How to Beat the High Cost of Living

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.

This 1980 comedy is slight but entertaining, with a terrific cast headed up by former "Saturday Night Live" star Jane Curtin. Fittingly, Curtin would later become half of the 1980s classic sitcom duo "Kate and Allie", sharing TV laughs with co-star Susan Saint James. Here, the two women share the bill with a pre-"Tootsie" Jessica Lange, who was then underrated as an actress and better known for bombing in Dino De Laurentis' version of "King Kong".

Curtin plays Elaine, a sophisticated missus whose husband has run out, leaving her with a tasteful hillside home, and a pile of bills she can barely pay off. Meanwhile, divorcée Jane (Saint James) struggles to raise two kids, and can't afford to marry her fiancé, hardware store owner Robert (Fred Willard) – forcing them to spend intimate moments in the back of a car. Louise (Lange) is also battling differences with husband Albert (Richard Benjamin), a dentist who underestimates his wife's desire to have an income of her own – and who leads the IRS to classify his wife's antique store as a "hobby".

Of course, the ladies decide the easiest problem-solver is to steal a ball full of floating dollars at the local shopping mall.

It's a slight premise, but the performances are enjoyable, not only from the leads, but also from supporting characters. While our sympathy is with the screwball ladies, it's also fun watching Benjamin squirm as a selfish oaf, in a scene with dental hygienist (and future B-queen) Sybil Danning. Also entertaining are Dabney Coleman as a cop romancing Elaine, and Eddie Albert as Max, a now-daffy ex-Marine and father to Jane. One of the best scenes involves Curtin and former SNL costar Garrett Morris, playing a utility representative.

The pretty Oregon town of Eugene, home to the University of Oregon, also lends its character to the scenes, with on-location shoots adding to its realism. Not only that – counter-cultural Eugene *is* the sort of town where well-meaning citizens would put on a play at the local shopping mall. It's a fun trip back in time for anyone who even slightly remembers the inflationary 1970s and early 1980s.

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).

Believe it or not, this movie actually has some resemblance with Jules Dassin's famous heist classic. OK, it's not Paris, France here. But Eugene, Oregon is a nice place, too. People who are familiar with the town probably will have a few extra laughs. The actual heist in a shopping mall is really well filmed and not entirely implausible. Contrary to the men's rififi the women work their way up from below, but I do not want do disclose more.

How to Beat the High Co$t of Living is based on quite a good and easily digestible script, although some of the jokes are predictable or fall a little flat. The first part of the movie deals with the individual reasons of the three women of different social backgrounds to plan and execute the heist. This gives some insight in the economic situation in the USA in the late 1970s.

Jane Curtin is great in the leading role, she has a terrific screen presence and can bare her teeth like no one else. Her job during the heist is to divert the attention of the crowd from the treasure while it is taken away and she really has some wonderful scenes. I also liked Richard Benjamin, Eddie Albert and Dabney Coleman as male support.

I can recommend this movie as a light yet insightful entertainment.

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.