NATIONAL LAMPOON'S GOLD DIGGERS - The Memorable TV DVD Review

Distributor: Imagine Entertainment
Certificate: M | 1h 22minutes
Director: Gary Preisler
Alternate Title: Lady Killers

Reviewer: Alan R
Extras: No

ANYONE IN IT WE KNOW?

Will Friedle (Calvin), Chris Owen (Leonard), Louise Lasser ( Doris ), Renée Taylor (Betty), Nikki Ziering (Dream Girl)

WHAT’S IT ABOUT THEN?

Calvin and Leonard are two friends who grew up in an orphanage together. Now in their early 20s they have been unable to find any lasting work and have decided that crime is their only option and so plan a street robbery. But they pick the wrong targets in two old ladies, Doris and Betty, who are armed with all the latest anti-mugger devices, and the lads are promptly arrested.

Doris and Betty live in a grand old house but they are virtually penniless because their inheritance is controlled by unhinged Uncle Walt - they are worried about becoming destitute and consigned to an old people's home so they hatch a plan. They decide to drop all charges against their attackers provided the lads marry them! Cal and Lenny are naturally not overjoyed at this prospect but figure the ladies must be loaded and, given their advancing years, will probably not last long and they will then inherit all their wealth. The ladies' plan for the boys is to marry them, insure them, and then kill them! So they all get married:- Calvin to Betty and Leonard to Doris . But the ladies' constitution fares better than the lads expected and so they too decide they must do away with their partners. So there follows a round or two of each pair hatching plans to murder the other - always unsuccessfully of course. Until at last they realise what each is doing and join forces to get their money back from Uncle Walt.

SO IS IT ANY GOOD?

This interesting story and funny situation is well-executed, the two lads are very good in their roles. The script is full of wit and never pointlessly crude. The uncomfortable revulsion of the lads when they realise they have to consummate their marriages and then, even worse, find the ladies are into kinky stuff is wonderful.

It's a four-way piece as far as the actors go and so any Nikki Ziering fans take note - she plays a gorgeous dream girl that Calvin longs for in place of Betty, but even though she is given third billing in the opening credits ahead of the two old ladies she only really has little more than a cameo role lasting just a few minutes overall.

I have to admit I'm not at all sure quite what it is that qualifies a film to be called a "National Lampoon" movie. It's not the same actors or characters or director or writer. There's certainly no impression within it that's it part of a series and it would work just as well as a film with a stand-alone title - possibly the tag might even hamper it. Overall it's a good one with plenty to laugh at.

ANY SPECIAL FEATURES?

Extras unpreviewed.