Risky Business

Miles: Sometimes you gotta say "What the Fuck", make your move. Joel, every now and then, saying "What the Fuck", brings freedom. Freedom brings opportunity, opportunity makes your future. So your parents are going out of town. You got the place all to yourself.
Joel Goodson: Yeah.
Miles: What the fuck.


"Risky Business" made its premiere on August 5, 1983 and became an instant hit.  The incredible thing about the success of the film was that people didn't think it would do well at all.  It wasn't even released in other countries until January and February of the following year.  What was it that drew throngs of viewers to see it?  Was it Tom Cruise dancing around in nothing but his underwear, socks, and long-sleeve shirt?  (Hey... when I had the movie on VHS tape, I wore that scene out a lot!)  Was it the idea of a teenager making tons of money by turning his house into a brothel whilst his parents were away?  Was it the thrill of seeing a Porsche fall into Lake Michigan?  Or was it because we got to see Tom and Rebecca DeMornay have sex on a train?  Whatever it was, it worked.  It worked so well, in fact, that though it was budgeted an estimated $6.2 million, it grossed $63.5 million in just the U.S. alone.

Starring Tom Cruise (Joel), Rebecca DeMornay (Lana), Joe Pantoliano (Guido), Richard Masur (Rutherford), Bronson Pinchot (Barry), and Curtis Armstrong (Miles), "Risky Business" is the story of a Chicago teenager who is looking to have some fun whilst his parents are away, only to find that things get out of hand.  Quickly.

Written and directed by Paul Brickman in his directorial debute at the age of 34, it's interesting to note that the story of this film takes place in Chicago, the city in which he was born.

Here are some other tidbits you might not have known about "Risky Business"...

1.  Tom Cruise was 21-years-old when "Risky Business" made its U.S. premiere in 1983.

2.  Among the actors who auditioned for the role of Joel were Tom Hanks and Nicolas Cage.  Timothy Hutton was the first choice for the role of Joel, but turned it down. 

3.  In an effort for Tom Cruise to look more "teenage" in appearance, the producers of "Risky Business" put him through an unusual bit of physical training. Cruise worked out 7 days a week in order to lose ten pounds. Once that had been accomplished, he immediately ceased working out and ate extremely fatty foods in order to add a layer of baby fat. This is how he achieved that "fresh-faced" teenage look.

4.  In the DVD commentary, Diane Lane says that Tom Cruise got the script for the film while shooting "The Outsiders" and had asked Lane to audition for the role of Lana. Her father later told the producers there was "no way his daughter was playing a twenty-something hooker."

5.  Sharon Stone auditioned for the role of Lana.

6.  The opening dream sequence was shot in eighteen hours.

7.  The dance scene where Joel dances to "Old Time Rock N' Roll" was completely improvised. In the script Tom Cruise was simply instructed to "dance to rock music."

8.  Childhood photographs of Tom Cruise can be seen in the living room.

9.  CAMEO -- Sean Penn:  As the man sitting in the passenger seat as Joel first takes the Porsche for a spin. The cameo was a favor for director Paul Brickman.

10.  The exhaust and engine sounds of the Porsche were dubbed from another Porsche 928 that had a hole in its rear muffler, therefore created much louder sound that a stock 928.

11.  The sunglasses Joel wears are the Ray-Ban Wayfarer model. Annual sales of Wayfarers were languishing as of 1983 but skyrocketed 2000% after the movie's release.

12.  At Joel's brothel party the song "Swamp" by the group, Talking Heads, plays in the background - one line of the song contains the phrase "Risky Business."

13.  Music in this film is done by Tangerine Dream who based parts of the film's score on material from their previous albums, particularly the album "Force Majeure": The title track is the basis for Lana's theme, and the intro to "Cloudburst Flight" was reused for "Guido the Killer Pimp". "No Future (Get off the Babysitter)" is based on the title track to the album "Exit".    

14.  One of a few pictures in an early 1980s mini Hollywood cycle of clean cut guy becomes pimp movies. The films include "Night Shift," "Risky Business," and "Doctor Detroit."

15.  "Risky Business" was Tom Cruise's fifth film and Rebecca DeMornay's first (previous to this film, she was an understudy in "One from the Heart").

And now you know.


Tom Cruise was born Thomas Cruise Mapother IV in Syracuse, New York.  At 14 years old, he was a Franciscan seminary student and had ambitions of becoming a priest.  Back then if someone had told him that one day he would be considered one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and thought, "Absolutely not."  Thank goodness he changed his mind.  Otherwise who would we have had the pleasure of seeing dance around in his underwear?  Tom Hanks?  I think not!

