Norman Tokar Strikes Gold With the Kidnapping Caper No Deposit No Return

Back in 2008, I watched several Disney movies directed by Norman Tokar, and while I loved The Apple Dumpling Gang, my response to the others was a bit more tepid. I didn’t set the bar too high, then, when I queued up No Deposit No Return, one of the last movies Tokar directed. I’d never heard of it before, but the cast – Darren McGavin, David Niven and especially Don Knotts – seemed promising, so I was happy to see it arrive even though I wasn’t sure whether it would be a hit or miss.

No Deposit No Return, like Mary Poppins, is the story of two upper-class children who have grown frightfully mischievous after years of neglect. Their father is out of the picture, and their mother is a magazine editor who delegates the job of raising them to maids and boarding school staff. Now it’s Easter break, and all Tracy (Kim Richards) and Jay (Brad Savage) want is to spend the week with their mother. To their dismay, they learn that she’ll be in Hong Kong all week, while the housekeeper who normally looks after them while they’re at home is headed to Bermuda. They’re being shipped off to Los Angeles to stay with their grumpy grandfather, multi-millionaire J. W. Osborne (Niven), a prospect none of the three relishes.

Tracy begins to formulate a plan for connecting with their overbooked mother, and when she and Jay find themselves sharing a taxi with Duke (McGavin) and Bert (Knotts), a petty safe-cracker and his driver, a light bulb goes off. After manipulating the men into letting her and Jay spend the night in their hideout, she writes a letter to her grandpa to announce that she has been kidnapped and tells Duke and Bert of her plan, explaining that all she wants is enough money for two plane tickets to Hong Kong. If they will only play along, they could be very rich men – and they are desperately in need of a windfall, since nefarious loan shark Big Joe (Vic Tayback) is on their tails. After all, how hard could it be to keep an eye on a couple of kids for a few hours?

Right from the credits, this movie is enormously entertaining. The stylized animation is reminiscent of a Pink Panther opening and bears little literal resemblance to the movie, though some of the kids’ adventures are hinted at in their animated exploits. Jay’s pet skunk Duster has pride of place in this sequence, and a shark, perhaps representative of Big Joe, surfaces to stir things up. I was smiling when the animation ended, so it boded well for the rest of the movie, and happily the live action lived up to the engaging cartoon credits.

Richards and Savage were both Disney veterans when they filmed this movie, and they seem right at home in this zany family comedy. I was especially impressed with Richards, who makes Tracy simultaneously sweet and devious. She is arguably the cleverest character in the movie, though her elaborate schemes don’t always have the desired result. There’s something hypnotically adorable about this plucky youngster. Savage is fun to watch as well, though Jay is such a walking disaster that I couldn’t help cringing a bit as I contemplated what sort of massive mess he was going to make next. Duster often steals the show; all he has to do is turn up someplace unexpected to raise a panic, and it’s quite comical to see so many people lose all composure at the mere sight of this docile creature rendered offensive by the noxious odor he could release.

Given Knotts’ comedic genius, I am always disappointed when comedies fail to take advantage of his full skill set. Happily, this one does, from his aw-shucks dialogue to his bug-eyed responses and his spectacular pratfalls. One sequence in particular that leads him on a wild skunk chase through a dangerous series of high-rise obstacles allows him to show just how hilarious he can be. McGavin makes a good foil for him, a steady, more serious type who’s got a better head on his shoulders but still is pretty hapless in most situations.

Niven’s dry British wit is the highlight of any scene involving Mr. Osborne, who, having tailed Tracy and Jay to Duke and Bert’s headquarters, knows where they are and rather hopes they will stay there. His lack of concern for his grandchildren is mildly appalling, yet his calm contemplation of how long this charade might continue is quietly riotous, especially as we come to appreciate just what a handful these two can really be. We mostly see him conferring with his faithful butler Jameson (John Williams), but he also comes into occasional contact with the duo of incompetent detectives trying to catch both the kidnappers and the safe-cracker. Thick-mustached Sergeant Turner (Herschel Bernardi) is the more experienced cop, and the breathless enthusiasm of his glasses-wearing, textbook-spouting partner Longnecker (Charles Martin Smith) wearies him. These two are almost as funny as Duke and Bert.

