Cold Turkey

Much like "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World", "Cold Turkey" shows how crazy people can get when they're greedy. The plot centers on a town whose people are offered a lot of money if they can stop smoking for an entire month. They agree after getting convinced by the local clergyman (Dick Van Dyke), but things start going crazy when they don't get to have their cigarettes.

The movie also pokes fun at the media, with characters like "Hugh Upson" and "Walter Chronic". But overall, the movie makes fun of the "wholesome Middle America" image, showing how even seemingly idealistic small town folk can get corrupted when money is in the picture.

This comedy is 30 years old, but with today's cries about NO SMOKING it is relivant, and FUNNY! Dick Van Dyke is a riot along with Bob and Ray, and the rest of the "characters" from a small town. The town, led by van dyke , the local preacher, try to quit smoking for 30 days to win a 25 mil$ prize, offered by a tobacco co. for any town that can stop smoking. This film needs to be on DVD. FOR anyone who ever tried to quit "Cold Turkey" , this film will bring back memories, whether you succeded or not.

Never was the human limitations tested as they were in this film, when the town of Eagle Rock, Iowa, must quit smoking for 30 days to win a foolish challenge proposed by a big tobacco company. As Parent Trap became a strange testimony on how divorce affects children, so has Cold Turkey become a statement on addiction and withdrawal, with humorous results.

Dick Van Dyke is the town minister who finds himself caught up leading the fray; first he must develop an addiction, then join his neighbors in quitting. Barnard Hughes is the town doctor, who cannot quit smoking at all. The fight with his wife over the ashtrays in the car brings a smile to my face everytime. Bob Newhart is the tobacco company representative who must now get someone to start smoking so they will lose the bet. Pippa Scott is Van Dyke's wife, Natalie, who endures some of the most verbal spousal abuse, laced with concern and mock sincerity ("There's a demon in you, Natalie. Why are you working against me, Natalie?"), that I have ever heard. Scott only has one scene with dialogue. Jean Stapleton, Vincent Gardenia, Paul Benedict, Barbara Cason, Tom Poston and Graham Jarvis also appear in various roles. And yes, Bob and Ray spoof many of the newscasters who were popular at that time with hilarious results. They do it so well and are both so unassuming, you will not realize it is the same two guys over and over again. But the town's withdrawal is hysterical as well. I will always love when the crossing guard screams at the little girl. And the auto smash-up that happens just before the dog-kicking incident will hold your undivided attention. Finally, the town council is told if they can wait another day or so, the president of the United States himself, then Richard Nixon, will present Eagle Rock with the prize money. The council's reaction is absolutely brilliant. Add to all of this a typical Randy Newman song, 'He Gives Us All His Love', played at the beginning, the end and when Dick Van Dyke realizes the town is caught up in its own celebrity as he watches over a dozen children run by wearing masks of his own face. They just don't make films like this one anymore.

Knowing full well that it could never happen, a major tobacco company offers a multi-million dollar prize to any town in the USA that will quit smoking for an entire month.

What the company doesn't expect is the little town of Eagle Rock, Iowa, and the Reverand Clayton Brooks leading the distressed town to prosperity with the much needed money as incentive.

The film, the work of TV sit-com legend Norman Lear, is a savage satire of the American tobacco industry, as well as the TV news community (Comic Ray Goulding appears in one scene as "Walter Chronic" in a parody of TV news anchor Walter Cronkite, with a florescent lamp behind his head, forming an angelic halo).

Many people in the film later went on to become notable television actors, and it's a delight to see how people become so easily unhinged when they're deprived of their nicotine fix (this from a happy non-smoker)!

Bob Newhart plays an odd villain in this film. A strange role for a man so associated with playing meek roles is cast as a rather icy consultant for the tobacco giants.

An underrated film that is worth another viewing, if only to have a snicker at the tobacco industry or see the town of Greenfield, Iowa used as a backdrop.

Fantastic movie comedy -- easily one of the best satires of American life ever put on film. Norman Lear wrote and directed this gem just before moving on to "All In The Family". "Cold Turkey" and "All In The Family" are his two greatest creations. It begins with the script. It's funny from beginning to end. The script has clever dialogue, inventive ideas, an eye for detail. I can't do it justice. Just see the movie. The cast includes many of my all-time favorites, including Dick Van Dyke, Bob Newhart, Tom Poston, Barnard Hughes, and Jean Stapleton. You'll see a lot of people you recognize from other movies and sitcoms of the 1970s, including many who turned up on "All In The Family" and other Lear shows. "Cold Turkey" is also the best movie showcase for possibly the greatest comedy team of all time. Bob & Ray are brilliant satirizing newscasters of the time, like Walter Cronkite, David Brinkley, Paul Harvey, and Hugh Downs. If you're not a Bob & Ray fan, hopefully this movie will make you one. Randy Newman's soundtrack is terrific. If it ever came out on a CD, I'd buy it in a heartbeat. And it helps that the movie, which is set in a small Iowa town, was actually filmed in a small Iowa town, rather than some Hollywood backlot. It gives the movie a feeling of authenticity. This movie should have been on the AFI 100 Best Comedies list. See it.