Without giving too much of the story line away, enjoy the follow picture stills of the film...

Joel Goodson: My name is Joel Goodson. I deal in human fulfillment. I grossed over eight thousand dollars in one night. Time of your life, huh kid?

Vacation

Ellen Griswold: I honestly don't think you're going to find the Grand Canyon on this road.
Clark: Jesus, it's only the biggest damn hole in the world.
Aunt Edna: Clark, watch your language!
Clark: Make that the second biggest.

The Quest: The Griswold family vacation.  The Destination: Walley World Theme Park.  The Problem: EVERYthing!  Especially when husband and father, Clark, gets distracted by a smokin'-hot blonde in a red Ferrari!  This cross-country vacation has gone too far!


On July 29, 1983, National Lampoon's first "Vacation" movie made its premiere in the U.S. and won critical acclaim, eventually becoming the fourth most popular film for that year (under "Star Wars: Episode VI -- The Return of the Jedi," "Scarface," and "The Outsiders").

Directed by Harold Ramis and written for the screen by John Hughes (based on his own short story, "Vacation '58"), "Vacation" stars Chevy Chase (Clark), Beverly D'Angelo (Ellen), Anthony Michael Hall (Rusty), Dana Barron (Audrey), and legendary Imogene Coca (Aunt Edna).  Co-stars consisted of Randy Quaid (Cousin Eddie), Miriam Flynn (Cousine Catherine), Eugene Levy (car salesman), John Candy (Lasky, guard at Walley World), and also legendary Eddie Bracken (Roy Walley).

From getting lost in a high-crime part of a city at night to wandering around in a desert to having a picnic on a sunny day and opening up their packed lunches of which a dog already discovered, "Vacation" is full of laughs.  Budgeted an estimated $15 million and grossing in an approximate $61.4 million, this is worth every penny and is still a favorite of all ages around the world.

Here's some more behind-the-scenes info you might not have known about it...

1.  Based on the article "Vacation 58" by John Hughes, which appeared in the September 1979 issue of National Lampoon.    

2.  Imogene Coca originally turned down the part of Aunt Edna because she did not think she could portray such a mean character. Even during filming, she was often concerned that she was being (too) mean to her fellow cast members.  Imogene Coca and her long-time comic partner, Sid Caesar, played Mr. Ellis in "Vegas Vacation." Both of the characters die of old age in each film.

3.  According to director Harold Ramis he cast John Candy in the role of Laskey the Guard because he had enjoyed working with Candy on SCTV (aka SCTV, Canada's version of Saturday Night Live) and that he also loved Candy's "Paul Fistinyourface" character from the show. Ramis had Candy play the character as a sort of relative to Paul Fistinyourface. Also worth mentioning is that Eugene Levy (the car salesman) also worked with Candy and Ramis on SCTV.

4.  Daisy Mabel (Cousin Eddie's tongueless daughter) was played by director Harold Ramis' daughter, Violet Ramis.

5.  The "W" in Clark W. Griswold stands for Wilhelm.

6.  The opening scene at the Chicago car dealership was filmed at Star Ford in Glendale, California.  As of early 2009, the dealership is still there as well as the same buildings that were in the movie.

7.  The Star Ford car dealership in Glendale, California, the location scene where Clark purchases the Wagon Queen Family Truckster, is located two blocks north of Chevy Chase Drive.

8.  The Wagon Queen Family Truckster is actually a modified Ford LTD Country Squire station wagon.    

9.  The childhood pictures of Audrey on the living room wall were actual portfolio shots of Dana Barron when she was making commercials as a child actress.

10.  Exterior filming of the Griswolds "on the road" took the greater part of three months during production, crossing numerous states including California, Arizona, Colorado, Misouri and Illinois, which was filmed by a second unit. While most of the principal filming took place in California, the cast did travel on location for scenes set in Colorado, Utah and Arizona.    

11.  Director Harold Ramis said in the DVD commentary the scene where the Griswolds get off the wrong exit in St. Louis and get lost in the ghetto was one of the most politically incorrect sequences he ever shot and that it practically demonized everyone involved. He also admitted that he wasn't proud of shooting it the way it appears in the film and that he was not even sure if he would shoot that particular scene today, and if he did, he would shoot it or write it out in a different and more politically-correct way.

12.  The St. Louis inner city and the Dodge City main street were created and filmed on the Warner Brothers' studio back lot.    

