Easy Money (1983)

There have been several movies released with the title Easy Money. Indeed, two of them are coming up on various premium channels in the next couple of days. One of them is a 1983 comedy, and that airs tomorrow morning at 11:39 AM on MovieMax, part of the Cinemax package.

Rodney Dangerfield plays Monty Capuletti, a portrait and event photographer, mostly of young children living in a blue-collar part of Staten Island. He's got a wife Rose (Candy Azzara), two daughters including elder daughter Allison (Jennifer Jason Leigh), and a best friend in Nicky (Joe Pesci). Allison is set to get married soon to a man Monty doesn't like, and Monty has to pick up the cake, with some help from Nicky. Well, it's not exactly help. Nicky decides to stop at a couple of bars on the way home, eventually destroying the cake in a car accident.

One person who isn't going to be happy about this is Monty's mother-in-law, Mrs. Monahan (Geraldine Fitzgerald). She's the heir to a department store, richer than Croesus, and pissed that her daughter Rose married down. Indeed, that side of the family has nothing to do with the department store, with nephew Clive (Jeffrey Jones) being the manager-in-waiting and Monahan being helped by her lawyer Scrappleton (Tom Ewell). She's only at the wedding for the granddaughter's sake.

It's also going to be the last time Monahan sees the rest of the family. Not long after the wedding, news comes out that Monahan has been killed in a plane crash. In one of those typical movie scenes, there's a reading of the will that has all sorts of wacky clauses. Clive is scheduled to receive a stipend of $5,000 a year, which wasn't all that much money even in 1983. For reasons known only to Monahan, it's Monty who's set to inherit the department store.

But there's a catch, and it's a big one. Monty is going to have to go through an entire year of clean living, which means no drugs, no smoking, no drinking -- and Monty is going to have to get his weight down to 175, although the movie doesn't say how much he weighs at the start of the year. Monty unsurprisingly bristles at the idea. But the department store is worth $10 million, and that would enable Monty and his family to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

So Rose and the kids set about cleaning Monty up. Nicky, along with Monty's more peripheral friends, show that they really are true friends by helping Monty and the family keep Monty on the straight and narrow. And as tough as it it, Monty actually seems to be committing to it. Clive, of course, isn't. If Monty fails, then the department store reverts to Clive, so he tries to sabotage Monty by doing things like having a bunch of pizzas delivered to Monty's house.

Clive gets a bigger chance to derail Monty's plans. The family has apparently been so estranged from the late Mrs. Monahan that they don't know what the department store is even like. Monty goes there with Nicky, and they find that it's an upscale place that's clearly too hoity-toity for people of Monty's social standing. He complains that the menswear on display is nothing like what average schlubs such as himself and Nick would want to wear.

This gives Clive the idea to bring in Monty to make suggestions as to what regular guys would like, and then turn those ideas up to 11, offering the most outrageous blue-collar stuff that supposedly would never sell in a fashion show. (Have they never seen a real fashion show? The stuff here looks more like clothes regular people would wear.) Will this drive Monty back to drink?

Easy Money was clearly designed as a showcase for Rodney Dangerfield's talents (he co-wrote along with P.J. O'Rourke), and in that regard it succeeds quite well, but making him look good and entertaining the audience. Dangerfield's character reminds me of early Homer Simpson, who was at heart a decent man trying to do the best for his family even if he wasn't always the sharpest tool in the shed. Monty may drink and smoke, but he clearly always means well. Indeed, not liking Allison's boyfriend is part of that as she sees she may not have made the right choice, and the husband tries to reform, even though he might be more incompetent at it than Monty. It's also nice to see a couple of names from the past in Fitzgerald and Ewell.

I was able to pick up this version of Easy Money on DVD in a cheap box set with Throw Momma From the Train and Blame It on Rio. That set looks to be out of print, as do the other releases. Other movies with the same title are in print, and multiple Easy Money movies are on Amazon streaming depending on which channel packages you get.