The Toy (1982 film)
| The Toy | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Richard Donner |
| Produced by | Phil Feldman Ray Stark |
| Written by |
Carol Sobieski Francis Veber |
| Starring | |
| Music by | Patrick Williams |
| Cinematography | László Kovács |
| Edited by |
Richard A. Harris Michael A. Stevenson |
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Production
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| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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102 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $28 million |
| Box office | $47,118,057 (USA) |
The Toy is a 1982 American comedy film directed by Richard Donner, and starring Richard Pryor and Jackie Gleason, with Ned Beatty, Scott Schwartz, Teresa Ganzel, and Virginia Capers in supporting roles. It is an adaptation of the 1976 French film Le Jouet.
Jack Brown is a married, unemployed man in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in danger of having his house repossessed. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to get a job working for the local paper, the Bugle, he becomes so desperate that he ends up taking a job as a janitor for the wealthy and ruthless businessman U.S. Bates, who owns the paper, a department store and many other businesses. Brown is humiliated as he clumsily attempts to serve food at a luncheon. He is fired from that gig by Bates, but "Master" Eric Bates, the spoiled son of the boss, sees Jack while looking through Bates' department store. Amused at seeing Jack goof around in the store's toy section, Eric informs his father's long-suffering right-hand man, Sydney Morehouse, that what he wants is Jack himself.
Morehouse fails to convince Eric that human beings cannot be owned. In exchange for a generous financial settlement to stave off repossession, Jack agrees to be Eric's live-in friend during Eric's one-week spring break from military school.
Emotionally estranged from his father, Eric takes a liking to Jack but still manages to humiliate him with numerous pranks. After a particularly humiliating incident in the mansion incited by Bates' ditzy trophy wife Fancy, who literally introduces him at a dinner party as Eric's new "toy," Jack grows tired of the situation and leaves. He agrees to return only when Bates (with Morehouse as his proxy) offers Jack so much money that he can retire the full mortgage.
Jack returns, determined to teach Eric how a friend is supposed to be treated. They bond while participating in mini-cart racing, video games, and fishing. The pair decide to start a newspaper of their own. After witnessing multiple examples of Bates' cruelty to his employees, they dig up dirt on him, such as a story of how he won his butler, Barkley, in a game of billiards. They publish their paper and distribute it throughout the city. When Morehouse finds a copy and presents it to his boss, Bates is outraged, but keeps his anger in check and calls Jack and Eric for a private meeting at his office.
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