13.  In the DVD commentary, Chevy Chase mentions that the scene in which Rusty puts his feet up on top of the driver's seat was originally not in the script, but the producers liked it, so it was kept in the movie.

14.  There were two scenes which were in the original script and shot but were cut from the final version of the film. One scene had the Kamp Komfort manager (Brian Doyle-Murray) dress up in a moose costume and sneak into Clark and Ellen's tent to scare them (which explains the "wildlife fun" the manager mentioned as they checked in). That scene was cut because it made the sequence run too long, so it was re-written to have Dinky sneak into the tent instead. The second scene originally written/filmed but cut was one featuring the two Indians (the same ones who see Clark wandering aimlessly through the desert and say "What an a**hole") as well as a camel rider who finds Ellen and the rest of the family and rescue them. That scene was cut because, according to director Harold Ramis, the camel had been raised in Burbank and had only ever walked on pavement, and the camel did not take to walking on hot sand very well. All the shots of the camel were unusable. Remnants of both cut scenes appear as photos during the ending credits photo montage.

15.  For the scene where Clark ties Dinky's leash to the rear bumper and forgets all about it before driving off, producer Matty Simmons, said that after the movie's release, he received numerous letters from people who had seen the movie and admitted that they had made the same grievous error with their pets as Clark did in the movie.    

16.  Apparently, it was originally scripted that after Aunt Edna was tied to the roof of the car, there was a shot of her fingers moving implying she was, in fact, still alive. This was considered "cruel" to have a live person on the roof of a car by the ratings board, so it was cut and she remained dead.    

17.  For the scene in Dodge City where Clark taunts the ornery bartender who ends up shooting him with a blank-loaded rifle, one of the prop guys ended up playing a practical joke on the cast members during one of the takes. During that particular take, after the bartender shoots at Clark, the prop guy tossed down a fake dummy from the second level of the set and the entire cast jumped in surprise afterward.    

18.  The scene where the station wagon goes airborne in the Arizona desert actually caused some production changes due to the hard nose-landing that wasn't expected. Among those were matching the exact front-end damage on other station wagons used in other scenes.

19.  In the DVD commentary, director Harold Ramis mentions that for the scene in which the Family Truckster jumps into the air, several of the crew members had made bets against 2nd unit director Dick Ziker that he couldn't jump the car more than 50 feet (even drawing lines in the sand to measure the distance). Ziker ended up winning that bet, as he jumped the car more than 50 feet.

20.  According to Harold Ramis, he was inspired to shoot wide-angle shots of Clark alone in the desert by the film "Quest for Fire."

21.  The script originally called for Disneyland as the Griswolds' destination, but Disney objected, pointing out that they are open 365 days a year.

22.  The character of Roy Walley was based on a combination of the brothers Roy Edward Disney and Walt Disney, right down to the thin mustache.    

23.  The original ending of the film consisted of the Griswold family, after seeing that Walley World is closed, going to the Hollywood house of Roy Walley (Eddie Bracken of both movie and TV fame since 1939), the owner of Walley World, and holding him and his family hostage and making them sing and dance Walley World theme songs before the police arrive to arrest all of them. This did not go over well with test audiences and the scenes in the park with John Candy were a last-minute alternate filmed over two weeks, four months after production ended. The original ending was deleted and is believed to be lost. Bracken nevertheless appeared as Roy Walley in both endings.

24.  The original ending in which the Griswolds hold Roy Walley and his family hostage in their home was re-created as part of the ending to "Christmas Vacation."    

25.  In the Walley World scenes near the end, Anthony Michael Hall is taller than Beverly D'Angelo; in previous scenes with her he was the same height as her. This was because Hall grew three inches after principal photography finished; the ending was re-shot four months afterward, because the original ending failed with test audiences.    

26.  All of the distant shots of Walley World, including the sign the family truckster drives under, were matte paintings.

27.  The theme park that served as Walley World was actually Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, CA. The roller coaster referred by Clark as the "Whipper Snapper" is actually called "The Revolution" and was the first roller coaster to have a 360-degree vertical loop.

28.  Harold Ramis has an uncredited role as an off-camera voice of one of the police officers at Walley World.
    
29.  The gas station and sporting goods store where Clark pulls into and purchases his BB gun were located at the intersection of Ocean Ave. and Santa Monica Blvd. in Santa Monica, CA. Both buildings have since been torn down and replaced by apartment high-rises.

