How to Beat the High Co$t of Living (1980)

User Rating:

5.6/10   

Director:

Robert Scheerer

Writers:

Robert Kaufman (writer)
Leonora Thuna (story)

Release Date:

21 August 1981 (Finland)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

They're No Angels

Plot:

Oregon, 1980: Jane, Elaine and Louise are all feeling the effects of inflation and cannot afford, as the title states...

Plot Keywords:

High Cost Of Living | Mall | Intentionally Misspelled Title | Homemaker | Female Nudity

Cast

Susan Saint James	...	Jane
Jane Curtin	...	Elaine
Jessica Lange	...	Louise
Richard Benjamin	...	Albert
Fred Willard	...	Robert
Eddie Albert	...	Max
Dabney Coleman	...	Jack Heintzel
Art Metrano	...	Gas station attendant
Ronnie Schell	...	Bill
Garrett Morris	...	Power and Light man
Cathryn Damon	...	Natalle
Sybil Danning	...	Charlotte
Al Checco	...	Tim
Carmen Zapata	...	Mama
Dru Wagner	...	Harriet

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:L | Finland:K-12 | USA:PG | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Eugene, Oregon, USA

Company:

American International Pictures (AIP)

Trivia:

Jane Curtin's film debut.

Quotes:

Elaine: This is an emergency!
Power and Light man: It always is.
Elaine: [Lying] No, I am serious. My mother is a very sick woman. She's in the bed next to me with her kidney machine, which has kept her alive for seven years. This wonderful 84-year-old woman!
Elaine: [pretending to talk to "mama"] What's that mama? The machine isn't going "ta-pocketa ta-pocketa ta-pocketa" anymore? Oh my God! No, I'm not talking to Oral Roberts on the phone mama, it's too late for that. But the man on the other end of the phone cares. You do care, don't you? You will turn the power back on, won't you?
[...]

Movie Connections:

References The Bad News Bears (1976)

*really* funny blast from the past

For some reason, a slew of movies in 1980 mark a turning point in my developmental teen years: 9 to 5, A Coal Miner's Daughter, Private Benjamin, et.al. HTBTHCOL is yet another...one that took a long time to eventually come out on DVD.

It's even funnier than I'd remembered. While the story is good and the acting is ok, it's the cultural references circa 1980 that totally make the movie work for me (I'm 36 yrs old in '04). Jane Curtain's '80 Cutlass sucking gas, her oh-so-'70s contemporary house--complete with green bedspread and Buick-sized answering machine, the endless references to inflation, the grocery store cashier actually saying the name of each item before ringing it up by hand ("toy gun, $1.95..."), etc.

Jane Curtain actually does give the best performance, not only for her manic attempts to find cash, but for her impromptu striptease ("are you ready to see 1985, or should we skip right to 1990?"). The chemistry between Jane and Jessica Lange's character is quite good. Poor Susan Saint James...her character is annoying, whiny, and basically she serves as the Curly of this trio. (Yeah, I'd bring my kids to rob a store too...)

In all, this is a cute, silly time capsule to the dark days of inflation, 17% mortgage interest rates, slanted wood houses with lots of poorly utilized space, ferns, etc. One funny note: Jane Curtain's character makes numerous references to prostitution (to the gas station attendant, to the gals at the restaurant, and to Jack--the copy played by Dabney Coleman).