A Fine Mess is a 1986 comedy film written and directed by Blake Edwards

Blake Edwards

Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...

 and starring Ted Danson

Ted Danson

Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...

 and Howie Mandel

Howie Mandel

Howard Michael "Howie" Mandel is a Canadian stand-up comedian, television host, and actor. He is well known as host of the NBC game show Deal or No Deal, as well as the show's daytime and Canadian-English counterparts. Before his career as a game show host, Mandel was best known for his role on...

.

The film was intended as a remake of Laurel & Hardy's classic short "The Music Box" and was to be semi-improvised in the same style as the director's earlier comedy, The Party

The Party (film)

The Party is a 1968 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards, starring Peter Sellers and Claudine Longet. The film has a very loose structure, and essentially serves as a series of set pieces for Sellers's improvisational comedy talents...

, but studio interference, poor previews and subsequent re-editing resulted in the film becoming a fully scripted chase comedy with very little of the original ideas for the film remaining intact. Writer/director Blake Edwards

Blake Edwards

Blake Edwards was an American film director, screenwriter and producer.Edwards' career began in the 1940s as an actor, but he soon turned to writing radio scripts at Columbia Pictures...

actually gave television interviews telling audiences to avoid the film. For this reason, it received overwhelmingly negative reviews and was a box-office failure.

Plot

While filming on location at a race track, womanizing bit actor Spencer Holden, who lives life on one scam after another, overhears a couple of inept thugs named Binky and Turnip while they dope a race horse with a supposed undetectable super stimulant. The thugs find out that Spence overheard them and will do anything to catch him so that he won't go to the authorities with the information. Spence, however, enlists the help of his best friend, drive-in carhop and aspiring restaurateur Dennis Powell, to bet on the race with that horse so that they can make some guaranteed money. Spence and Dennis end up not only having to outrun the thugs, who manage to put a few bullet holes in Spence's car, but also the police after they find Spence's bullet riddled car and after the race horse, Sorry Sue, ends up dying from the drugs. Throw into the mix an antique player piano of which Dennis comes into possession, sympathetic but naive auction house employee Ellen Frankenthaler who is attracted to Dennis, and exotically beautiful Claudia Pazzo who is interested in buying the piano and who Spence can't resist, and Spence and Dennis may be in more trouble than they could have imagined.

Cast

• Ted Danson as Spence Holden
• Howie Mandel as Dennis Powell
• Richard Mulligan as Wayne 'Turnip' Parragella
• Stuart Margolin as Maurice 'Binky' Drundza
• Maria Conchita Alonso as Claudia Pazzo
• Jennifer Edwards as Ellen Frankenthaler
• Paul Sorvino as Tony Pazzo
• Rick Ducommun as Wardell
• Keye Luke as Ishimine
• Ed Herlihy as TV Reporter
• Walter Charles as Auctioneer
• Tawny Moyer as Leading Lady
• Emma Walton as First Extra
• Carrie Leigh as Second Extra
• Sharan Lea as Young Girl
• Dennis Franz as Phil
• Larry Storch as Leopold Klop