The film
Johnny Dangerously is a
1984-Events:* The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name.*Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film....
comedy spoof of 1930s'
crime/gangster moviesA crime film, in the most general sense, is a film that involves various aspects crime and the criminal justice system. Stylistically, it can fall under many different genres, most commonly drama, thriller, Mystery film and film noir...
directed by
Amy HeckerlingAmy Heckerling is an American film director, one of the few female directors to have produced multiple box-office hits.-Early life:Heckerling was born in The Bronx to a bookkeeper mother and a certified public accountant father...
. The movie stars
Michael KeatonMichael John Douglas , better known as Michael Keaton, is an American actor, well known for his early comedic roles in films such as Night Shift, Mr...
as an honest, goodhearted man who is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's skyrocketing medical bills and to put his younger brother through law school. The movie also stars
Joe PiscopoJoseph Charles John "Joe" Piscopo is an American comedian and actor best known for his work on Saturday Night Live.-Early life:...
,
Marilu HennerMarilu Lucy Henner is an American actress, producer and author.-Early life:Born "Mary Lucy Denise Henner" in Chicago, Illinois to a Greek mother and Polish father. Marilu's father and brother changed the family name from "Pudlowski" to "Henner" for business purposes. Henner was raised on the...
,
Maureen StapletonLois Maureen Stapleton was an American actress in film, theater and television. She was also elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame.-Early life:...
,
Peter BoylePeter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....
,
Griffin Dunne-Personal life:Dunne was born in New York City, New York, the son of Ellen Beatriz Dunne and Dominick Dunne. His mother founded the victims' rights organization Justice for Homicide Victims and his father was a producer, writer, and actor...
,
Dom DeLuiseDominick "Dom" DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, film director, television producer, chef, and author. He was the husband of actress Carol Arthur from 1965 until his death, and the father of actor, writer, director Peter DeLuise, and actors David DeLuise and Michael DeLuise.- Early life...
,
Danny DeVitoDaniel Michael "Danny" DeVito, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer, who first gained prominence for his portrayal of "Louie De Palma" on the ABC and NBC TV series Taxi...
,
Dick ButkusRichard Marvin "Dick" Butkus is a former American football player, widely regarded as the greatest linebacker of his generation and one of the best football players of all time. Butkus starred as a football player for the University of Illinois and the Chicago Bears...
and Alan Hale, Jr..
The theme song "This Is the Life" was written for the movie by
"Weird Al" YankovicAlfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, actor, comedian, and satirist. Yankovic is known in particular for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
, though for legal reasons, "This Is the Life" was not featured on home video releases of the film, until the DVD was released in 2002.
The film
Johnny Dangerously is a
1984-Events:* The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name.*Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film....
comedy spoof of 1930s'
crime/gangster moviesA crime film, in the most general sense, is a film that involves various aspects crime and the criminal justice system. Stylistically, it can fall under many different genres, most commonly drama, thriller, Mystery film and film noir...
directed by
Amy HeckerlingAmy Heckerling is an American film director, one of the few female directors to have produced multiple box-office hits.-Early life:Heckerling was born in The Bronx to a bookkeeper mother and a certified public accountant father...
. The movie stars
Michael KeatonMichael John Douglas , better known as Michael Keaton, is an American actor, well known for his early comedic roles in films such as Night Shift, Mr...
as an honest, goodhearted man who is forced to turn to a life of crime to finance his neurotic mother's skyrocketing medical bills and to put his younger brother through law school. The movie also stars
Joe PiscopoJoseph Charles John "Joe" Piscopo is an American comedian and actor best known for his work on Saturday Night Live.-Early life:...
,
Marilu HennerMarilu Lucy Henner is an American actress, producer and author.-Early life:Born "Mary Lucy Denise Henner" in Chicago, Illinois to a Greek mother and Polish father. Marilu's father and brother changed the family name from "Pudlowski" to "Henner" for business purposes. Henner was raised on the...
,
Maureen StapletonLois Maureen Stapleton was an American actress in film, theater and television. She was also elected to the American Theatre Hall of Fame.-Early life:...
,
Peter BoylePeter Lawrence Boyle, Jr. was an American actor, best known for his role as Frank Barone on the sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond, and as a comical monster in Mel Brooks' film spoof Young Frankenstein ....
,
Griffin Dunne-Personal life:Dunne was born in New York City, New York, the son of Ellen Beatriz Dunne and Dominick Dunne. His mother founded the victims' rights organization Justice for Homicide Victims and his father was a producer, writer, and actor...
,
Dom DeLuiseDominick "Dom" DeLuise was an American actor, comedian, film director, television producer, chef, and author. He was the husband of actress Carol Arthur from 1965 until his death, and the father of actor, writer, director Peter DeLuise, and actors David DeLuise and Michael DeLuise.- Early life...
,
Danny DeVitoDaniel Michael "Danny" DeVito, Jr. is an American actor, director and producer, who first gained prominence for his portrayal of "Louie De Palma" on the ABC and NBC TV series Taxi...
,
Dick ButkusRichard Marvin "Dick" Butkus is a former American football player, widely regarded as the greatest linebacker of his generation and one of the best football players of all time. Butkus starred as a football player for the University of Illinois and the Chicago Bears...
and Alan Hale, Jr..
Music
The theme song "This Is the Life" was written for the movie by
"Weird Al" YankovicAlfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, actor, comedian, and satirist. Yankovic is known in particular for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...
