A businessman and his friends are captured by a sadistic judge and his equally odd family in the backwoods of a bizarre mansion.
Nothing But Trouble (1991) Online
A financier [Chevy Chase] meets a spurned lover [Demi Moore] and agrees to take her to a business meeting. On the way there, they run a stop sign in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. They are arrested and taken to the local court. But all is not as it seems: the courthouse and the "prison" are a maze of zany booby- traps and deadly contraptions. The antics of the captured couple as they try to escape from the mad judge and his bizarre family make up the rest of this unusual film.
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
 | Chevy Chase | - | Chris Thorne |
 | Dan Aykroyd | - | Judge Alvin 'J.P' Valkenheiser / Bobo |
 | John Candy | - | Dennis / Eldona |
 | Demi Moore | - | Diane Lightson |
 | Valri Bromfield | - | Miss Purdah |
 | Taylor Negron | - | Fausto Squiriniszu |
 | Bertila Damas | - | Renalda Squiriniszu |
 | Raymond J. Barry | - | Mark |
 | Brian Doyle-Murray | - | Brian |
 | John Wesley | - | Sam |
 | Peter Aykroyd | - | Mike the Doorman |
 | Daniel Baldwin | - | Dealer #1 (Artie) |
 | James Staszkiel | - | Dealer #2 (as James Staskel) |
| Deborah Lee Johnson | - | Dealer #1's Girlfriend |
| Karla Tamburrelli | - | Dealer #2's Girlfriend |
Based on Dan Aykroyd's personal experiences. In 1978, he was pulled over for speeding in a rural town in the Northeastern United States. The police officer took him to the local Justice of the Peace in the middle of the night for a trial.
Roger Ebert famously hated the movie so much that he refused to write a review for it after giving it one of his most emphatic "thumbs down" reviews ever on Siskel & Ebert & the Movies (1986). On the show, Ebert said that when he went to a weeknight showing of the film in 1991, the theatre was almost abandoned except for him, a few lone adults, and several teenagers who were making loud, rude comments at the screen; Ebert famously went over to the teens and asked them to be even louder so he didn't have to listen to the terrible movie anymore.
This film only made approximately 8.5 million dollars, but the budget was estimated at forty million dollars.
Chevy Chase did not like the script, but took the leading role because he wanted to work with his friend Dan Aykroyd, and thought they could improve the movie by improvising. Chase later said that Aykroyd took a huge career hit when the movie bombed, because he had taken on so many roles (Director, Writer, Actor, and Producer) that no one else had a high enough profile to take blame for how bad things turned out.
The police badges, seen in the revolving frames on both sides of the Shire Reeve's bench, are actual badges from Dan Aykroyd's personal collection.
This is the only film directed by Dan Aykroyd.
Chevy Chase made fun of the film on The Chevy Chase Show (1993).
The navigation system shown is an ETAK system. Etak was an American company who introduced the first digital map navigation system in 1985, however other companies had been working on analogue systems. In 1990, the first GPS systems were introduced by Mitsubishi Electric and Pioneer. The system shown in this movie was not a GPS system, but works on stored maps and dead reckoning.
Tupac Shakur's film debut. He briefly appears as one of the members of the former hip-hop group Digital Underground. In the end credits, he is billed as "2 Pac Shakur".
If you look closely at Dan Aykroyd's make-up when he is eating the hot dog and Chevy Chase makes a funny face, the tip of his nose is in the shape of a penis.
This film served as a kind of "reunion" film for Second City, as Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, John Candy, Valri Bromfield, and Brian Doyle-Murray at one time were all members of the Chicago comedy troupe.
Dan Aykroyd described the problem of having an obvious old-time Western set for shots of a town. They solved it by painting a yellow line down the middle and not lighting the buildings as much as possible.
The movie won Worst Picture at the Hastings Bad Cinema Society's 14th Stinkers Bad Movie Awards in 1991.
The song that plays whenever Judge Alvin activates the tabletop train during the dinner scene is "Wabash Cannonball" as performed by Doc Watson, who originally released his version of this very old song in 1982.
The film was originally darker and a tad more graphic. However, when test audiences reacted poorly, the film was re-edited and its release date was pushed back.
Bertila Damas and Taylor Negron spent a lot of time with one another, during pre-production, rehearsing and building their characters together as they portrayed brother and sister in the film. In fact they actually wrote much of their own dialogue with Dan Aykroyd 's approval.
