''Crazy People'' is a 1990 American

black comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

starring

Dudley Moore Dudley Stuart John Moore CBE (19 April 193527 March 2002) was an English actor, comedian, musician and composer. Moore first came to prominence in the UK as a leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was one of the four writ ...

and

Daryl Hannah Daryl Christine Hannah (born December 3, 1960) is an American actress and environmental activist. She made her screen debut in Brian De Palma's supernatural horror film ''The Fury'' (1978). She has starred in various movies across the years, in ...

, directed by

Tony Bill Gerard Anthony Bill (born August 23, 1940) is an American actor, producer, and director. He produced the 1973 movie ''The Sting'', for which he shared the Academy Award for Best Picture with Michael Phillips (producer), Michael Phillips and Jul ...

, and music by

Cliff Eidelman Clifford Glen Eidelman (born December 5, 1964) is an American composer and conductor who has scored films including '' Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country'', '' Free Willy 3: The Rescue'', and '' Christopher Columbus: The Discovery''. Biogr ...

Plot

Emory Leeson is an advertising executive who experiences a

nervous breakdown A mental disorder, also referred to as a mental illness or psychiatric disorder, is a behavioral or mental pattern that causes significant distress or impairment of personal functioning. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitt ...

. He designs a series of "truthful" advertisements, blunt and bawdy and of no use to his boss Drucker's firm. One of his colleagues, Stephen Bachman, checks him into a psychiatric hospital. Emory goes into group therapy under the care of Dr. Liz Baylor and meets other voluntary patients, such as the lovely and vulnerable Kathy Burgess. There is also George, who can speak only one word: "Hello." By mistake, Emory's advertisements get printed and the new campaign turns out to be a tremendous success. Campaigns like: "

Jaguar The jaguar (''Panthera onca'') is a large cat species and the only living member of the genus ''Panthera'' native to the Americas. With a body length of up to and a weight of up to , it is the largest cat species in the Americas and the thi ...

— For men who'd like hand jobs from beautiful women they hardly know." and "

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

— they're boxy but they're good." Drucker grabs credit for the ads. He assigns Stephen and the rest of his employees to design similar new ad campaigns featuring so-called honesty in advertising, but nothing works. Emory is approached in the sanitarium about creating new ads himself. He insists that his fellow mental patients also be involved and suitably rewarded for their work, transforming the sanitarium into a branch of the advertising industry. They come up with wild advertising slogans, like one for a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

travel agency that goes: "Forget

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

. The French can be annoying. Come to

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...

. We're nicer." And another one called "Come... IN the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the archi ...

" for the islands' national tourism board. The patients experience happiness at being needed and improve from their various illnesses. The evil Drucker and the doctor in charge of the hospital get greedy and try to separate the team. But it doesn't work. Dr. Baylor defies her boss and Emory negotiates to get new automobiles for all of the patients. Emory and Kathy, who have fallen in love, leave the hospital in an army helicopter piloted by Kathy's long-lost brother, stopping to take the rest of the patients with them. They then open their own advertising agency, with

Sony , commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...

("Sony - Because Caucasians are just too damn tall") as their first client.

Cast

as Emory Leeson *

as Kathy Burgess *

Paul Reiser Paul Reiser (; born March 30, 1956) is an American actor, comedian, and television writer. He is known for his roles as Michael Taylor in the 1980s sitcom ''My Two Dads'', Paul Buchman in the NBC sitcom ''Mad About You'', Modell in the 1982 fi ...

as Stephen Bachman *

J. T. Walsh James Thomas Patrick Walsh (September 28, 1943 – February 27, 1998) was an American character actor. His many films include '' Tin Men'' (1987), ''Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987), '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), '' Hoffa'' (1992), ''Nixon'' (1995), ...

as Drucker *

Mercedes Ruehl Mercedes J. Ruehl (; born February 28, 1948) is an American screen, stage, and television actress. She is the recipient of several accolades, including an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, two Obie Awards, a ...

as Dr. Baylor *

Alan North Alan North (December 23, 1920 – January 19, 2000) was an American actor. Early life North was born in Bronx, New York, and joined the United States Navy during the Second World War. Career After the war, he became a stage manager and made ...

