TITLE-The Toy
SOURCE-Full Screen DVD
It is odd what sticks in my memory. I sometimes forget the month or year. But got clear memories of going in 1982 with my parents and the neighbors to see The Toy at the movie theater near the mall in Mobile AL. Then about a year or so after that new video rental store opens in town,we already had 2 in town that we were members of,and we go and rent The Toy. So After school one day Mom wasn't home yet,Dad got off at 5pm and was never home before 6pm,I invited a pile of the local kids over and we watched The Toy.
And that rat bastard Lil Colon,yes he was Colon Jr so got called Lil Colon(also his last name was Brown...) told his mom about the part when the robot dog pisses on Richard and the nude painting of Gleason's wife. His mom comes over chews out my mom and I catch shit.
All of that clear in my memory and it was 83 so 42ish years ago. Then when I put this DVD in a few weeks ago I remembered almost nothing of the film. 3 scenes tops.
This is a remake of a 70s French film,Richard Pryor is Jack/Jackie Brown. A vet that is about to lose his home to taxes. His lady is a lawyer for Klan Watch,a civil rights group. He is told by his buddy at the bank if he had "A real job" the bank would extend the time he had to pay the back taxes. Pryor is a writer and wants to work for the big newspaper. Which is ran along with most other places in Baton Rouge Louisiana back then by U.S. Bates.
U.S. Bates is an older delisional white guy. Who pretty much puts himself first ahead of all others. Became rich by being born into the money and running shady schemes to get richer. And has dreams of getting into Politics.
Pryor puts his name down as Jackie Brown,to maybe get a job as cleaning staff at a big party at Bates' mansion. Gets hired to do that and work a few nights a week cleaning the big department store Bates has.
The party is a disaster.Pryor is dressed up in a maids outfit. Dumps the meal in Bates lap and gets told to "Shave that mustache and you are fired".
Pryor the next night is cleaning the department store late at night,right when Bate's young son is coming into town. The kid lives at a military boarding school. Only coming home for 1 week a year. He is told he can have anything in the store,by Ned Beaty(who is a weasel like underling for US Bates). Young Master Bates,and yes that joke is made,sees Pryor being his normal comedic self and tells them "I want that"
So needing lots of money fast Pryor agrees to come stay at the mansion and be young Master Bate's living toy for a week.
Young Master Bates is played by Scotty Schwartz,who was Flick in A Christmas Story. Thinking this is his first role. He is good as the asshole kid that just wants some attention from his dad.
After having too much of Scotty's pranks and just being a general asshat,Pryor leaves goes home. Then middle of the night a drunk as fuck Ned Beatty shows up. With a check for 10k,the amount Pryor needs to save his house. All he has to do is come back and stay until Scotty goes back to boarding school.
Pryor comes back, lets the kid know he aint taking any shit. And talks Scotty into doing a free newspaper called The Toy. The paper will be all about US Bates. They start interviewing the various butlers,maids an chauffers that have worked for US Bates for years and learn he won the butler in a pool game. And various other shady deals.
The published their paper and US is up in arms. But sees that his son is happy.
This cast,wow this cast. Jackie Gleason isn't given much to work with as US Bates. Stories are the stuff he would say and stories he would tell between takes was funnier than this film. Richard Pryor has said he really enjoyed working with Gleason.
Of course as an 8 year old kid when I first saw this lots of the jokes went over my head. Now I of course I get them. I had been wanting to re-watch this for a long time. Never seems to be streaming on any service I got. So finding the DVD for a buck or so I was happy.
Load it up,fucker is Full Screen. Ok it's a comedy I can deal with that. THen 20 minutes before the ending it starts skipping and pausing. FUCK. Clean the disc and yea appears disc rot....Want to see the ending. Go look Amazon Prime Video has it for 5 bucks. Got 3 bucks amazon credit. So 2 bucks out of pocket I now own it digitally.
The film has this odd is it for kids nah it isnt for kids shift often. The interactions between Pryor and Scotty are totally 80s made of kids movie stuff. It is rated PG,but this is early 80s when PG wasn't like now.
Never noticed before Richard Donner directed this. Yea Lethal Weapon 1,2,3 Richard Donner.
The Toy is one where if you saw it as a kid or back when it came out I can see you having nostalgia for it and wanting to see it again. The DVD and Blu ray are both out of print. Used copies of the DVD are still cheap,undder 10 bucks. The Blu ray starts at 30 bucks and goes up from there. I am happy with the buck or so I paid for the partially working DVD and then 2 bucks for the digital copy.
The Toy gets a C+