The Money Pit

A young couple struggles to repair a hopelessly dilapidated house.

• Director: Richard Benjamin
• Genre:Comedy
• Runtime:87 minutes

Cast

Tom Hanks : Walter Fielding, Jr.
Shelley Long : Anna Crowley Beissart / Anna Fielding
Alexander Godunov : Max Beissart, the Maestro
Maureen Stapleton : Estelle
Joe Mantegna : Art Shirk

The story begins with Walter and Anna learning of his father’s escape from the country after having embezzled millions of dollars. Walter and Anna hear noises and are surprised to find workmen putting furnishings around their apartment and Shatov (Yakov Smirnoff), Max’s assistant, asking them “you’re still here!” (We learn that Walter and Anna do not own the apartment; it belongs to Anna’s ex-husband Max (Alexander Godunov), who has returned unexpectedly early from a tour abroad and intends to take up residence again.)

Walter and Anna now need a place of their own. Through an unscrupulous real estate agent friend, Walter learns about a million dollar distress sale mansion. He and Anna meet the owner, Estelle (Maureen Stapleton), who claims she must sell the house quickly because her husband has been arrested by the Israelis, having been accused of being Adolf Hitler’s pool boy. Her sob story and insistence of keeping the place in candlelight in order to save money “for the goddamn, bloodsucking lawyers” distracts Walter and enchants Anna, who finds it “romantic”. Walter and Anna decide to buy the house, but Anna insists on putting up half of the money needed for the repairs. She turns to Max for her half of the money by selling him back what she got in their divorce.

From the moment Walter and Anna take possession of the house, it quickly begins to fall apart. The entire front door frame rips out of the wall, the main staircase collapses, the plumbing is found to be full of gunk, the electrical system catches fire, the bathtub crashes through the floor (this causes Walter to laugh vehemently), the chimney collapses, and a raccoon has invaded the dumbwaiter. Read more

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