The movie, written by Arthur Alsberg and Don Nelson and based on a story by Joe McEveety, is nearly two hours long, and it’s packed with action, often of the humorously disastrous variety. A little of that can go a long way, but I didn’t mind it here, especially since the chaos is rarely widespread. It also never becomes crude, which isn’t surprising for a 1970s Disney film but is refreshing nonetheless. What’s more, along with all the goofy comedy, the story has real heart. I wonder if the season two Pushing Daisies episode Window Dressed to Kill took any inspiration from this; in both, a lonely, smarter-than-average girl convinces a pair of bungling burglars to kidnap her and a deep emotional attachment forms. It’s not hard to see the basic trajectory that the story will take, but a few twists and turns took me pleasantly by surprise. I do love a good redemption story, even when the baddies really aren’t all that bad to begin with.

I’ve got a few more Tokar movies lined up to watch soon, and now I am looking forward to them more than I was initially. While exemplifying his tendency toward excessive runtimes, No Deposit No Return never feels overlong and aptly demonstrates how well Tokar could fare with the right material.

Join Mrs. Pollifax and Agent Farrell For an Albanian Adventure

Heroes come in many forms. In Mrs. Pollifax: Spy, the Leslie H. Martinson-directed film adapted from the mystery series by Dorothy Gilman, spirited civilian widow is one form nobody particularly expected to see, but Emily Pollifax will not be deterred.

Although she has no experience, she’s done her research, and she knows what a dangerous job awaits her if she proceeds with her plan to act as courier for the secret service. Unfazed by the obstacles before her, she takes on her first mission under the guidance of skeptical, bespectacled Mason (James Wellman) and bemused, balding Carstairs (Dana Elcar). Perhaps it seems a bad idea to send an untrained woman approaching her golden years all the way to Mexico to retrieve a valuable object, but the would-be spy certainly doesn’t see it that way. Instead, she embraces her important mission with gusto.

Plucky Mrs. Pollifax does her best with the task handed to her for her time south of the border, but it isn’t until she winds up kidnapped and on a plane with laconic Agent Farrell (Darren McGavin) that her adventure really heats up. It’s at this point that these very different people must put their heads together to outwit their captors, even if it means withstanding torture. Yes, they have landed themselves in a precarious position…

I’ve never read any of Gilman’s novels, so I have no basis for comparison here in terms of faithfulness to characters or story, but I found this to be a fairly engrossing movie, especially once McGavin, who I previously knew only as the potty-mouthed, disgruntled dad in A Christmas Story, shows up. Bringing irrepressible nerve and charm to the role of Mrs. Pollifax is Rosalind Russell, who has a mature beauty about her here.

Before long, the widow manages to endear herself to several of the men holding her prisoner. In particular, she finds allies in youthful sergeant Lulash (John Beck), ailing but jovial general Berisha (Nehemiah Persoff) and shrewd colonel Nexdhet (Harold Gould). I found myself hoping they might even end up willingly aiding her and Farrell in an escape.

Russell and McGavin play well off of each other, with her spunk and his sarcasm evenly matched. I often caught myself laughing aloud over their interactions, particularly McGavin’s dry barbs. True, the movie does drag a bit at times, and it could benefit from smoother editing. Some transitions left me wondering whether I had missed some crucial detail, while some scenes simply go on longer than necessary. However, the dynamic between the leads kept my attention, and I loved seeing Mrs. Pollifax’s clever way of wriggling into the good graces of nearly everyone she meets. She gets high marks for both determination and diplomacy.

Despite their fairly minimal presence in the film, I also enjoyed Carstairs and Mason, who still turn up intermittently once the main action has moved to Mexico. Like Farrell and Pollifax, they have different enough personalities that most of their interactions are humorous, albeit more subtly so.

Adventure abounds toward the end of the film as the focus shifts from escaping prison to escaping Albania. The shift in tone toward outright action feels a bit abrupt, but it injects an extra jolt of energy into the final portion of the movie. Yuletide festivities courtesy of the Albanian officers add to the fun here, especially since this takes place nowhere near Christmas and their way of celebrating is a little unconventional, as are their tree decorations. On the whole, I got a kick out of this light-hearted spy flick.

My parents, who watched it with me, weren’t particularly enthralled, but it was fairly late when I turned it on, so that may have been partly to blame. Unfortunately, this movie doesn’t seem to be available on home video or DVD, but Netflix has is on Instant Viewing. Apparently it also turns up frequently on Turner Classic Movies as well.

If you like a good mix of comedy and espionage, my first recommendation is for you to watch Chuck, the NBC series currently in its fourth season. Rarely have I seen such a perfect blend of genres. Mrs. Pollifax: Spy doesn’t achieve that level of humor or pathos, but if you have a couple of hours to kill, this 1971 movie is pretty fun. Kinda makes me wish I’d read the books; I might have to do something about that…