Tom Hanks visited the set of this film as he was in production on Il falò delle vanità (1990) which shot in the soundstage right across during the same time on the Warner Bros. lot.
What inspired this movie, was one day Dan Aykroyd imagined his friend John Candy in drag, and burst with laughter, for several weeks, every time he imagined that image, he would burst out with laughter, so Aykroyd decided to write a movie, where Candy would play a woman, he thought of a plot later.
It's been said that Dan Aykroyd allegedly sent written letters of apology to the entire cast after discovering that the film was not financially successful at the box office. However, in a 2017 podcast, Bertila Damas stated she never received such a letter and was surprised to hear he had apparently done that.
Bertila Damas (Renalda Squiriniszu) is a popular Spanish-language singer. She sang "La Chanka".
The film was set to be released under the title Valkenvania, scheduled to release In November of 1990, then pushed back to December. The December 1990 issue of Starlog promoted the film under this title. After poor test screenings found, among other things, that no one understood the title, the film was delayed to February 1991 under its final title.
During production, Chevy Chase, at times, would call up various co-stars at night, after filming, apologizing for what he perceived to be stressed behavior he felt he exhibited due to whatever he was going through personally at the time.
Originally slated for a Halloween 1990 release, it was pushed back in order for the film to be re-edited.
Ivan Reitman and John Landis both turned down the opportunity to direct.
One of four films that Chevy Chase appeared in with Dan Aykroyd, the others being Spie come noi (1985), Due palle in buca (1988), and Lo strizzacervelli (1988).
On January 16, 1991, a billboard for the film on Sunset Boulevard replaced an ad for another recent Warner Bros. critical and commercial failure, Il falò delle vanità (1990).
Ray Charles, who covers "The Good Life" in the films soundtrack, also co-starred in The Blues Brothers-which Dan Aykroyd wrote and starred in.
An MTV promotional special featured the cast singing the film's title to the tune of "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr..
Aykroyd offered the script to John Hughes, who was interested in the story, but ultimately turned it down because he only directed his own scripts. John Landis disliked the script and immediately turned it down.
The story was developed after a screening of the 1987 film Hellraiser that producer Robert K. Weiss attended with Dan and Peter Aykroyd. Weiss had a fractured rib and suggested the three attend a film to take his mind off his injury, but that it couldn't be a comedy because it hurt him to laugh, which is why the Aykroyd brothers chose a horror film. Once the movie started and the three saw the audience laughing at the film, Weiss suggested that they make a horror-comedy together, since audiences wanted to laugh and be scared at the same time.
In the scene with the two couples with drugs and guns being sent to their death, you may recognize the redhead female as Karla Tamburrelli who later played Phil's horrible soon-to-be ex-wife in Scappo dalla città - La vita, l'amore e le vacche (1991)
Much of the script's bizarre characters and events, such as the giant mutant babies, were based on a series of dreams Aykroyd was having, and he set the story in the fictional town of Valkenvania, which was based loosely on the town of Centrailia, Pennsylvania.
Aykroyd spent 6 months writing it as a screenplay titled Git, which was later changed to Road to Ruin; Dan Aykroyd described the script as "a monster movie" and compared it to Beetlejuice (1988) and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974).
The script caught the attention of Warner Bros., who wanted John Candy to costar. Aykroyd wanted to play the parts of Judge Valkenheiser and Chris Thorne, but the studio wanted Chevy Chase to play Thorne, and Aykroyd agreed. With no director attached, Aykroyd said he would direct the film to secure the deal, even though he didn't want to direct the film.
Aykroyd later agreed to play the giant adult baby Bobo as well, after no one else wanted to play the part, and found it stressful to play two parts in heavy makeup while simultaneously directing and producing.
In December 1990, Warner Bros. changed the film's title to Nothing but Trouble. On December 20, Dan Aykroyd stated in a press release that he would always think of the film as Valkenvania.
Chevy Chase later expressed dislike for the film, saying he only accepted the role of Chris Thorne because of his friendship with Aykroyd.
Production commenced in 1990 under the title Git, which was changed in production to Valkenvania. Subsequently, prior to the film's release, Warner Bros. changed the title to Nothing but Trouble.
The film went $5 million over budget.
The film's release was delayed to recut the film for a PG-13 rating, removing the film's over the top violence, and the studio rescheduled Bonfire of the Vanities to the Christmas 1990 release date originally held by Nothing but Trouble.
The film commenced production on May 7, 1990 in Los Angeles, California, under the title Trickhouse.
IFC listed Nothing but Trouble as one of "10 '90s Comedies That Really Need Sequels".
