STUCK WITH EACH OTHER
US, 1986, 90 minutes, Colour.
Tyne Daly, Richard Crenna, Roscoe Lee Browne, Bubba Smith, Michael J.Pollard, Eileen Heckhart.
Directed by Georg Stanford Brown.
Stuck With Each Other is a light caper telemovie. It relies on the presence and charm of its stars Tyne Daly and Richard Crenna. (The film was directed by Tyne Daly's husband, Georg Stanford Brown.) There is a strong supporting cast which includes Roscoe Lee Brown as a diamond fence, athlete Bubba Smith along with Michael J. Pollard as a couple of toughs.
The film is about a secretary and a sacked salesman and their opportunity to find almost a million dollars belonging to gangsters and going off to live the high life - but pursued by the gangsters. They use their ingenuity, the also fall in love. There is an amusing cameo by Eileen Heckhart as Tyne Daly's mother. Nothing startling.
1. Entertaining light telemovie? The variation on the caper? High life in New York City? Gangsters?
2. New York, the city, poorer areas, richer areas? Uptown, downtown? Musical score?
3. The title, Burt and Sylvia, the accident of the death and getting the money, their fears, their decisions to use the money, falling in love?
4. Sylvia, the plain secretary, her competence in her work, her glamorous mother and her dancing partners, the relationship with Roger, the possibility of a new life, his breaking it off, coming to see her again and her not going with him?
5. Burt, the salesman, wanting a raise, fobbed off by the boss? Having to get his alimony?
6. The death, handling it, finding the money, arguing the toss, decisions, the paper bags, Burt taking it to his place, Sylvia and her anxiety with her mother and her mother's friend, ringing up, coming to see Burt? Frightened in the street? Their carrying the money around, trying to put it somewhere safe? The decision to go to the hotel after the pursuit by the toughs? Their brazening out the $50,000 demand? The others knowing that they had more, the fight? In the hotel - and the high life, food, clothes, manicure etc? The outings? Burt and the glamorous woman - but passion not what he was wanting? Sylvia and the encounter with the rock star, friendship, the party, the snobbery of the wealthy and their disdaining the rich? Her returning to the hotel, the two together, in love?
7. Calhern, fencing the jewellery, suspicious of his henchmen? The tall and the short gangsters, their pursuit, finding them, kidnapping Burt, bashing him? The phone calls? Sylvia's arrival - but her shrewdness with Burt in ringing Calhern and getting rid of the two pursuers? Keeping their money?
8. Their decision to give the money back, the burdens of the high life, the phoniness of society? their being content with each other?
9. The amusing cameos - Roscoe Lee Brown as Calhern, Eileen Heckhart as the mother, the dancing, the pursuit in the ballroom, the final credits and her mother dancing with her partner? The toughs and their shrewdness as well as being dumb? The rock singer and his world?
10. Light entertainment with the touch of seriousness?
