Ruthless People (1986) on Netflix
Ken and Sandy Kessler kidnap Barbara Stone to get revenge on her husband Sam, who built his company with their savings. Sam ignores their ransom demand, hoping they will kill her.
- Netflix3.4/5
- IMDb6.9/1033,420 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes93%
Trailer
Plot summary
Sam Stone, a Beverly Hills clothing manufacturer, married Barbara for the family wealth he expected her to inherit, and now he wants her dead. He plans to take her fortune and share it with his mistress, Carol. Chloroform in hand, he comes home to do the killing and finds Barbara missing. A caller demands $500,000 for her return and warns him not to involve the police. Sam, pleased, ignores the demand and hopes the kidnappers finish her. Ken and Sandy Kessler took Barbara because Sam had used their savings and Sandy's designs to build his company. They keep her in their basement, where she is hard to manage and Sandy begins to feel guilty.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Ruthless People (1986)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Although it has been argued that Ruthless People was influenced by O. Henry's story "The Ransom of Red Chief", writer Dale Launer claims it was inspired by the kidnapping of Patricia Hearst, and that the similarities between the film and the earlier story were a coincidence.
- The trio found the film difficult to make because they were directing a script none of them had written. It also contributed to their eventual split in the 1990s, Jerry Zucker saying it became evident that if they were going to do scripts written by other people they would have to direct separately.
- The directors normally wrote all their own material, but they were contacted by Michael Eisner, who became head of Disney after working with the trio at Paramount. David Zucker recalled that Eisner said he had a script they would not be able to turn down, and he was right.
- Ruthless People grossed $71.6 million against a relatively frugal production budget, and was Disney's highest-grossing film at that point, excluding reissues.
- Weird Al Yankovic parodied the film's title song "Ruthless People" on his 1986 album Polka Party, releasing his version as "Toothless People".
