her feet and seek help from the miraculous "Wiz," who lives in Emerald City. She tells Dorothy to follow the yellow brick road, but she does not know where it begins. Miss One and the children disappear, leaving Dorothy and Toto alone. As the sun rises, Dorothy discovers a Scarecrow (Michael Jackson) near a burned out housing project. Ridiculed by four crows, the Scarecrow begs to be released from his perch and laments that he does not have a brain. Dorothy shoos the birds aside, helps the Scarecrow down, and invites him to the Emerald City so he can ask the Wiz for a brain. When the Scarecrow discovers the beginning of the yellow brick road, the friends follow the avenue to an abandoned amusement park resembling Coney Island. There, a Tinman (Nipsey Russell) calls for help, explaining that he is rusted and cannot move. As Dorothy and the Scarecrow carefully move his joints, the Tinman regrets he is unable to feel. They encourage him to ask the Wiz for a heart, and the three continue along the yellow brick road. At the deserted facade of the New York Public Library, a stone statue Lion (Ted Ross) breaks free and terrifies the companions, but he sobs when Toto nips his ankle. The Lion explains he is not brave, after all, and the friends persuade him to ask the Wiz for courage. In a subway train station, the foursome is followed by an eerie peddler and pursued by various monsters made up of support columns, but the Lion chases them away. Continuing along the road, the friends come to the "red light district" of Oz, where "Poppy Love Perfume" is pumped into an alleyway of half-dressed women. The Scarecrow realizes they have fallen into a trap, but Dorothy and the Lion are drugged by the poppy scent and become unconscious, whereas the Scarecrow and Tinman (who do not have internal organs, such as lungs to inhale the scent, are immune). Believing his friends to be dead, the Tinman cries, but his tears drip onto their faces and awaken them. Just then, the sun rises in the shape of an apple and the Emerald City appears in the distance as the skyline of New York City. The four cross the yellow brick road along the Brooklyn Bridge, only to find a heavily guarded vault door entrance to the city. A doorman refers them to the service entrance but notices Dorothy's silver slippers and quickly lets the travelers in. There, a cluster of enormous jewels are illuminated in green light between the twin towers of the World Trade Center. As finely dressed citizens carouse in the jade glow, the Wiz makes an announcement over a loudspeaker, declaring that Emerald City's color has been changed to red. When the city takes on a scarlet hue, the Wiz changes his mind again, and announces that yellow is the new fashion. The courtyard turns gold. The Wiz demands to see Dorothy, but she refuses to meet him without her friends. Taking an elevator to the top of the building, the companions see an enormous, fire-breathing mask. Terrified, they ask the Wiz for a brain, a heart, courage, and a way home, but the Wiz wants Dorothy's silver slippers in return. When she protests, he orders the team to kill Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West. Outside the gates of Emerald City, the guards lead the companions to a sewer where Evillene runs a "sweat shop" and rules her slaves from a bejeweled toilet. She summons her foul-smelling flying monkeys to capture Dorothy and her friends, and the creatures go after them on motorcycles. When they are brought back to Evillene's warehouse, the witch demands the return of her dead sister's slippers. Dorothy refuses and the Scarecrow is cut in half by a power saw. Meanwhile, the Tinman is flattened by a steam press and the Lion is hung from the rafters by his tail. When Evillene threatens to throw Toto into a furnace, Dorothy agrees to surrender the shoes. As she sits to remove them, the Scarecrow nods toward a fire extinguisher. Dorothy sets off the overhead sprinklers and the warehouse is showered with water. Evillene is sucked down her toilet bowl throne. The witch's servants repair Dorothy's mangled friends, celebrate their freedom, and peel off their sweatshop costumes to discover human bodies beneath. The flying monkeys drive Dorothy and friends back to the Emerald City, and leave them at the "back door." Inside, they find the Wiz's mask head toppled over and realize they were manipulated by a false prophet. Apologizing, the Wiz (Richard Pryor) explains he was never powerful, but rather a failed politician named "Herman Smith" from Atlantic City, New Jersey. As part of a campaign to be elected Dog Catcher, he hovered above the city in a hot air balloon to distribute fliers. However, he was swept away by a storm and landed in Oz many years earlier. The residents of Emerald City had never seen an aircraft and proclaimed him "the Wiz." He has lived in solitude ever since, fearing his true identity would be revealed. Dorothy's friends lament they will never have a brain, a heart, or courage, but she reminds them that they had these qualities all along. Just then, Glinda, "the Good," appears in a starry sky. She tells Dorothy that home is not just a place. It is the understanding of one's own mind, heart, and courage. Glinda promises the girl that she can be at home anywhere in the world as long as she believes in herself. When Dorothy learns she can return to Harlem by clicking the heels of her silver slippers three times, the Wiz asks for help getting home. She advises him to go on his own journey of self-discovery. Dorothy bids her friends farewell, clicks her heels, and returns to the snowy street outside her apartment building.

