After upper middle-class aerospace executive George Segal (as Dick Harper) is unexpected fired from his high-paying job, he and housewife Jane Fonda (as Jane) are forced to tighten their economic belts. The family decides to give up membership in a "Book of the Month Club", French wines at home, and ski lessons. Another sacrifice is deciding not to heat their new swimming pool, currently being constructed. However, when Ms. Fonda fails to hold a job of her own and Mr. Segal is exposed as a unemployment check cheat, the increasingly desperate couple must become the "Bonnie and Clyde" of the corporate world...
Watching "Fun with Dick and Jane" alongside the 2005 re-make elevates this version of the film, although neither really approaches classic status. Some of the topical humor is painful, but this one has many genuinely funny sequences. The satire is good and tight, but the anti-corporate subtext is all over the map (obvious at the end). One of the best scenes here is Segal's botched robbery; when the leading man has trouble getting a gun out of his pants, the clerk thinks he desperately needs a condom. In the re-make, Jim Carrey's "Dick" has no such trouble. Don't blink once or you'll miss Jay Leno, twice for Thayer David.
****** Fun with Dick and Jane (2/9/77) Ted Kotcheff ~ George Segal, Jane Fonda, Ed McMahon, Hank Garcia
Watching "Fun with Dick and Jane" alongside the 2005 re-make elevates this version of the film, although neither really approaches classic status. Some of the topical humor is painful, but this one has many genuinely funny sequences. The satire is good and tight, but the anti-corporate subtext is all over the map (obvious at the end). One of the best scenes here is Segal's botched robbery; when the leading man has trouble getting a gun out of his pants, the clerk thinks he desperately needs a condom. In the re-make, Jim Carrey's "Dick" has no such trouble. Don't blink once or you'll miss Jay Leno, twice for Thayer David.
****** Fun with Dick and Jane (2/9/77) Ted Kotcheff ~ George Segal, Jane Fonda, Ed McMahon, Hank Garcia