30.  All the cast members had terrible experiences when it came to filming the scenes inside Walley World, where they rode all of the roller coasters and other rides. In the commentary, Chevy Chase mentions that many of the rides made him and the other cast members sick to their stomachs, especially since they all had to ride them several times for each take. Dana Barron mentioned in the commentary that the coasters made her so sick she had to take motion sickness pills and would pass out on nearby benches between takes. Finally, Anthony Michael Hall mentions that in the shots on the roller coaster where he looks scared, he wasn't acting--his fear in those shots was genuine.

31.  There was a Walley World Water Park in London, Ontario, Canada, which opened several years after the movie was released. John Candy was invited to the opening of the park but the park owners couldn't afford his appearance fee.

32.  This was the only "Vacation" movie to receive an "R" rating in the US by the MPAA. The "European Vacation" and "Christmas Vacation" sequels received "PG-13" ratings, while "Vegas Vacation" was rated "PG".

33.  Chevy Chase appears in some scenes wearing a black Chicago Bears ball cap. He wears the same Chicago Bears cap throughout all four Vacation movies.

And now you know.


But wait!... One more thing...

On April 24, 2013, yet another “Vacation” movie was considered, but plans were put on hold.  According to the Hollywood Reporter, a reboot of the popular 1983 Chevy Chase comedy had been delayed indefinitely due to creative differences.  However... if you're a fan of the "Vacation" movies, you'll be glad to know that as of September 15, 2014, a new "Vacation" film is currently under pre-production!  Both Chevy Chase and Beverly D'Angelo are slated to reprise their roles, Ed Helms (from the "Hangover" movies as well as his work in TV's "The Office") will play "Rusty" and Leslie Mann (who was in such films as "This is 40" and "The Other Woman") will play Audrey.  This time, the story consists of Rusty, a young father, taking his family on vacation.  Hmmm.... I sense a little "like father, like son" activity about to take place, don't you?

And now you know even more!


Here are some pictures from the film you might enjoy, starting with pictures of the key characters...

Now let's follow the story line...

Clark: Why aren't we flying? Because getting there is half the fun. You know that.

Trading Places

Billy Ray Valentine: [watches Louis clean his shotgun] You know, you can't just go around and shoot people in the kneecaps with a double-barreled shotgun 'cause you pissed at 'em.
Louis Winthorpe III: Why not?
Billy Ray Valentine: 'Cause it's called assault with a deadly weapon, you get 20 years for that s**t.
Louis Winthorpe III: Listen, do you have any better ideas?
Billy Ray Valentine: Yeah. You know, it occurs to me that the best way you hurt rich people is by turning them into poor people.
Coleman: You have to admit, sir, you didn't like it yourself a bit.

Louis Winthorpe III is a businessman who works for a commodities brokerage firm of Duke & Duke owned by the brothers Mortimer and Randolph Duke.  One winter day Winthorpe bumps into street hustler Billy Ray Valentine and assumes he is trying to rob him, so he has him arrested.  Seeing how different the two men are, the brothers decide to make a wager: What would happen if Winthorpe lost his job, his home, his girlfriend, and were to be shunned by everyone he knew?  And what if Valentine was given Winthorpe's job?  They proceed with their plans and the results, unbeknownst to Duke & Duke, aren't exactly what they expected.


Having already directed such box office smashes as "Animal House," "The Blues Brothers," and "An American Werewolf in London," John Landis directed Dan Aykroyd and Eddie Murphy in "Trading Places" which turned out to be another huge hit at the box office, raking in $90.4 million in the U.S. after its June 8th premiere in 1983.

This would be the second time Aykroyd would be directed by Landis, having previously been in "The Blues Brothers."  He was already in several films and was most widely known for his participation in TV's "Saturday Night Live."  Though also a Not Ready for Prime Time Player in "Saturday Night Live," "Trading Places" was only Eddie Murphy's second film, his first being "48 Hrs." with co-star Nick Nolte.

"Trading Places" stars Dan Aykroyd (Louis Winthorpe III), Eddie Murphy (Billy Ray Valentine), and Jamie Lee Curtis (Ophelia).  Its supporting cast includes Ralph Bellamy (Randolph Duke), Don Ameche (Mortimer Duke), Denholm Elliott (Coleman), and Paul Gleason (Clarence Beeks).  Both Jamie Lee Curtis and Denholm Elliott won BAFTA awards for Supporting Actor/Actress and Elmer Bernstein was nominated for an Academy Award for his music and score.  

