Throw Momma from the Train (1987)

Release date: 1987-12-11
Country: USA
Language: English
Director: Danny DeVito
Production Co: Orion Pictures
Genre: Comedy, Crime, Thriller
Rating: 6.2/10
Length: 1h 28min

Storyline

Larry Donner is an author and writing professor who tutors people that want to write books. Larry's life has become a misery when his ex-wife Margaret has published a book he wrote under her name and has gotten rich over it. Owen Lift, one of Larry's students, offers Larry to kill Margaret, and in return Owen, wants Larry to kill his horrible mother. Larry thinks it's a joke, until he learns Owen killed his ex-wife. And Larry has now become the prime suspect.

Plot Keywords

writing, directed by star, mother son relationship, domineering mother, resentment, black comedy, murder for hire, attempted murder, writer, teacher student relationship, crisis of conscience, ex husband ex wife relationship, matricide, bachelor, hit with a frying pan, reference to jack the ripper, obsession, imperative in title, earring, neighbor

Short Review

Very clever and engaging from beginning to end, pic builds on the notion that nearly everyone - at least once in life - has the desire to snuff out a relative or nemesis, even if 99.9% of us let the urge pass without ever acting on it.