On a flight to Los Angeles, California, British actress Diana Barrie (Maggie Smith) watches herself on the in-flight movie in the role for which she has received an Academy Award nomination. She expresses her nervousness about the upcoming Oscar ceremony to her husband, Sidney Cochran (Michael Caine), as the plane lands. Elsewhere, on a Los Angeles freeway, Dr. Willis Panama (Bill Cosby) and Dr. Chauncey Gump (Richard Pryor), physicians from Chicago, Illinois, vacationing together with their wives Bettina (Sheila Frazer) and Lola (Gloria Gifford), bicker with each other constantly as their rental car first breaks down, then collides with two other vehicles. As Diana and Sidney check into the Beverly Hills Hotel, Hannah Warren (Jane Fonda) paces her room in the hotel while waiting to meet with her ex-husband, Bill Warren (Alan Alda). When he arrives, they note that it has been nine years since they saw each other, then they leave to keep the lunch reservation he made. At the Los Angeles airport, Harry Michaels (Herbert Edelman) picks up his brother, Marvin Michaels (Walter Matthau), who has come to town to attend Harry's son's bar mitzvah. Marvin explains that he and his wife Millie (Elaine May) always fly separately, so she will arrive the next morning. Marvin notices that Harry still ogles and wants to proposition every beautiful woman he sees. Harry drops Marvin off at the Beverly Hills Hotel and they arrange to meet for dinner later. Meanwhile, Hannah and Bill reminisce over lunch and later at his beachfront home. She is an editor for Newsweek magazine in New York City and dating a writer for the Washington Post. He is a former journalist, now working as a screenwriter, and contemplating marrying his girlfriend. Then they discuss the real reason Hannah has flown to Los Angeles: their seventeen-year old daughter, Jenny (Dana Plato), unhappy living with her mother in New York, ran away to stay with her father and wants to spend the next year with him in Los Angeles. Hannah doesn't want her daughter living in southern California but she is nervous about seeing Jenny and getting her to return to New York. Back at the hotel, Diana continues fretting over the likelihood of winning the Academy Award and exchanges witty banter with Sidney. Later, she has a couple of drinks to calm her nerves as she gets dressed for the awards ceremony. As Hannah and Bill return to Hannah's hotel room, Jenny calls and informs her parents that she will abide by whatever decision they make. Hannah announces to Bill that Jenny will return to New York with her. Bill is disappointed but trusts Hannah's instincts. When Hannah expresses how afraid she is of losing Jenny, Bill remarks that he has never seen his ex-wife so vulnerable. Then Hannah says Jenny can stay with Bill in Los Angeles, but only for six months. Hannah watches Jenny drive off with Bill. At the hotel's front desk, the doctors learn there is a reservation for Willis but not for Chauncey. The hotel has no extra rooms because it is Academy Award week. The only thing available is a small single room undergoing repairs. Chauncey agrees to take it. Later, Willis tells Chauncey that he has made a dinner reservation at a Japanese restaurant and booked them a tennis court for a doubles game the next day. While the Gumps struggle to get ready in their tiny room, Chauncey complains about having to eat Japanese food. As Willis and Bettina wait for their friends in the lobby, Willis complains that Chauncey is always late. When the two couples finally gather at the hotel's front door, the doctors argue about who will drive to the restaurant, until Bettina insists she will drive. On the way to the Academy Awards, a nervous Diana begs Sidney to be nice to her and wish her luck. He reminds her how talented she is and gives her a kiss. They exit the limousine and greet the crowd outside the venue. Elsewhere, paramedics arrive at a collision in which a car is on top of the one Bettina is driving. While a policeman questions her, Chauncey insists to the officer that his legs are paralyzed from sitting down at the Japanese restaurant. After the Academy Awards ceremony, Diana observes Sidney speaking with an attractive young man. Drunk, she takes her disappointment about losing the Oscar out on her husband. At the hotel, as Harry drops his brother off after dinner, Harry teases Marvin that "the night is not over yet." Marvin goes to his room and finds that