Mason Bailey
Eee-2083
Opm-2083
09/14/22
Other People's Money
Danny DeVito plays accomplished corporate thief Lawrence "Larry the Liquidator" Garfield, who has made a fortune by acquiring businesses and liquidating their assets. Garfield has chosen New England Wire & Cable Company as his next target with the aid of a computerized stock analysis tool named "Carmen." Gregory Peck's sympathetic and affable Andrew "Jorgy" Jorgenson is the owner of the faltering corporation, which is the main employment in the New England town of Providence, Rhode Island.
Garfield chooses to take control of the business. Jorgy is eventually convinced to hire his stepdaughter Kate (Penelope Ann Miller), a big-city attorney, to defend against a hostile takeover after learning that he had filed a Schedule 13D report and after obstinately asserting that no outsider can grab control of a corporation his father founded. Garfield is immediately taken with Kate's beauty, but he recognizes her strategies and is adamant on acquiring the bulk of the shares in New England Wire & Cable. Garfield makes an unwise and futile attempt to seduce her. Even though they are at odds, Kate can't help but be drawn to Garfield's audacity.
The family of the New England Wire & Cable Company begins to fall apart due to the takeover attempt. Kate's mother Bea (Piper Laurie) sneaks into Garfield's offices and offers him $1,000,000 in greenmail in exchange for his departure, but Garfield declines, saying, "I don't take money from widows or orphans." Bill Coles (Dean Jones), the dependable business president, agrees to let Garfield to vote his shares in return for a million dollar payout since he fears that the acquisition would leave him with nothing. Garfield concurs, but adds that Coles will only receive half as much if his shares fall short of covering the winning margin.
Jorgy offers to settle the dispute at the annual shareholder meeting, and Garfield accepts his offer. Invoking the traditions of manufacturing in opposition to the new breed of capitalism that Larry the Liquidator represents, in which buyers of companies create no products or jobs and are only interested in money, Jorgy makes an impassioned plea to save the company with the help of longtime friends and investors. Jorgy's remarks appears to have an effect on the stockholders, who jeer Garfield when he stands up to respond.
Garfield responds by drawing a comparison between New England Wire & Cable and the final maker of buggy whips and claiming that, despite the company's product being of good quality, it is no longer relevant due to evolving technology. He argues that rather than pushing a faltering firm into the ground, the shareholders should take his lead and maximize their stock holdings before the company's impending collapse. He claims that at least they will walk away from the liquidation of this firm with a little cash. The shareholders concur, at the time of the vote, to grant Garfield power over the business. Coles does not collect the whole sum for which he betrayed Jorgy since the margin of victory exceeds his shares.
After his win, Garfield is unexpectedly dejected at home in Manhattan because he realizes he has missed the chance to fall in love with Kate. Kate then makes a call. She's been in contact with a Japanese carmaker that wants to use New England Wire & Cable to produce stainless steel wire cloth for car airbags, which will allow the business to turn a profit on a brand-new, increasing industrial good. Garfield is ecstatic and asks her to dinner to talk about it. Lunch is absolutely business, you know where, Kate informs him. At this, Garfield flushes and beams.
This movie illustrates how shareholder choices affect people. In this struggle to keep shareholders happy and save the factory from a collapsing industry, good capitalism and greed collide. Even though finance was initially designed to enhance our quality of life by making it simpler to do business, it now has a reputation as one of the main sources of many of the world's issues.
The issue is: Will he lose the girl if he wins the company? When he is certain he will never get to first base with Kate, it may be the best scene in the entire film. His butler attempts to cheer him up as he collapses into the blanket, overwhelmed by grief and loss. Nothing will function. His suffering cannot be eased by any monetary pleasure. The butler says, "How about a slice of that carrot cake you like?" A round of applause breaks out in reaction to DeVito's timing in answering this.