, though for legal reasons, "This Is the Life" was not featured on home video releases of the film, until the DVD was released in 2002. The VHS home video version of the film featured a version of the Cole Porter song "
Let's Misbehave"Let's Misbehave" is a famous song written by Cole Porter in 1927, and included perhaps most famously in the 1964 revival of Anything Goes. It also appears in two Woody Allen films: at the opening and close of the 1972 film Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex* , and at the close of the...
".
Plot summary
A pet shop owner catches a young boy shoplifting a puppy. To discourage the kid from a life of crime, the owner tells a story . . .
It is 1910. Young Johnny Kelly is a poor but honest newsboy in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
. Johnny beats up Danny Vermin in self defense and discovers his mom needs an operation they cannot afford. Since the execution of Johnny's father, Killer Kelly, his widow, Ma Kelly, has supported Johnny and his younger brother, Tommy, who is fascinated by the law.
Johnny's fight with Vermin attracted the notice of local crime boss Jocko Dundee, and Johnny, seeing no honest way to earn the money for his mom's operation, sees no choice than to do a job for Dundee, even though it probably means breaking the law, and in doing so, "breaking his mother's heart". He helps Dundee rob the nightclub belonging to Dundee's rival, Roman Moronie. When asked his name, Johnny coins the name, "Johnny Dangerously." But, Moronie never "forgets a fargin face."
Years pass. With his mom's continuing medical problems, Johnny goes to work for the Dundee gang full time. He becomes a suave young man, with plenty of folding cash. The whole neighborhood (including the Pope) knows that Kelly is really Johnny Dangerously, but Johnny's secret identity is carefully concealed from his brother and mother. They think he is a law-abiding nightclub owner. Similarly, the gang knows nothing of Johnny's mother and brother. Tommy is now in law school, with a girlfriend, and somewhat of a
prigA prig is a word people use to describe someone they believe shows an inordinately zealous approach to matters of form and propriety; especially where the prig has the ability to show superior knowledge to those who don't know the protocol...
--he wants to drop out of law school so he can get a job, marry his girlfriend, and "get laid." With the assistance of a public health film ("Your Testicles and YOU"), Johnny gets him to go back to law school.
Johnny comes to Dundee's headquarters—he is still involved in a running feud with Moronie—to find he has taken on two new gang members: Danny Vermin, and his sidekick Dutch. Danny has lived up to his potential and become a total scumbag, with a taste for using opera audiences as shooting galleries with his .88 Magnum pistol ('it shoots through schools...'). Moronie, subtle as always, sends a robot with a machine gun to try to knock off the gang. He is not successful, and Johnny retaliates by knocking down Moronie's club (which was in need of expansion anyway) with a bomb dropped from a biplane.
The two gangs war. In the meantime, Johnny falls for a young showgirl new to the big city, Lil Sheridan. They go for a long walk together, ending in sexual fireworks.
The war continues. Moronie sends a plumber to plant explosives in Dundee's toilet. Dundee has a narrow escape, and he retires in Johnny's favor. Johnny negotiates a truce with Moronie.
Meanwhile, Tommy graduates from law school (Johnny's illicit earnings, of course, have paid for the tuition). Despite Johnny's efforts to steer him into a law firm, he goes to work for the District Attorney's office. A bit miffed that his money should be used to train a crimefighter, Johnny is nevertheless not worried—District Attorney Burr is on his payroll. The D.A. tries to sidetrack Tommy, but he becomes a major public figure. After he holds hearings looking into Moronie's activities, the rival crime boss is deported to Sweden despite his protests that he's "not from there."
Against Johnny's orders, Burr and Vermin conspire to kill Tommy. Tommy is badly injured, but survives. Divining the truth, Johnny has Burr killed—but this leaves Tommy as the new D.A.
Tommy recovers, and weds his girlfriend. Vermin discovers that Dangerously is the D.A.'s brother—and Tommy promptly overhears Vermin chortling about it. Tommy confronts Johnny, who agrees to quit the life of crime. The gang, though, isn't as eager and suggests Johnny may be turning state's evidence against them. Johnny denies this, and goes to turn the evidence against himself to the Crime Commissioner—who Vermin has just killed—under circumstances that suggest Johnny is the killer. Not only that, Vermin steals Johnny's prized bubble gum case (formerly Dundee's cigarette case).
Johnny is arrested for murder, but says he is innocent and the holder of the case is the guilty party. Tommy tries the case against him. Johnny is found guilty, sentenced to the electric chair and sent to death row. But when Vermin congratulates Tommy, and Tommy notices that he has Johnny's case, he realizes Johnny is innocent. Ma Kelly sucker punches Vermin in the crotch, and the cigarette case drops out of the stricken mobster's pocket. Ma Kelly and Tommy realize that "Johnny didn't do it."
Meanwhile, his mom is using her contacts to investigate the murder. She finds the cleaning lady who is a witness to Vermin's presence. Tommy hits Vermin with a grand jury subpoena, and he knows that he must kill Tommy.
Johnny arrives on Death Row, where he receives rock star treatment from the starstruck warden. He receives word of Tommy's danger, and plots an escape, prevailing on the warden to move up his execution ("We'll bump Steinberg.") As he is taken to the chair, Johnny assembles what looks like a tommy gun from parts handed to him by inmates. He escapes in a laundry truck driven by Lil.
Johnny, through a wild chase, arrives at the theatre where Tommy is to be killed. He shoots and wounds Vermin, saving Tommy. The governor pardons Johnny as Vermin is arrested.
Back to 1935. The young shoplifter is round eyed. Having taken in the lesson that crime doesn't pay, he is given a kitten as Johnny Kelly, law abiding pet shop owner, says "Crime doesn't pay." The kid goes on his way. Johnny, dressed in a tux, heads off in a riotous limo with Lil Sheridan: "Well, it pays a little!"