Scavenger Hunt

1963's It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World is such a comedy classic that it has inspired a lot of copycats over the years. Not as good as their inspiration, yet some of them are still great comedies. One of those is 1979's Scavenger Hunt.

Game designer Milton Parker, Vincent Price, croaks, pardon the pun, while playing Frogger. A lover of all games, Parker has it set up in his will that his family and staff will be divided into five teams and must compete in a scavenger hunt. The winner gets his inheritance. And, as always in these movies, the teams play dirty to get the millions.

Another trademark in these films is that they are chock full of stars and cameos, and Scavenger Hunt is no exception. It is full of big names from the late 70's. Richard Benjamn, Cloris Leachman, Tony Randall, James Coco, Roddy McDowell, Scatman Crothers, Ruth Gordon, Cleavon Little, Richard Mulligan, Dirk Benedict, Willie Aames, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Meatloaf round out the cast. Everybody seems to be having a blast and it's a lot of fun to watch them.

Directed by the great Michael Schultz, who also directed Car Wash and The Last Dragon, Scavenger Hunt has a lot of laughs. Maybe not as funny as Mad, Mad, World, but still enjoyable.

Oddly enough, this isn't available on dvd or blu ray, which is kind of strange. It got a lot of play on HBO and network tv when I was a kid and it seems like it would have enough of a following to warrant a release.