Fire Sale

Everyone to his own taste. Leonard Maltin is a wonderful critic, but this time I disagree with him. A friend of mine showed me a tape he made of this movie in 1979. I could not stop laughing. Sometimes a movie doesn't have to have a message when it's being funny (Ace Ventura, as a case in point). The stars of this movie are comedy giants, but the supporting cast is just as funny. Richard Libertini steals the movie as a house painter * psychiatrist. Alex Rocco as a clothing salesman is hilarious. I have an old VHS tape of this movie that I made off HBO. I would love to see this movie released on DVD. If there is any good reason why this movie is not being released I'd like to hear it. I've showed the tape to my kids, and they went crazy for it. I think the time has come to let the world enjoy this laugh riot. I'm surprised that cable hasn't shown it either instead of the same tired retreads over and over. Let's hear it for comedy that isn't pretty.

source: Fire Sale

I agree totally with the others. Fire Sale is one of the funniest comedies ever made. I have not read Maltin's review. But if it is negative, the man is suspect. As for the few who were extremely critical of the movie, I'm speechless. How could one not love this film? It is one side-splitting scene after another. It is nigh impossible to summarize it. One has to experience it. Further more, it is Jewish comedy at its very best. They don't make films like this anymore. Like the others, I have searched for this film in nearly 25 years. I would welcome contact from anyone who can help me find a copy.

Unreleased at first in the cinema in Australia, this absolutley demented farce sat on the shelf until after Arkin's original THE IN LAWS came out and was a hit here. Then Fox decided to give it a run and it was lukewarm. Pity, as a raucous Jewish comedy is is a pretty good one and anyone into anarchy as comedy (Big Store, Duck Soup, Where's Poppa, etc) will enjoy the screaming antics of a very fractured extended family. I think it ended up on a double bill with maybe Mel Brooks' THE PRODUCERS or something like that which matched the mugging and screaming. At my holiday resort cinema in that period we would show it on student nights and get a good reaction. Kids and old Jews loved it though.

Rob Reiner is hilarious. I haven't seen the movie in a long time and have trouble finding it everywhere. Some of the humor is ethnic, but to me seems pretty harmless, as well as very funny. I thought there was a lot of good slapstick and madcap silliness. I'm not sure why the movie is not more available in stores or on different internet sites where some individual who had the interest in buying a movie like this would be able to have the opportunity to purchase a funny and entertaining and humorous movie such as this particular movie was. If you can find it, give it a try.

Like many others I have been searching for this movie for years. It was on a premium channel when we first got them in Morgantown, and it had me searching the guide to see it any time I could. From the unique car packing to the rock throwing basketball fans, this movie was unique. It's lack of success was due to the fact that it's gags were ahead of it's time. The morons who failed to grasp the humor of this films were also instrumental in causing the cancellation of the greatest TV show of all times--Mel Brooks' "When Things Were Rotten". Alan Arkin, Rob Reiner, and Syd Caesar all turn in very innovative performances and the rest of the cast aren't too shabby either. There has never been another movie exactly like it and it is a shame to have it fade into oblivion.

A train wreck. An astoundingly bad "comedy" about a family of loud mouthed lunatics. Patriach Vincent Gardenia wants to burn down the family store for the insurance money. His sons (conniving high school basketball coach Alan Arkin & asthmatic nebbish Rob Reiner) have other plans. Directed by Arkin, the film has nothing of interest save for the fact that there's so much talent wasted. It's a Mel Brooks movie without laughs OR Mel Brooks. Every single repellent character, of which there are many, shrieks each line of dialog. Arkin (usually one of the funniest movie actors) looks foolish, running around like a goon and Reiner is just plain annoying. And what is Anjanette Comer doing in this? Also wasting the time of Sid Caesar, Kay Medford, Alex Rocco and the great Richard Libertini. It's easy to believe that this junk derailed Arkin's directing career as well as Reiner's future as an actor.

I watch "Fire Sale" at least 3-4 times a year and each time it gets better, very similar to "Where's Poppa", which also demands multiple viewings. While "Where's Poppa" has one extremely funny story line, "Fire Sale" has two. The insurance scam running parallel to the basketball player / adoption are absolutely two of the funniest ideas in any film. My only criticism is that Alan Arkin lets several scenes run on entirely too long. Nevertheless, there are moments of hilarious dark comedy throughout. "And don't forget to put my beer back", measuring a "live corpse", etc. This is one of the greatest comedies ever made, and will achieve instant cult status if ever released on DVD. - MERK

Now I have to tell you that I thought that this movie was just a figment of my imagination, as no one I know except my date for the evening in 1977 has ever even heard of this movie. I was a 17 year old on a date with my soon to be (1 ½ later) husband. I found it funny. Hilarious in fact. I would love to buy the movie and see it again as a mature adult, to see if it is as funny now. But alas, I've never found this movie for sale. The movie itself starts with a strange scene with a noise in the dark. When the lights come up and you figure out what is going on, I remember laughing so hard. For me, that's the way the entire movie was. Slap shot comedy perhaps.

This film is about 30 years old. I know of no conversions to tape or DVD. It had a theatrical run of about two weeks partially due to a bad review but nobody I ever met who saw it disliked the picture. The reviewer either never actually saw the entire film or had an agenda to sink it. When I first saw it my girlfriend (who isn't Jewish) and I and the vast majority of the audience, were roaring with laughter. We returned a number of times with friends and family and everyone loved it. 13 years later I had the privilege of having Sid Ceasar in my car (I was hired to take him to his hotel) and I asked him about the film. He said that he had a lot of fun making the movie, but the studio provided very limited money to advertise and promote the product. No press, no promotion. Studio politics. Gardenia (overbearing father) and Medford (sweet, but loopy wife and mother) are the parents of Arkin, the older son who lives outside the family home and Reiner (intimidated, milquetoast) who lives in. The family owns a failing, indebted department store. Arkin is married to Anjanette Comer, who desperately wants a child. Arkin claims he is impotent because of the tyranny of his father and the fact that he is the hated high school basketball coach whose team can't even win one game. Ceasar plays a wacky WWII patient at the the VA hospital who still believes that the war is still ongoing. On a road trip to Florida, Gardenia secretly sets into motion a scheme to burn his Dept. store down and collect the Fire Insurance. Arkin and Reiner think that his parents' absence presents the perfect opportunity to prove their father wrong and refurbish and restock the store and make a success of it. They don't know of the plot and go to work. Ceasar as Gardenia's unwitting foil is priceless. The pace of the film accelerates and is replete with a few clever twists. This effort is worth a sincere second look and a re-release.