Coventry Review of Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger Hunt (1979)

Pardon me, but you don't happen to have a spare public toilet, do you?

[7/10 · 30 June 2010]

In our series of "dumb, forgettable and tremendously entertaining 70's movies" we today proudly present "Scavenger Hunt"! It's an irresistibly silly flick with a rudimentary plot and predictable denouement, but the enthusiasm of the (tremendous) ensemble cast and incontrollable laughs caused by stupid jokes pretty much compensate for all its defaults. The script is a non-stop series of clichéd situations and stereotypical characters, but the beauty is that you expect everything to be like this! By today's standards "Scavenger Hunt" looks extremely dated, because it doesn't feature any vulgar humor or hi-tech devices, but the charming atmosphere will catapult you straight back to the 1970's. The cynical old millionaire Milton Parker (outstanding cameo of Vincent Price) found an inventive to divide his fortune between his greedy vultures of inheritors. All names mentioned in the testament, including direct relatives as well as servants and even a completely unrelated taxi driver, are put in small groups and send out on a giant scavenger hunt. The list includes the oddest items that can't be bought (public toilets, obese people, an ostrich …) and the winners are whichever group that collects the highest number of stuff by 5pm that same afternoon. Needless to say the game quickly turns into a hectic game full of cheating, fighting and public disturbance. "Scavenger Hunt" is a lot of fun and I'm nearly inclined to say that only a true sourpuss can sit through this movie without a single smile on his face. Heck, even the prominent cast members enjoyed themselves very much in their roles and clearly didn't care too much about the inferior artistic value. The cast list is impressive to say the least, with Scatman Crothers, Cloris Leachman, Roddy McDowell, Cleavon Little, Richard Mulligan, Dirk Benedict, Tony Randall and many others. There even are big names in small cameo roles, like the aforementioned Vincent Price as the sadist patriarch, Meat Loaf as a sleazy biker gang leader and governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as – surprise – a fitness teacher! Good fun, no more … no less!