Ruthless People

Synopsis

Sam Stone hates his wife Barbara so much that he wants her dead. He's ecstatic when she's taken by a duo of kidnappers who want $500,000 ransom in exchange for her life. Fully intending to ignore every one of the kidnappers' demands in the hopes that they do him a favor and murder her for him, the two confused kidnappers have to figure out how they're going get their money, and what they're going to do with the overbearing Barbara.

Trailer

Open trailer on YouTube

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Cast

Danny DeVito

Sam Stone

Bette Midler

Barbara Stone

Judge Reinhold

Ken Kessler

Helen Slater

Sandy Kessler

Anita Morris

Carol Dodsworth

Bill Pullman

Earl James Mott

William G. Schilling

Chief Henry Benton

Art Evans

Lt. Bender

—

Clarence Felder

Lt. Walters

J.E. Freeman

Bedroom Killer

Gary Riley

Heavy Metal Kid

Frank Sivero

The Mugger

Phyllis Applegate

Loan Officer

Jeannine Bisignano

Hooker in Car

—

J.P. Bumstead

Technician

—

Jon Cutler

Stereo Store Customer

—

Susan Marie Snyder

Stereo Store Customer

Jim Doughan

Cop at Sam's House

Christopher J. Keene

Cop at Jail

—

Henry Noguchi

Coroner

Crew

Art

• Anne D. McCulley Set Decoration
• Donald B. Woodruff Art Direction
• Sally Cruikshank Opening Title Sequence

Camera

• Jan de Bont Director of Photography

Costume & Make-Up

• Brad Wilder Makeup Artist
• Rosanna Norton Costume Designer
• Eric H. Sandberg Costume Supervisor
• Barbara Lorenz Key Hair Stylist

Crew

• Pat Romano Stunts
• Ralph Garrett Stunts
• Danny Costa Stunts
• Phil Adams Stunts
• Tracy Keehn-Dashnaw Stunts
• Vince Deadrick Sr. Stunts
• Wayne King Sr. Stunts
• John-Clay Scott Stunts
• Sasha Jenson Stunts
• Carol Neilson Smrz Stunts
• Brian Smrz Stunts
• Brad Bovee Stunts

Directing

• William S. Beasley First Assistant Director
• Bruce Humphrey Second Assistant Director
• David Zucker Director
• Jerry Zucker Director
• Jim Abrahams Director

Editing

• Gib Jaffe Editor
• Arthur Schmidt Editor

Production

• Jeffrey Chernov Unit Production Manager
• Ellen Chenoweth Casting
• Walter Yetnikoff Executive Producer
• Michael Peyser Producer
• Joanna Lancaster Executive Producer
• Richard Wagner Executive Producer

Sound

• Donald O. Mitchell Sound Re-Recording Mixer
• Charles L. Campbell Supervising Sound Editor
• Tommy Mottola Music Supervisor
• Louis L. Edemann Supervising Sound Editor
• Larry Carow Sound Editor
• Samuel C. Crutcher Sound Editor
• Rick Kline Sound Re-Recording Mixer
• Chuck Neely Sound Editor
• Kevin O'Connell Sound Re-Recording Mixer
• Mike Dobie Sound Editor
• Mick Jagger Songs
• Billy Joel Songs

Visual Effects

• Sally Cruikshank Animation Supervisor

Writing

• Dale Launer Screenplay

Photos