Harry has hired a hooker, Bunny, to entertain him. Later, Chauncey wakes up in the middle of the night, sick from the Japanese food. Lola calls Willis and insists he tend to Chauncey. Willis angrily acquiesces. Back in their hotel room, Diana jealously insists that Sidney was flirting with the young man that she saw him speaking with earlier. Sidney asks her why they cannot lie to each other about the nature of their relationship the same way they lie to everyone else about it. He reminds her that he has never hidden who he is... that he is homosexual. Diana asks why Sidney doesn't love her anymore. He insists he never stopped loving her. She says his kind of love doesn't do her any good, then begs him to "screw" her before immediately apologizing. She loves him but she doesn't understand why he stays with her when he could share the company of other gay men exclusively. He explains he enjoys his proximity to her minor celebrity and tells her he loves her more than any woman he's ever known. They acknowledge they have fun together, then share a kiss. She comes to bed and they make love. The next morning, Marvin wakes up to find himself in bed with Bunny. He tries to get her up and out of the room but she has passed out after drinking a bottle of tequila. Calling the front desk, Marvin learns that his wife, Millie, has just arrived and is on her way to his room. He tries to keep Millie from discovering the nude, unconscious hooker in his bed but finally reveals his indiscretion. Incensed, Millie leaves. Elsewhere at the hotel, Willis, Bettina, Chauncey and Lola play doubles tennis. Bettina accidentally smashes her racket on Willis' head, loses her balance and injures her ankle as she falls. Lola stumbles over a basket of tennis balls trying to come to Bettina's aid and Chauncey trips over the net trying to help Lola. Outside the Michaels' room, Millie hurries away as Marvin tries to explain his infidelity. At first, Millie doesn't see how she can attend the bar mitzvah knowing Harry paid for Marvin's hooker, then she decides to forgive Marvin and forget it ever happened. She also plans to spend all of his money. The Panamas and the Gumps return to the Panamas' room to care for Bettina's ankle. Lola breaks a bottle of perfume in the bathroom, then cuts her finger on one of the glass shards. While they tend to Lola, Bettina trips and falls through the room's French doors, breaking the panes of glass. Then Lola bangs her head on the door of the medicine cabinet while rinsing off her bleeding finger and passes out. Willis goes to the bathroom to soak a wet towel for her, but steps on the broken glass. Willis and Chauncey put both women on the bed then start fighting each other, damaging the room in the process. After shopping in the hotel boutique, Millie returns to the hotel room. Marvin tries to embrace her but she wants no signs of affection from him in front of the still-unconscious hooker on their bed. In the Panamas' room, Chauncey swears it has been the worst trip ever and Willis tries to force Chauncey to say it is the best time they ever had and that the Gumps will love going on vacation with the Panamas again. In front of the hotel, the taxi that the Michaels were going to take to the bar mitzvah has been given to Bunny, who is awake and fully dressed. She generously allows them to ride with her to their destination. At the airport, Hannah is surprised to see Jenny, who has come to say good-bye and thank her mother for letting her stay with Bill. In another part of the airport, the Panamas and the Gumps, who are bruised and covered in bandages, limp towards their flight. As Diana and Sidney's plane takes off, they learn that the in-flight movie is the same as on their flight to Los Angeles and Diana begs Sidney to get them off the plane.

The true life story of Wendell Scott, the first black stock car racing driver to win an upper tier NASCAR race. This is the true story of Wendell Scott, America's first African American NASCAR driver, once he returns from WWII to find his hometown the way he left it. With seed money for a taxicab business, he learns all the county roads. With his new knowledge an opportunity presents itself with some steep consequences. After an invitation to the local race track, a race car driver is born. The ethnic boundaries are a part of everyday life in 1950's Amercan life. You become part of his fight for equality, fairness and the American dream.

