Wednesday, February 01, 2017

VHS WEDNESDAY: James Toback's LOVE & MONEY (1982) with Ray Sharkey, Klaus Kinski, Armand Assante

Ray Sharkey is a low-level bank employee who gets lured into helping a global silver magnate (Klaus Kinski) deal with a Latin American strongman (Armand Assante) who wants to seize back his country's silver mines.

Did I mention Sharkey's character was the college roomie of Assante's el presidente? Did I mention Sharkey was seduced by Kinski's exotic wife who he may or may not have known before? (My wife and I couldn't agree on that one.) Did I mention Sharkey's idea of "sexy" is a Fila track suit jacket that makes him look like a high school crossing guard?

Definitely weird and sorta existential – not surprising considering LOVE AND MONEY comes from the mind of FINGERS writer/director James Toback – the flick also features a whole subplot including Sharkey's delusional grandfather (King Vidor) and live-in book dealer galpal. Alas, not nearly enough time is spent on this storyline, which was the best part of this oddball flick.

One wonders if the Warner Archive print runs any longer as the VHS box includes scenes not in the print we watched, though this wouldn't be the first time a VHS sleeve lied to me. Klaus does have a juicy scene at a dinner party for Assante's character and he gets to kill a double-crosser, plus there's lots of short, barked lines of dialogue ("Bring Mr. Levin white wine and a lobster salad!") that made me think he told Toback he'd take the role on the condition that he got the most money for the fewest lines.

Alas, it's for Klaus Kinski and Ray Sharkey completists only. – Dan Taylor

Dan Taylor is the editor/publisher of Exploitation Retrospect: The Journal of Junk Culture and Fringe Media. Check out our 130-page 30th Anniversary Issue featuring horror anthologies, mens action novels, video store oddity THE JAR and much more. Available at Amazon, CreateSpace, ebay and the ER website.

LOVE AND MONEY is available from Amazon.

I can't find a trailer for the flick so here's a clip of Klaus Kinski talking about money...







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