Johnny Dangerously

Johnny Dangerously
Theatrical release poster by Drew Struzan
Directed byAmy Heckerling
Screenplay by
Story by
Produced byMichael Hertzberg
Starring
CinematographyDavid M. Walsh
Edited byPembroke J. Herring
Music byJohn Morris
Production
company
Edgewood Productions
Distributed by20th Century Fox
Release date
  • December 21, 1984 (1984-12-21)
Running time
90 minutes[1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$9 million[2]
Box office$17.1 million

Johnny Dangerously is a 1984 American crime comedy film and a parody of 1930s crime/gangster movies. It was directed by Amy Heckerling; two of its four screenwriters, Jeff Harris and Bernie Kukoff, had previously created the hit series Diff'rent Strokes.

The film stars Michael Keaton as an honest, goodhearted man who turns to a life of crime to finance his mother's skyrocketing medical bills and to put his younger brother through law school. Joe Piscopo, Marilu Henner, Maureen Stapleton, Peter Boyle, Griffin Dunne, Dom DeLuise, Danny DeVito, Dick Butkus and Alan Hale Jr. were in the film.

Part of the film's comedic appeal is the clever and frequent use of malapropisms by Johnny and other crime characters, especially in instances where curse words were intended.

  1. ^ "JOHNNY DANGEROUSLY (15)". British Board of Film Classification. November 16, 1984. Retrieved March 5, 2015.
  2. ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p260