Orange picker Leroy Jones inadvertently becomes a union leader and is forced out of town, leaving behind his wife Annie Mae and his sexually-obsessed father Rufus. Richard Pryor plays three roles: Leroy Jones, a poor orange-picker who gets laid off for accidentally joining the workers' union during one of their demonstrations; Leroy's father, whom he leaves behind with the rest of his family to go to Los Angeles; and Reverend Lenox Thomas, who impregnates Leroy's wife Annie Mae during his absence. In Los Angeles, Leroy ends up working for the same company that fired him back home; he is a manager at the company, but is now distant from his former pals. Though married, he falls in love with labor organizer Vanetta and must divide his time between her and Annie Mae. When he discovers that Annie Mae is pregnant by Reverend Thomas, he puts the moves on Mrs. Thomas. —mts77

On a Friday July morning in downtown Los Angeles, a middle aged ex-convict, Lonnie (Ivan Dixon), greets his fellow workers at the Dee-Lux Car Wash, including: Hippo (James Spinks), a large good natured man; Snapper (Clarence Muse), an elderly shoe shiner; Geronimo (Ray Vitte), a thin, African-American with feathers in his hair; Goody (Henry Kingi), a Native American who wears a hat with pig ears; T.C. (Franklyn Ajay), who dons a three piece suit and a large Afro hairstyle; Chuco (Peppe Serna), an Hispanic Casanova; and Scruggs (Jack Kehoe), a cowboy and fuel pump operator. The men change into their orange overalls as Earl (Leonard Jackson), their uptight supervisor, orders them to work when Leon "Mr. 'B" Barrow (Sully Boyer), the owner of the car wash, drives up with his college-aged son, Irwin (Richard Brestoff), who spouts communist philosophy and carries around Mao Zedong's Little Red Book. Marsha (Melanie Mayron), the busty cashier, opens the office. Two of the employees also introduced are Floyd (Darrow Igus) and Lloyd (DeWayne Jessie), they are singing musicians who have an audition for an agent at the end of their shift and spend the entire movie doing their jazz-blues dance moves in front of bewildered customers. Another employees is Charlie (Arthur French), a perpetually sick middle-aged employee. Meanwhile, a prostitute, Marleen (Lauren Jones), sneaks out of a cab to avoid paying the fare and hides in the car wash's ladies room. Earl is furious when worker Duane (Bill Duke) strolls in late. The tall African American refuses to answer why his late for work and also why he didn't show up for work yesterday. Duane tells Earl not to call him anymore by his so-called slave name, "Duane," and insists he be addressed as Abdulla Mohammed Akbar, as he is recent Muslim convert. Lonnie tries to be friendly towards Duane/Abdulla, but the young and angry black Muslim refuses to talk to or confide in Lonnie either about what is bothering him. As the men work, they dance to disco music, but the radio show is interrupted by a news bulletin announcing the threat of a "pop bottle bomber," who fashions soda bottles into bombs and blows up small businesses. Meanwhile, Irwin, who just smoked a marijuana cigarette, informs his father, "Mr. B," that he wants to join his "exploited brothers" washing cars, but Irwin slips, goes through the car wash, and gets a hot wax treatment. When the radio promises concert tickets to the first caller to correctly identify a song, T.C. rushes to the telephone booth, but he does not have a dime to make the call. As he screams in frustration, a Mercedes automobile arrives with a boy vomiting out the window. The mother (Lorraine Gary) tells Chuco to wash the car, as she drags the boy to the ladies' room. She bangs on the locked door until Marleen comes out wearing a new wig. When the woman returns to her spotless Mercedes, she accuses Chuco of shoddy workmanship and withholds her 5¢ tip, but her son vomits all over her and the car's interior as she leaves. Later, Reverend Daddy Rich (Richard Pryor) and the sexy Wilson sisters (The Pointer Sisters) arrive in a gold-painted Cadillac. The workers swarm to hear the Reverend preach the gospel of prosperity. Only Duane/Abdulla refuses to listen to his words despite the Wilson Sisters performing a song in front of him and everyone as Daddy Rich collects donations and leaves in his limo. A little later, when a Doberman Pinscher escapes from a vehicle, Scruggs catches the dog, but not before it excretes in the parking lot, and Earl orders Goody and Chuco to clean up the mess with a discarded donut box. Afterward, Chuco puts on Goody's pig hat, sticks his face against a frosted window and oinks, scaring the cashier Marsha while she is using the ladies' room. When Chuco returns Goody's hat, Marsha mistakenly believes Goody is the culprit and dumps a bucket of cold water over him, but Goody later gets even with Chuco by putting hot chillis in Chuco's sandwich. T. C. takes his lunch break at a café across the street and asks Mona (Tracy Reed), a waitress, for a date. She refuses, claiming she is through with dating men who have no future. Later, "Mr. B" propositions Marsha for sex and she tells him she has to check if she is free. Through most of this, Scruggs