A Golden Globe went to Eddie Murphy for Best Actor in a comedic role for his talented performance and, of course, "Trading Places" won the Golden Globe for Best Film in the Comedy/Musical category.  Some other bits of trivia include...

1.  The original title: "Black and White".

2.  The premise is similar to that of "Hoi Polloi," The Three Stooges film. Two rich guys are arguing about what matters most: breeding or upbringing. One bets the other they can take any bum off the street and make him a gentleman. 

3.  The film was conceived as a vehicle for Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor. But when Pryor dropped out and Eddie Murphy came on board, he made a motion to get Wilder replaced because he didn't want people to think he was just trying to be another Pryor.

4.  Ray Milland was the first choice for the role of Mortimer Duke.

5.  This was Don Ameche's first film since "Suppose They Gave A War and Nobody Came?" 13 years earlier.

6.  John Gielgud and Ronnie Barker were offered the role of Coleman the butler. 

7.  G. Gordon Liddy was offered the part of Clarence Beeks but turned it down after discovering Beeks's fate. Beeks is reading Liddy's book, "Will", on the train.

8.  While she was making this picture, Jamie Lee Curtis stayed in Marlene Dietrich's apartment (12E) at 993 Park Avenue in Manhattan. She'd been engaged to Dietrich's grandson, production designer J. Michael Riva.

9.  The main titles are accompanied by the overture to "The Marriage of Figaro" by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and in an early scene, as Louis is leaving his office he whistles the beginning of the aria "Se vuol ballare" from the opera. In that aria, Figaro declares his plan to turn the tables on his master - just as Louis and Billy Ray will eventually outwit the Duke brothers. 

10.  The exterior shots of Louis Winthorpe's house are of a real house on a very affluent street in Philadelphia. The wreath on the door was replaced when the producers wanted something bigger and better. They borrowed a hand-made wreath from a house across the street.

11.  The home used in the film is not the Rosenbach Museum and Library, but is a private home two doors west. Both houses, however, were built at the same time and originally had an identical floor plan. During the filming of the movie, DeLancey Place was closed for a few days. Denholm Elliott was the only actor in the film to visit the Rosenbach. The staff of the museum were all given Pennsylvania State Film Commission tee shirts.

12.  The exterior of the men's club is really the Curtis Institute of Music.

13.  Toward the beginning of the film, watch for the scene where Louis Winthorpe runs into Billy Ray Valentine.  See the attendant standing at the stairs in the grey uniform and blowing his whistle?  That's noneother than Robert Earl Jones, the father of James Earl Jones.  If you've seen Oscar-winning film, "The Sting," Robert Earl Jones played the role of Luther Coleman.  He had been in films since 1939 on up through 1992.

14.  In the jail cell scene with Eddie Murphy, a particular actor, Ron Taylor (credits have him as Big Black Guy in the film -- he's the guy who says, "Yeah!") went on to act in many other films and television programs until his death in 2002.  "Trading Places" was his first.  In 1999, Ron was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actor for Broadway's, "It Ain't Nothin' But the Blues."  Continuing on with the same scene...

15.  ... Clint Smith (who wore the doo rag) was, in reality, a childhood friend of Eddie Murphy.  He appeared in films "48 Hrs." and "Coming to America," also starring Eddie, as well as a few uncredited scenes or skits in "Saturday Night Live."  Also...

16.  ... Giancarlo Esposito plays the guy who is credited as Cellmate #2.  You may not know the name, but he previously had a role in the film, "Taps" starring Timothy Hutton.  Furthering his career, he appeared in other films including "The Cotton Club," "Desperately Seeking Susan," "School Daze," "Do the Right Thing," "Mo' Better Blues," "Malcolm X," and other films and television productions.  You might notice him today as playing the bad guy, Major Tom Neville in TV's, "Revolution."

17.  When Eddie Murphy is released from jail, he stands near three men in trench coats on the steps of the precinct. The man with his back to Murphy holding a briefcase is director John Landis.

18.  Louis's (Dan Aykroyd) prison number is 7474505B, which is the same prison number as Jake (John Belushi) in "The Blues Brothers," also directed by John Landis and starring Aykroyd.

19.  Frank Oz has a cameo as a police officer who is checking in Winthorpes property when he gets arrested. In the Blues Brothers, also directed by John Landis, Oz again plays an officer who is giving Jake Blues his property back to him.  A sidenote: You might remember Frank Oz as being the voice of various muppets on "The Muppet Show" and "The Muppet Movie" including Miss Piggy, Fozzie the Bear, and Animal, but he was also the voice of The Mighty Favog which was a creation of Jim Henson and used on the TV show, "Saturday Night Live," also co-starring Dan Aykroyd.  In 1991 he directed the film "What About Bob?" starring Bill Murray, also an alumni of "Saturday Night Live."