Valkenvania was built on the same western backlot set that was used for High Noon.
Aykroyd proved to be very popular with the crew for listening to and enacting all of the crazy ideas they threw at him, including the Bonestripper, the roller coaster going through Valkenheiser Mansion, and the dinner table with the built-in model train set serving food. But while the crew had a blast making the movie as grotesquely absurd as possible, it also caused the film to go over-budget. Warner Bros. execs had weekly meetings with Aykroyd pleading for him to rein things in, but didn't act themselves because they were already distracted with another troubled production, The Bonfire of the Vanities.
Aykroyd was heartened by the encouragement of the production crew -- which included director of photography Dean Cundey, production designer William Sandell, and makeup designer David Miller -- once shooting started.
The crew also enjoyed working with John Candy and Demi Moore, but Chevy Chase (as he is infamous for) proved to be a nightmare. Chase was verbally abusive to everyone on set, tried to speak on Moore's behalf about her "skimpy" costume, and stated that he had more worth than Aykroyd because Chase had the bigger paycheck. The crew was furious at Chase's treatment of Aykroyd, with one crew member even threatening to drop a brick on Chase's head if he ever spoke to the director like that again.
It was after Aykroyd screened his director's cut for Warner Bros. that the Executive Meddling kicked in. Warner Bros. considered the film a mess and pressured Aykroyd to tone down the cartoonish violence to avoid an R-rating, which in turn caused the release date to be pushed back from Christmas 1990 to February 1991.
The crew attended a special screening before release (which wasn't attended by Aykroyd or the principal cast) and howled with laughter at their bizarre creations which made it into the final product. In the years since, despite retaining a 5% score on Rotten Tomatoes, the film has gained the status of a Cult Classic.
This was the last time many actors worked with one another. It marked the third and final time Dan Aykroyd worked with Chevy Chase (Spies Like Us and Caddyshack II) and John Candy (Blues Brothers and The Great Outdoors) in a movie (though Aykroyd appears uncredited in Canadian Bacon as an Ontario Provincial Police officer who pulls Candy over); plus Chevy Chase' s fifth and final time working with Brian Doyle Murray. This was the second and final time Chevy Chase and John Candy worked together since National Lampoons Vacation, which co-starred Brian Doyle Murray.
John Candy and Brian Doyle Murray were both in JFK (1991) released later that year.
Complex Magazine named this one of the 25 greatest comedies of the 90s.
According to the autobiography "I'm Chevy Chase and You're Not" (2007), "Before the script was finished, Chevy knew it would be the worst movie he would ever make." Dan Aykroyd mentions in the book, "Demi was very demanding. Chevy was resistant to her demands."
Though Brian Doyle Murray is listed in the opening credits, he doesn't appear until over an hour in the movie.
(Cameo): Producer Robert K. Weiss appears sitting on a porch.
Dan Aykroyd's brother not only wrote the story, but appears as Mike the Doorman.
Dan Aykroyd "won" Worst Supporting Actor at the 12 Annual Golden Razzies. He was the only director to direct himself to a worst actor award until M Night Shyamalan 15 years later directing himself in Lady in the Water (2006).
This movie has similarities with Haunted Honeymoon (1986). Both are written, directed and acted by the same star (Dan Aykroyd for Nothing But Trouble and Gene Wilder for Haunted Honeymoon), both take place in creepy mansions and both feature an actor in drag (John Candy in Nothing But Trouble and Dom DeLuise in Haunted Honeymoon). Gene Wilder and Dan Aykroyd never directed again after these movies. Their co-stars are actors they've worked with previously.
This movie was nothing but trouble for the careers of its three comic leads who were big movie stars in the 80s, but lost their success ever since. Chevy Chase did have a couple hits with Man of the House and Vegas Vacation, but neither one were huge and his other 90s movies bombed. Dan Aykroyd never directed again and flopped with Coneheads (1993), Exit to Eden (1994), Celtic Pride (1996), Getting Away With Murder (1996), Sgt. Bilko (1996), My Fellow Americans (1996), Blues Brothers 2000 (1998), etc. John Candy had a big hit with Cool Runnings (1993), but died a few months after it's release.
Aykroyd had trouble settling on the ending, which was written and re-written during the shoot. Eventually they settled on Chase's character learning through the television that Valkenheiser survived the destruction of Valkenvania and leaving a Chase-shaped hole in the wall. The crew were dissatisfied with the ending, but it was the best they could come up with.
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