Synopsis:
MILLION DOLLAR MYSTERY is loosely based on IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD. Stanley Kramer's 1963 movie was huge, both in width (shot in 70mm Cinerama) and length (two and a half hours), and full...
MILLION DOLLAR MYSTERY is loosely based on IT'S A MAD, MAD, MAD, MAD WORLD. Stanley Kramer's 1963 movie was huge, both in width (shot in 70mm Cinerama) and length (two and a half hours), and full of well-known comedians. In contrast, Richard Fleischer's movie, made 24 years later, is taught, tight and short; it lasts only 95 minutes and has a relatively unknown cast. As with all his films, Fleischer obtains strong and vigorous performances from his cast, including Kevin Pollack (THE USUAL SUSPECTS) in his first film as a man who unleashes a series of dead-on impressions. Other characters include Pam Matteson as the waitress at Apache Acres, Rich Hall as a disgruntled soldier, Douglas Emerson as the smart-ass young son, and especially Jamie Alcroft and Mark Dryden as the two wisecracking policemen who trail Sidney Preston to Apache Acres. In that rundown cafe, cook Tugger's (Royce D. Applegate) specialty is "the best chili in the Southwest." He tells Preston that it is made from "choice cuts of the finest beef, pork, rattlesnake, and armadillo delicately blended in a very special secret ingredient of my own." Moments before he suffers his fatal heart attack, Preston figures out the special ingredient--beer.
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