Do You Have A Spare Toilet?

Scavenger Hunt (1979)

Ah the scavenger hunt movie. Is there anything better then packing in a bunch of celebrities into a comedy and have them race about trying to win a prize or get some treasure? The answer is “yes” as pretty near all these movies aren’t very good. From the It’s A Mad Mad Mad Mad World to Rat Race, Hollywood is always putting out a film like this. In the late 70’s, early eighties, there were a bunch of these, culminating in the fan fave The Cannonball Run (directed by Hal Needham, who you will remember from The Villain).

It is in this genre that we find the movie of today, Scavenger Hunt. The basic plot is a game manufacturer played by the great Vincent Price kicks off and states in his will that the winner of a scavenger hunt will win his inheritance. The rest of the movie is the madcap, wacky scavenger hunt as the mostly b-list/non-celebs run about trying to win. It has a nice message in the end and it’s all very boring. All the actors are doing their best with the material, and some like Scatman Crothers and Roddy McDowell are genuinely likeable. Others like Richard Mulligan and his Marx Brothers type impression just grate on you. The script eventually sinks it. It kind of wants to be an edgy Animal House type of comedy but within a PG rating so it never works. It’s too broad, too annoying and in the end, too cheap and a waste of time. Maybe with bigger names it would work as a curiosity. As it is, it just doesn't work.

Arnold has a very small roll, especially coming from the 3rd billing he had in the previous The Villain. He plays the owner of a gym who basically tortures and beats the shit out of Tony Randall who is there for a medicine ball for the hunt. It’s a small scene, but one of the better comedic bits in the film. Arnold does just fine with his first stab of broad comedy, looking very comfortable as the over-eager muscle guy. You kind of wish he had more to do. Sadly he doesn’t. Fortunately for us Arnie will have many attempts at family friendly comedies, but that is in the future, let us wait for those to come!

So basically this is another film to skip in the Arnold filmography, though it’s not really a proper Arnold movie of course, but a shit ensemble movie.