Zahltag im Supermarkt

This movie is swimming in 1970's economy humor, there's never enough money for everything. Bills can't get paid, and a radio announcer says with relief in his voice that the cost of living went up ONLY 2%.

The humor may date it for some and make it fly over people's heads that were too young to remember the economic malaise of the late 70's (I barely remember it, my being a kid back then).

But if you get past that, what you have here is a smart and entertaining caper film where the people pulling the caper are all female. June Curtain, Jessica Lange and Susan Saint James make up the team that conspires to make a heist.

Dabney Coleman proves he can actually play a sweet guy with his turn as a Police man which falls for Jane Curtain's character. Richard Benjimin has some great one-liners playing Jessica Lange's animal doctor husband. Garrett Morris has a great cameo.

I saw this at the movies when it first came out and found it to be very funny and enjoyable. Years later I sought it out and found that it has been out of print on video for a number of years. Finally, I found a copy to rent. You should try to find a copy too. It's a fun film

Jane Curtin is paranoid, Susan St. James is harried, and Jessica Lange is beautiful and married to dork Richard Benjamin. This light-hearted yup flick is fairly ridiculous, but the charms of these wonderful actresses makes it worthwhile. I give it a 6 out of 10 with the best performance by Jane Curtin.

It's nice to see Jessica Lange in an early role when her youth and attractiveness hide the fact that she will become one of our best actresses while Ms. Curtin and Ms. St. James (who I also love since THE NAME OF THE GAME on TV) had careers that faltered (beside the TV show they did together - Kate and Allie). The men in this movie are mostly idiots, but this plays like a decent sit-com; fairly lame, but harmless fun.

When I saw this film in the theatre the entire audience was alive with laughter. There's more story here than most contemporary comedies, which may make for some head scratching by younger folks seeing this film, but the gags hold for anybody who's had to scrimp and save to make ends meat.

This is a timeless film for anyone (woman particularly) who've fallen on hard times. It was a hit when it was first released, and still gets laughs today.

For some reason, a slew of movies in 1980 mark a turning point in my developmental teen years: 9 to 5, A Coal Miner's Daughter, Private Benjamin, et.al. HTBTHCOL is yet another...one that took a long time to eventually come out on DVD.

It's even funnier than I'd remembered. While the story is good and the acting is ok, it's the cultural references circa 1980 that totally make the movie work for me (I'm 36 yrs old in '04). Jane Curtain's '80 Cutlass sucking gas, her oh-so-'70s contemporary house--complete with green bedspread and Buick-sized answering machine, the endless references to inflation, the grocery store cashier actually saying the name of each item before ringing it up by hand ("toy gun, $1.95..."), etc.

Jane Curtain actually does give the best performance, not only for her manic attempts to find cash, but for her impromptu striptease ("are you ready to see 1985, or should we skip right to 1990?"). The chemistry between Jane and Jessica Lange's character is quite good. Poor Susan Saint James...her character is annoying, whiny, and basically she serves as the Curly of this trio. (Yeah, I'd bring my kids to rob a store too...)

In all, this is a cute, silly time capsule to the dark days of inflation, 17% mortgage interest rates, slanted wood houses with lots of poorly utilized space, ferns, etc. One funny note: Jane Curtain's character makes numerous references to prostitution (to the gas station attendant, to the gals at the restaurant, and to Jack--the copy played by Dabney Coleman).

I had a memory of loving this as a kid, so finally obtained it to watch here in 2019 almost 40 years later. Gulp.

It's fun - a tale of a three women, their lives, and the interconnected hi-jinx that occur. My mind remembered the heist, which is clearly what excited me as a kid - when actually, it's a small part of the movie.

What I love is how relevant it is today. Lots of economists spinning cost of living increases being only so many percentage points blah blah blah so disconnected from every day lives. 40 years later, nothing has changed on that one.

What's particularly amazing is this is a female tour de force. Just recently we've had female-led casts such as Ocean's 8 or the ill-fated Ghostbusters and it feels forced. It's a statement. It's a fight to be fought.

But here the women are utterly centre stage - the stories revolve around them, they plot the heist, they run it... there's no men here underpinning it. Men are the supporting cast, and it's brilliant as it's just so natural and stems so effortlessly from the script.

It does it without fanfare - it just is. With confidence and style. Just like the actresses and story they inhabit.