| Million Dollar Mystery | |
| Director: | Richard Fleischer |
| Producer: | Stephen F. Kesten |
| Starring: | Tom Bosley |
| Music: | Al Gorgoni |
| Cinematography: | Jack Cardiff |
| Editing: | John W. Wheeler |
| Distributor: | De Laurentiis Entertainment Group |
| Runtime: | 95 minutes |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
| Budget: | $10 million[1] |
| Gross: | $989,033 |
Million Dollar Mystery (also known as Money Mania) is a 1987 American film released with a promotional tie-in for Glad-Lock brand bags. This was the final feature-length film directed by Richard Fleischer and shot by Jack Cardiff.
It starred an ensemble cast of "America's new comic talent", including Tom Bosley, Eddie Deezen, Rick Overton, Rich Hall, and Kevin Pollak. The film was largely inspired by Stanley Kramer's It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Dar Robinson, a stuntman, died on November 21, 1986, after riding his motorcycle off a cliff while attempting to do a stunt.
Sidney Preston, a disgruntled White House aide, takes off with $4 million that belonged to the government. While on the run, he stops at a roadside diner in Arizona and has their world-famous chili, while flirting with the waitress. Two clumsy government spies named Fred and Bob are looking for Sidney. Sidney suffers a fatal heart attack and before dying asks for a kiss from the waitress, then he reveals to the onlookers the location of the first million dollars which he says is "In the city of the bridge". The onlookers are the Briggs Family (Stuart, Barbara, and Howie), nerdy newlyweds Rollie and Lollie, amateur singer Crush and his group of three blonde backup dancers (Faith, Hope, and Charity), brother/cook Tugger and sister/waitress Dotty. Soon, they meet professional wrestlers Bad Boris and Awful Abdul, cops Officer Gretchen and Officer Quinn, and deranged ranger Slaughter Buzzard.
The onlookers are skeptical, until Rollie turns on the television which is playing the news talking about Sidney Preston and the buried money. The newsman talks about his life and says he was born in El Puente, Arizona. The onlookers of the diner head out on a mad dash to find the dough. When they find the money in El Puente's famous bridge, Slaughter accidentally drops it into the canyon. They follow clues to the next million which is in Sidney's houseboat and lose it as well as it gets shredded in Sidney's table-sized paper shredder. After finding and losing the third million as it falls out of the hands of a greedy aeronaut, they all give up as the movie ends. During the closing credits, Bob informs the audience that there is one million dollars somewhere in the US and if they follow the clues in specially marked Glad-Lock bags, they have the chance to win $1 million.
Parts of the film were shot at Glen Canyon in Utah.[2]
While performing a routine stunt for this film, stuntman Dar Robinson died on November 21, 1986.
Producer Dino De Laurentiis conceived the idea for Million Dollar Mystery when he visited New York and saw a row of people lining up for what he presumably thought was a movie. A companion told De Laurentiis that they were actually lining up for lottery tickets.[3]
Glad Bags sponsored a sweepstakes timed for the film's release. The company gave away entry forms, and the audience would fill out these forms with their answer to where the last million is hiding, based on clues given in the film. De Laurentiis said of the film:
De Laurentiis had high expectations for the film, but it did not turn out to be a hit. The winner of the contest ended up being 14-year-old Alesia Lenae Jones of Bakersfield, California, who successfully guessed that the loot was hidden in the bridge of the nose of the Statue of Liberty.[4] [5] [6] Apparently, thousands of contestants had arrived at the same answer, and her entry was chosen in a random drawing.[7]
Million Dollar Mystery was a box office flop grossing $989,033 against a $10 million budget.
The film received negative critical reviews. The film holds a 0% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 6 reviews.[8]
The film was released on VHS and Laserdisc by HBO Video in 1987 with the contest info at the end of the movie omitted. It was later issued by Anchor Bay Entertainment on DVD in 2007 with the theatrical ending intact, and reissued again on DVD and Blu-ray by Kino Lorber in Spring 2021.