The night was sultry...

July 22, 2017

Tonight, we go to one of my favorite movies from the 80’s. No, it’s not John Hughes. No, it’s not a slasher movie (but good guess, there!). We are, instead, talking about one of the darkest comedies ever made, with some of the funniest moments of the decade in it. We’re talking about Throw Momma From The Train. 

Billy Crystal plays Larry, a writer suffering terribly from writers’ block. He is also fallen into a pit of despair because his wife is crucifying him in their divorce, and he hates the fact he is now teaching a creative writing course at a local college. One of his students, Owen, played by Danny DeVito, forms a, shall we say, unnatural attachment, to Larry. They commiserate about their horrible lives. Larry hates his sooon-to-be ex-wife, and Owen desperately wants to get away from his mother, played by the amazing Anne Ramsey. The Hitchcock movie Strangers On A Train comes up, and, in a drunken ramble, Larry suggests that they duplicate the plot of the Hitchcock classic (and shame on you if you don’t know the plot of that movie!!) Larry will kill Owen’s mother, and Owen will get rid of Larry’s ex-wife. Since neither man can be linked to the other woman, they will never be suspects.

Next thing Larry knows, his ex-wife cannot be found, and he madly tries to find Owen to find out what the hell happened. Owen simply tells him that he did his part, so now, Larry needs to fulfill their bargain and bump off Momma.

If you are pondering how this movie links to last night’s, the horrific ex-wife (and lemme tell you, I can testify to this point… I have an ex-wife in my past that I would, well… never mind…) is played by Kate Mulgrew, who is just amazing in her evil ways in this movie…

There are so many wonderful things going on in this movie. First and foremost is the direction by Danny DeVito. If someone told you they were going to basically remake Strangers on a Train, but make it a comedy, you would laugh in their face. How can you remake a Hitchcock movie and make it a comedy? Well, DeVito and screenwriter Stu Silver did it, and did it masterfully. The laughs are sudden at times, most notably the “frying pan’ scene, and they also come in slow builds that are sculpted like the marble statues in The Vatican.

That being said, one of the most heartbreakingly tender scenes of that decade is also in this movie. Owen spends a great amount of time talking about his coin collection. Larry naturally assumes that this coin collection is like most others, full of early American coins, buffalo nickels, Mercury dimes, and the like. Instead, lying in the floor almost head to head, Owen shows Larry his collection. And they are just basic coins, pennies, dimes, quarters. But Owen has a story about each one of them, and they involve Owen as a child and spending time with his father. He has a quarter from the change when he and his father went to a ball game together. He has a dime left over from when they went to the carnival. He has a nickel from the time he and his father bought hot dogs in the city. As Owen describes the value of each of these coins, you find yourself honestly tearing up because it is so simple, and so beautiful to watch. Even Larry chokes up.

But the QUEEN MOTHER of this movie is Anne Ramsey. She is a monster in every way, yet, she has a heart buried deep within her mean-as-hell personality. Ramsey speaks with a very odd speech impediment, which was not part of her character. She had gone through surgery for throat cancer, and was undergoing more oral surgery for the cancer and was in intense pain for most of the filming. DeVito has said, in later interviews, that Ramsey was the bravest actor he had ever worked with, because Ramsey was having these surgeries while filming was taking place, but she never missed a day of shooting and never complained about her pain while she was on set. She was determined to make this movie, and, by doing so, she received her one and only Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress.

There are other great performances in this movie, too. Kim Greist plays Larry’s sympathetic new girlfriend, who tries her best to stand by him through his crippling writers’ block and his ranting about his ex-wife. Any time you get to see Rob Reiner acting, you are going to see greatness. Here, he is Larry’s literary agent, who is constantly pushing him for new pages. Also, keep an eye out for Branford Marsalis, playing Larry’s friend, Lester.

Needless to say, I will not share the ending with you. Far be it for me to ruin a great Hitchcockian twist. But, I will say this. There is a moment, when Momma suddenly cures Larry’s writers’ block, by uttering a simple quote. In this moment, you suddenly realize that Momma is not a monster. She has some “book learning,” as my grandfather used to say. She also, much to everyone’s surprise, has been paying attention to what’s going on around her, contrary to what Larry and Owen have thought for most of the movie. She is not senile, or crazy, she just is who she is, end of story.

If you have not seen Throw Momma From The Train, I say two things to you. One, how in the hell have you NOT seen this movie??? And two, if you haven’t seen it, do so this weekend. Everyone needs a little dark comedy in their life, and this dark comedy is a masterpiece.