talks with his best friend Geronimo about calling Scruggs' wife, Charlene, since Scruggs never came home from work the previous day having spent it with Geronimo at a brothel. The sly and womanizing Geronimo gives Scruggs advice to be patient for Scruggs' wife will welcome him home at the end of the day like any other loyal wife. Meanwhile, Hippo pays Marleen to have sex with him in the storage room. Back on the wash line, Irwin preaches communism to the workers, but Duane cuts the boy off, claiming that when the revolution comes, whites will be working for black men. Lonnie tries to mentor Duane/Abdullah while struggling to raise two young children, who visit the car wash. Lonnie also fends off his parole officer who makes an unannounced visit to check up on him. At the same time, Duane/Abdullah confronts the drag queen employee Lindy (Antonio Fargas) and sharply criticizes his cross-dressing, to which Lindy coolly replies, "I'm more man than you'll ever be and more woman than you'll ever get". Seeing a van parked across the street, Duane leaves to talk to the driver. When Duane returns, Lonnie warns him to stay away from the driver, who is a fellow ex-convict. Employee Justin (Leon Pinkney) clashes with his girlfriend, Loretta (Renn Woods), who wants him to go back to college, but he refuses out of the feeling that a black man like him will not get anywhere in the world with any kind of education. She refuses to get married to him unless he goes back to college. It is also revealed that Snapper is Justin's elderly grandfather and he is a follower of Daddy Rich. As another news report about the "soda pop" bomber is broadcast over the radio, a man (Professor Irwin Corey) fitting the bomber's description drives up, asks Hippo for his soda bottle, and disappears into the men's bathroom. Hippo warns T.C. that the man will blow up the car wash. When the man comes out of the bathroom, T. C. grabs the bottle and runs away screaming. Another customer tackles T.C. and the bottle smashes onto the concrete, revealing a urine sample for the man's liver test. Meanwhile, a handsome man arrives and asks Marsha for a date. She agrees, then tells "Mr. B" she cannot meet him later because she has to visit her sister. Sly (Garrett Morris), a con artist employee and bookie, gets arrested by the police at the car wash for a series of unpaid parking tickets. At the end if the day, "Mr. B" fires Duane over his unexplained absences from work for the past several weeks, and Duane angrily confronts and physically threatens Mr. B. However, Lonnie prevents his friend from assaulting their boss, who storms away. When Lonnie asks "Mr. B" to rehire Duane, and also for a raise, "Mr. B" claims he has no time to talk and Lonnie storms away in frustration. Later, "Mr. B" follows Lonnie to the locker room, promising to continue their conversation the next day. When Scrugg's wife shows up at the car wash, she instead throws him a suitcase containing all his clothes, thus throwing him out of their house for staying out all night and cheating on her. Geronimo makes a hasty retreat, and Scruggs ends his friendship with Geronimo for giving him bad marriage advice. As the car wash closes for the day, T.C. telephones the radio station and finally wins tickets for the concert. After T.C. changes back to his suit, he goes to the diner and asks Mona to accompany him. She agrees to go to the concert. As Justin and his grandfather Snapper wait for the bus to pick them up, Loretta arrives in her car to drive home with Justin, and he agrees to talk about his career choices next week. Earl leaves to discover the donut box of dog excrement on his car, while Geronimo and Goody drive away with Goody yelling "you clean it up!" Scruggs leaves the car wash alone with his suitcase to spend the night someplace else. Lonnie volunteers to close the office so Marsha can keep her date. As he counts the cash, Duane enters with a revolver, demanding the money, but Lonnie refuses, explaining that he will not allow Duane to go to prison for such a small sum. Duane is unable to shoot Lonnie and cries that he is unable to deal with life's pressures. Lonnie embraces his friend and says they will figure out a solution together. In the final shot, Marleen watches the men leave as she waits for her next customer.

A Federal Agent, whose daughter dies of a heroin overdose, is determined to destroy the drug ring that supplied her. He recruits various people whose lives have been torn apart by the drug trade and trains them. Then they all leave for France to track down and destroy the ring. —frankfob2@yahoo.com

Sid Caesar stars as the bumbling right-hand man of mob boss Robert Ryan, who is sent to find a corpse buried in a suit lined with stolen mob money. Sid Caesar plays a bumbling gopher to mob boss Robert Ryan, who discovers a large theft of mob money. His bookkeeper is killed shortly before he can reveal the thief. When the discovery is made, Ryan suspects Caesar as the culprit and probable murderer of the bookkeeper. Caesar spends the rest of the movie trying to find the real killer and a corpse buried in a suit lined with the stolen money. —alfiehitchie