Themes: Hide the Dead Body, Nothing Goes Right, Private Eyes
Main Cast: John Lithgow, Teri Garr, Randy Quaid, Bruce McGill, Lisa Blount
Release Year: 1989
Country: US
Run Time: 91 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Dave (John Lithgow), a meek, unassuming man who's the co-owner of a butcher shop, discovers his obnoxious business partner Ernie (Bruce McGill) dead in the meat locker. Dave thinks he might have accidentally locked Ernie in and caused his death. Much of the movie involves Dave's efforts to dispose of the corpse. He's aided in his efforts by the dead man's wife Sunny Cannald (Terry Garr), who used to be his girlfriend. Romance between the two is rekindled while Sunny tries to help Dave, meanwhile covering up a secret of her own. Complications are caused by the world's most incompetent private detective Randy Quaid), who Sunny had hired to get evidence that her husband was cheating on her. This somewhat disjointed black comedy got a "stiff" reception by most reviewers, despite the comic talents of the cast. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Lisa Fischer - Art Director, Chris Coles - Associate Producer, George G. Braunstein - Co-producer, Ron Hamady - Co-producer, Linda M. Bass - Costume Designer, Malcolm Mowbray - Director, Dennis M. Hill - Editor, John Daly - Executive Producer, Derek Gibson - Executive Producer, Michel Colombier - Composer (Music Score), Linda Pearl - Production Designer, Tony Pierce-Roberts - Cinematographer, Andy Schoneberg - Special Effects, Linda M. Bass - Stunts, Howard Glasser - Screenwriter, George Malko - Screenwriter, Leonard Glasser - Screenwriter
The film is set in and around San Pedro, Los Angeles, California - 'the Edward Hopper streets and storefronts create a world where the script plays itself out in all its linear precision.'[1] Sunny, (Teri Garr), hires a private detective, (Randy Quaid) to trail her husband Ernie, (Bruce McGill), whom she believes is lavishing time and money on other women. She wants all the details so she can clean him out in a divorce action. But she is impatient, and kills Ernie, taking a chance to make his business partner, Dave (John Lithgow), think he did it. Ernie and Dave worked as butchers in the Army and when they got out they ran a butchers shop together. Dave has always been in love with Sunny - now he is convinced he has killed Ernie by accidentally locking him in a freezer. Lester Atlas, the private detective, thinks he has pictures of Ernie's lover visiting him at the shop but has actually photographed Sunny on the night she killed him.
The film was reviewed , favourably, by the eminent critic Pauline Kael in her final collection of movie reviews, Movie Love. "Teri Garr plays her role with a savage, twinkling joy. Why doesn't her skill get more recognition? This small, disingenuous comedy has been buffed to shine like a jewel; the smoothness of it keeps you giggling."
