How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980) on Netflix
Jane, Elaine and Louise are friends in Eugene, Oregon, all short of money as inflation climbs. Elaine spots a mall's cash giveaway ball, and the three plot to take it.
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- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.0/102,292 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Jane, Elaine and Louise have known each other since high school and live in Eugene, Oregon, where a turbulent economy and high inflation have left each of them struggling. Jane is divorced, her children need dental work, and she is pregnant; Robert, the man she dates, is unhappy about it. Her father, newly single, has moved in with her. Elaine's husband, an architect, went off with a younger woman and left her with unpaid bills and no cash. Louise's antiques store does not do well, and she depends on money from Albert, her veterinarian husband, who now wants to sue her into bankruptcy. Elaine, helping stage a pageant at the mall, looks at the clear ball that will hold a cash giveaway and gets an idea.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about How to Beat the High Cost of Living (1980)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- After 20th Century-Fox bought the rights, the studio sought Ali MacGraw, Goldie Hawn and Barbra Streisand for the leads and also considered Ann-Margret. When American International Pictures took over, Margot Kidder, Dyan Cannon, Sally Field and Diane Keaton were each offered the film and all turned it down.
- While filming an outdoor scene in Eugene, a middle-aged man drove by and yelled "Jane, you ignorant slut!" at Jane Curtin, the insult she and Dan Aykroyd had made famous on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update Point/Counterpoint segment.
- In 1975 Carol Burnett and Glenda Jackson were attached to star, and after Burnett dropped out, Jackson was to co-star with Jane Fonda and Shirley MacLaine, but that cast never came together.
- The film was to be shot in Salem, Oregon, but moved to Eugene because the screenplay needed a shopping mall near a river; Eugene's Valley River Center stands against the bank of the Willamette River.
- How to Beat the High Cost of Living, produced by American International Pictures but released under Filmways in 1980 after the companies merged, is considered the final AIP production, before MGM revived AIP in 2020.
