The Toy (1982) Columbia Pictures/Comedy RT: 102 minutes Rated PG (language, comic violence, brief nudity, sexual humor and conversation) Director: Richard Donner Screenplay: Carol Sobieski and Francis Veber Music: Patrick Williams Cinematography: Laszlo Kovacs Release date: December 10, 1982 (US) Cast: Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleason, Scott Schwartz, Ned Beatty, Teresa Ganzel, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Annazette Chase, Tony King, Don Hood, Karen Leslie-Lyttle, Virginia Capers. Box Office: $47.1M (US)
Rating: ***
File The Toy under Wouldn’t Get Made Today. In these overly-PC times, it’s a folder that grows larger by the day. I get it though. Even though it’s a remake of a popular French comedy (1976’s Le Jouet), there’s no way any studio would touch a movie about a spoiled white kid buying a black man to act as his toy today. At the time of its release in pre-PC 1982, some raised objections over the movie’s premise calling it offensive and tantamount to slavery. Admittedly, it does sound distasteful when you put it like that.
I don’t think Richard Donner (Superman) was out to offend anybody when he decided to make The Toy. When adapting the comedy for American audiences, Donner wanted to hire the best man for the title role. He wanted somebody that would put butts in the seats. Enter Richard Pryor, an actor-comedian with serious box office clout. He had a gift for physical humor, slapstick and exaggerated panicky reactions to different situations. Back in the day, he had great success with hit movies like Silver Streak and Stir Crazy. In addition, he showed a softer side in the previous year’s Bustin’ Loose in which he drives a busload of special needs children cross-country. It turns out he worked well with children. Who knew? It was a strategic bit of casting that worked. He cast comedy legend Jackie Gleason (The Honeymooners) as the kid’s father. There’s a reason he was affectionately known as “The Great One”. He’s GREAT!
In The Toy, Pryor plays Jack Brown, an unemployed journalist in danger of losing his home if he doesn’t come up with a lot of money quick. Swallowing his dignity, he takes a part-time job as a “cleaning lady” at a department store owned by millionaire businessman U.S. Bates (Gleason). Blame it on the desperate times/desperate measures mentality of the early 80s. Bates’ bratty 9YO son Eric (Schwartz, A Christmas Story) arrives home from military school for his yearly week-long visit with his aloof dad who tells the boy he can have anything in the store he wants. After seeing Jack goof around on a “Wonder Wheel”, he brusquely informs his father’s right-hand man Morehouse (Beatty, Superman) that’s what he wants. Not the Wonder Wheel, the black man clowning around on it. What’s more, this is a kid that doesn’t know the meaning of the word “no”. In short order, Jack is sent to Bates’ mansion in a box and bow.
Needless to say, U.S. is flabbergasted over his son’s choice of a new “toy”. In a subplot sure to fly over the heads of younger viewers, he’s in some sort of legal trouble that necessitates the brining together of a prominent politician and the head of the KKK. The last thing he needs is his son getting all buddy-buddy with a black man. Now about Eric. He gives new meaning to the term “brat”. He acts out a lot. He plays all manner of annoying pranks on Jack like throwing firecrackers at him and dumping goop on his head. However, I wouldn’t say he’s necessarily a bad kid, just a lonely one trying to get his distant father’s attention. As for choosing Jack as his toy, what he really wants is a friend to make him laugh. He just doesn’t know how to go about making friends. For his part, Jack is determined to teach the boy what being a friend really means. Over the course of the week (for which he’s being paid 10 grand), he’ll also try to teach U.S. how to connect with his son on a meaningful level.
Yes, I’m well aware The Toy is childish and sappy as hell, but I still find it funny. It’s not as epic-hilarious as it should be with headliners Pryor and Gleason, but it has enough laughs that you won’t mind investing 102 minutes of your life in it. It has a good supporting cast that includes Teresa Ganzel (My Favorite Year) as Bates’ dizzy third wife Fancy whose two best assets are conveniently always on display in a series of low-cut necklines. Wilfrid Hyde-White (My Fair Lady) uses his dry British wit to great effect as the always-tipsy butler. Karen Leslie-Lyttle is a riot as the consummate German nanny with a thing for Jack. She keeps trying to get him in the tub.
The Toy is billed as family entertainment, but I don’t think it’s an accurate label. While it’s rated PG, it’s pre-1984 PG. As you all know, that’s the year the MPAA established the PG-13 rating for movies that were too much for a PG but not bad enough for an R. The Toy contains a great deal of bad language, jokes about huge breasts and sexual references. There’s a scene were Eric looks at a fully nude portrait of Fancy in his father’s office. One running gag has his father’s employees and household staff referring to Eric as “Master Bates”; another has Fancy pronouncing her husband’s name as “U Ass”. This is clearly not a movie for the under-13 set, yet I don’t see where it would appeal to anybody much older than that. It’s a kid’s movie with adult material. In that sense, it’s a little bit like the R-rated Bustin’ Loose which would be an ideal family film if not for Pryor’s frequent use of profanity including the dreaded f-word. He doesn’t use it in The Toy, but there’s still enough for parents to object to.
Enough about that, what about the rest of it? Pryor and Gleason have some nice moments together. The chemistry is definitely there. Schwartz’s character is kind of annoying at first, but he grows on you. He’s one of the better child actors to emerge from the early 80s with subsequent roles in classics like A Christmas Story and Kidco. Okay, maybe it’s not exactly a classic, but HBO sure showed it a lot. The aforementioned subplot involving the KKK is a strange thing to put in a supposed kid’s movie, but at least Pryor gets the last laugh on the racists.
For all its shortcomings, The Toy is pretty good because it’s funny, the most important function of a comedy. I still crack up when Pryor finds himself up to his neck in a lake full of piranhas. It also has a message about what it means to be a friend and care about somebody. I think many adults can benefit from that lesson. Some need it more than the kids.
