Other People's Money Details

Norman Jewison's adaptation of Jerry Sterner's hit play ultimately fails to deliver the killer punch, but it still makes some telling points about contemporary corporate greed. Danny DeVito plays Larry the Liquidator, whose asset-stripping gaze falls upon the old-fashioned New England company run by stubborn Gregory Peck. However, the battle becomes complicated when he falls for the company's lawyer, Penelope Ann Miller, who is leading the fight against him. DeVito is charmingly sleazy as the ruthless corporate raider and Peck is the embodiment of the honourable liberal capitalist, while it's good to see Dean Jones getting away from VW Beetles and pets — he starred in The Love Bug and The Shaggy DA — as the company president. Jewison tries a little too hard to make DeVito look human, but his direction is smooth and he is well served by cinematographer Haskell Wexler, who neatly contrasts the glossy superficiality of Wall Street with the blue-collar grit of the threatened community.

The wiles of Wall Street may have been the stuff of '80s entertainment, but this adaptation of an off-Broadway play... read more on Time Out