20.  The punch line of Bunny's story ("...and she stepped on the ball") is a reference to "Auntie Mame," in which Gloria Upson tells a joke with the same punch line.

21.  The barbershop quartet song sung by Todd and his pals at the tennis club is sung to the tune of "Aura Lee" an American Civil War song written by W. W. Fosdick (words) and George R. Poulton (music). Elvis Presley's "Love Me Tender" is a derivative of it as well. Another version of Aura Lee is done in "Revenge of the Nerds" (1984) It's the song the Pi's sing to offer themselves as dates to the the Tri-Lambs (Hello Lambdas we're the Pi's/And we're here to say/We think you are special guys/Lambdas all the way...).

22.  In the scene when Louis visits the club to borrow money, the actress who plays "Muffy" is Kelly Curtis, the sister of Jamie Lee Curtis.

23.  Jamie Lee Curtis' future brother-in-law, Nicholas Guest, appears as Harry. 

24.  The electronic status board at Duke & Duke's (seen prominently in the Christmas scene) is the "Big Money" board from the TV game show, "The Family Feud."

25.  When Valentine chases Winthorpe out of the Christmas party he grabs a man in a Santa Claus suit. This man is Mike Strug, a television reporter who still works for a network affiliate in the city of Philadelphia.

26.  A scene in the movie not included in the final cut but seen frequently when the movie is shown on television (presumably to fill a longer time slot with commercials) occurs after Clarence Beeks talks to the Dukes via telephone and Billy Ray eavesdrops on their scheme. In the original cut, Beeks goes from the phone booth to the Amtrak train platform, holding the briefcase with the crop report. In the added scene, we see Beeks procure the reports from a secured vault where he pays off a security guard and opens a safe-deposit box.

27.  Several scenes were kept in the movie, even though they were considered either goofs or errors. The scene where Mortimer is trying to catch the money clip and having trouble wasn't supposed to happen that way, but both kept going with it and not breaking character, so it was kept in. Another, where Jamie Lee Curtis is doing her lines on the train and is questioned about her accent and outfit not matching, wasn't supposed to be shown either. Curtis couldn't do the correct Austrian accent.

28.  In 2010, as part of the Wall Street Transparency and Accountability Act, which was to regulate financial markets, a rule was included which barred anyone from using secret inside information to corner markets, similar to what the Duke brothers tried to do in the movie. Since the movie inspired this rule, it has since become known as the Eddie Murphy Rule.

29.  When Winthorpe and Valentine arrive at the World Trade Center, Winthorpe tells Valentine "In this building, it's either kill or be killed". This line was removed from some TV broadcasts after 2001, out of respect for the victims of the September 11th attacks. 

30.  Eddie Murphy later admitted that while on the floor of the stock exchange in the final scene, he only followed the script, he had no idea what was going on as he found stock trading incredibly confusing.

31.  The story about the Dukes' cornering of the orange juice market was probably inspired by the "Silver Thursday" market crash of 27 March 1980, during which the Hunt brothers of Texas tried to corner the silver market and subsequently failed to meet a $100 million margin call.

32.  Don Ameche's strong religious convictions made him uncomfortable with swearing. This proved a problem for the scene at the end of the movie where he had to shout out "F**k him!" to a group of Wall Street executives. When he did act out the scene, it had to be done in one take because Ameche refused to do a second one.

33.  Both Ralph Bellamy and Don Ameche reprise their roles as brothers Randolph and Mortimer Duke in the film, "Coming to America."  Though cameo appearances, the two are homeless on the street and Prince Akeem (played ironically by Eddie Murphy) gives them a large amount of money to get them back off the streets. 

And now you know.


It's hard to believe that a lot of good came from this film.  I mean, it's a comedy from the 80s.  Who would have thunk it?  By "good" I mean a couple of people who didn't even have character names in the credits went on to further their careers.  We didn't see that coming.  Just goes to show what can happen when one continues to do what one truly loves doing, regardless of what the odds look like or even what people say.

Here are some pictures stills from the film you might enjoy, including one with the Twin Towers in the background before their fall in 2001.

We'll begin with the key characters...

And now we'll follow a bit of the story line with these picture stills...

Louis: Looking good, Billy Ray!
Billy Ray: Feeling good, Louis!