Finders Keepers *** (1984, Michael O’Keefe, Beverly D’Angelo, Louis Gossett Jr) – Classic Movie Review 10,433

Director Richard Lester’s elaborate and boisterous 1984 screwball farce Finders Keepers is set on a trans-American train, aboard which a couple, Georgiana (Pamela Stephenson) and her lover Josef Sirola (Ed Lauter), have hidden their stolen $5 million loot in cash from her father’s safe in a coffin to transport it to New York, but the rest of the passengers discover it and are soon after it.

Michael Rangeloff (Michael O’Keefe), who is on the run from the angry female roller derby team he manages, disguises himself in a US Army uniform, so two military officials assume he is accompanying the coffin of a dead war buddy.

Finders Keepers is enjoyably wacky adult comedy fun, enthusiastically handled by the intriguing ensemble cast and director Lester who can easily keep this old idea on the rails.

It stars Michael O’Keefe, Beverly D’Angelo, Louis Gossett Jr, Ed Lauter, Pamela Stephenson, Brian Dennehy, Jim Carrey and John Schuck, but old-timer David Wayne is the hit turn as the conductor, with D’Angelo as scatterbrained actress Standish Logan also a standout.

The movie, adapted from Charles Dennis’s 1974 novel The Next-to-Last Train Ride, opened on 18 May 1984.

Principal photography began on 14 August 1983 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Other Alberta locations included the towns of Lethbridge, Vulcan, Strathmore, Red Deer, and High River. Lester said the nine-week shooting schedule was completed in six, finishing in late September 1983.

It cost $7 million and had a US domestic total gross of $1,467,396.

Also in the cast are Timothy Blake, Jack Riley, Robert Clothier, Jayne Eastwood, Alf Humphreys, Barbara Kermode, Campbell Lane and Richard Newman.

Finders Keepers is directed by Richard Lester, runs 96 minutes, is made by CBS Theatrical Films, is released by Warner Bros., is written by Ronny Graham, Terence Marsh and Charles Dennis, based on Charles Dennis’s novel The Next-to-Last Train Ride, is shot by Brian West, is produced by Sandra Marsh and Terence Marsh, and is scored by Ken Thorne.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 10,433

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