as Judge *

David Paymer David Emmanuel Paymer (born August 30, 1954) is an American actor, comedian, and television director. He has been in films such as ''Mr. Saturday Night'', ''Quiz Show'', '' Searching for Bobby Fischer'', ''City Slickers'', '' Crazy People'', '' ...

as George *

Bill Smitrovich William Stanley Zmitrowicz Jr. (born May 16, 1947), known professionally as Bill Smitrovich ( ), is an American actor. Personal life Smitrovich was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the son of Anna (née Wojna) and Stanley William Zmitrowicz, a ...

as Bruce *

Danton Stone Danton Stone (born in Queens, New York) is an American stage, film and television actor. Stage Broadway *'' Fifth of July'' (1980) as Weston Hurley *'' Angels Fall'' (1983) as Don Tabaha *'' One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest'' (2001) as Martini ...

as Saabs * Paul Bates as Robles *

Dick Cusack Richard John CusackMartin, Douglas ''The New York Times'', June 04, 2003 (August 29, 1925 – June 2, 2003) was an American actor, filmmaker, and documentarist. Personal life Cusack was born in New York City, the son of Margaret Cusack (né ...

as Mort * Doug Yasuda as Hsu *

Floyd Vivino Floyd Vivino (born October 19, 1951), also known as Uncle Floyd, is an American television, film, and stage performer primarily known for his comedy/variety TV show ''The Uncle Floyd Show'' (1974–1998). Early life Vivino was born in Paterson ...

as Eddie Aris * Ben Hammer as Dr. Koch * David Packer as Mark Olander

Production

Mitch Markowitz Mitch Markowitz is an American screenwriter best known for writing the film '' Good Morning, Vietnam''. He also wrote the movie '' Crazy People''. His television credits include '' M*A*S*H'', '' Van Dyke and Company'', '' Best of the West'', '' R ...

was the initial director, but was fired 3 days into production and replaced by Tony Bill.

John Malkovich John Malkovich (born December 9, 1953) is an American actor. He is the recipient of several accolades, including a Primetime Emmy Award, in addition to nominations for two Academy Awards, a British Academy Film Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awa ...

was originally cast as Emory until he left during production. The movie's uncredited producer

Sydney Pollack Sydney Irwin Pollack (July 1, 1934 – May 26, 2008) was an American film director, producer and actor. Pollack directed more than 20 films and 10 television shows, acted in over 30 movies or shows and produced over 44 films. For his film '' Out ...

replaced Malkovich with

.Schweiger,Daniel, p. 5, liner notes, Quartet Records soundtrack album.

Reception

It received mostly negative reviews and has a rating of 35% on

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

based on 20 reviews.

Roger Ebert Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...

envisioned a call from the fictional Movie Police in his review:

Owen Gleiberman Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for '' Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014 ...

awarded the film a D- grade in one of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cult ...

s earliest reviews. He stated:

Formats

The movie was released on VHS and Laserdisc (now

out of print __NOTOC__ An out-of-print (OOP) or out-of-commerce item or work is something that is no longer being published. The term applies to all types of printed matter, visual media, sound recordings, and video recordings. An out-of-print book is a boo ...

) in late 1990, and on widescreen

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...

in 2004. The soundtrack featured the song "

Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away) "Don't Go Away Mad (Just Go Away)" is a song by Mötley Crüe. It is the tenth track from their 1989 album '' Dr. Feelgood'' and was released as the album's fourth single in May 1990. It peaked at #19 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and #13 on the ...

" by

Mötley Crüe Mötley Crüe is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1981. The group was founded by bassist Nikki Sixx, drummer Tommy Lee, lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil. Mötley Crüe has sold over 100 million albu ...

and the "Hello Song" performed by

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Crazy People 1990 films 1990s black comedy films American black comedy films American satirical films Films about advertising Films set in New York City Films set in psychiatric hospitals Paramount Pictures films Films scored by Cliff Eidelman 1990 comedy films Films directed by Tony Bill 1990s English-language films 1990s American films