Fun with Dick and Jane 1977

Dick Harper [George Segal] is a successful aerospace engineer in Los Angeles, where he and wife Jane Harper [Jane Fonda] keep a lovely house with a swimming pool and a newly laid lawn, while their son Billy [Sean Frye] is lovingly looked after by Jane. When a sudden reversal strikes, Dick’s boss, Charlie Blanchard [Ed McMahon], fires him, and the Harpers suddenly owe more than $70,000 in income taxes, leaving them with no income to speak of. Their attempts to find other work falter: Jane tries a restaurant fashion-modeling gig that ends in fiasco, and Dick must apply for unemployment and food stamps. Meanwhile, Jane’s wealthy parents, her father [John Dehner] and her mother [Mary Jackson], urge them to see the hardship as a hard-won life lesson rather than a defeat.

Desperate, they turn to a life of crime, choosing their targets carefully and even drawing a crowd as they rob the telephone company. The moral weight of their actions grows heavier as they weigh guilt against necessity, and they eventually decide to retire from robbery. But almost immediately they spot Charlie Blanchard again, this time on TV, testifying before a Congressional committee and revealing that he keeps a slush fund of cash in his office. Spurred by this discovery, Dick and Jane plot one final caper, planning to rob Charlie himself. During a gala at Dick’s old firm, they crack Charlie’s safe and steal the money, slipping into the building’s main floor. Security guards close in, and in a tense moment, Dick admits the theft to Charlie; they also reveal that Jane has phoned the police to report the crime. Charlie, however, requests that the police overlook the incident and helps escort the pair out.

In the aftermath, a press release proclaims that Dick has been named president of the firm, while Charlie resigns from his post.