Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
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| Don't Tell Mom The Babysitter's Dead | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Stephen Herek |
| Produced by | Jeffrey Silver Brian Reilly |
| Written by | Neil Landau |
| Starring | Christina Applegate Joanna Cassidy John Getz Josh Charles |
| Music by | David Newman |
| Cinematography | Tim Suhrstedt |
| Distributed by | Warner Bros. HBO Films |
| Release date(s) | June 7, 1991 |
| Running time | 102 min. |
| Country |  |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $10 million |
| Gross revenue | $25,196,249 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead is a 1991 comedy-fantasy directed by Stephen Herek. Christina Applegate stars as a teenager, whose mother leaves for a two-month summer vacation in Australia, putting all five siblings in the care of a strict tyrannical elderly babysitter. When the babysitter suddenly dies in her sleep, Applegate (as the eldest) assumes the role as "head of the household" to keep the freedom of having no parents around. She fakes a resume to get a job in the fashion industry, but proves capable and lucky enough to succeed.
The film is a classic teen fantasy, where the teen is thrust into the role of adult, to great success. It is marketed with the tagline "No rules. No nagging. No curfew. No pulse."
The film also features Joanna Cassidy, Keith Coogan, Josh Charles, Danielle Harris, and a then-obscure actor named David Duchovny, later of The X-Files fame. The original music score was composed by David Newman.
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[edit] Plot
With her mother in Australia all summer, 17-year-old high-school dream teen Sue Ellen "Swell" Crandell (Christina Applegate) fantasizes of a fun-filled summer of freedom in the Los Angeles suburbs. Her dreams are then abruptly curtailed upon the arrival of elderly Mrs. Sturak, whom Mrs. Crandell has hired as a live-in babysitter for Sue Ellen and her younger siblings: Kenny, a heavy metal-loving stoner; Zach, a romantic ladies man; Melissa, an athletic tomboy; and wide-eyed Walter, the youngest.
Seemingly innocent and gullible, Mrs. Sturak reveals her true colors the moment Mrs. Crandell departs: an iron-fisted, whistle-blowing, no-nonsense disciplinarian. The Crandell children are quickly forced to live by overly strict rules: Sue Ellen isn't allowed any freedom, Zach isn't allowed to date, Melissa has to wear feminine clothes, and Walter has to write long book reports all summer.
Sue Ellen inspires her siblings to rise up against Mrs. Sturak and end her reign of terror. The moment they move in to confront her, however, they discover Mrs. Sturak dead in her chair, presumably expired from natural causes. The Crandells panic and debate calling the police, or their mother in Australia, but Sue Ellen realizes that doing so jeopardizes any chance for summer fun. They finally decide to seal Mrs. Sturak's body in a trunk, and drop it off anonymously at the local morgue with a note reading: "Nice old lady inside. Died of natural causes."
Rid of their nightmarish babysitter, Sue Ellen and her siblings breathe a collective sigh of relief - until realizing that all the cash their mother left them for the summer was in an envelope that Mrs. Sturak kept about her person at all times. The Crandell kids now have no money and starvation seems imminent. Sue Ellen again vetoes calling Mom, believing that they can survive and have fun on their own; all she needs is a job. Unfortunately, the only place that hires her is Clown Dog, a fast-food restaurant, where she performs grunt labor in miserable conditions. Despite gaining a friend in Bryan, a handsome and supportive coworker, Sue Ellen quickly gets fed up with Clown Dog and quits.
She then forges the resume of a mid-level fashion executive (with most of the material lifted verbatim from a resume-writing guidebook). Posing as a 28-year-old, Sue Ellen applies at General Apparel West, a local clothing manufacturer, for an open receptionist position. Although scorned by Carolyn, the sarcastic receptionist due for a promotion, Sue Ellen's resume garners the attention of Rose Lindsey, the senior vice president of operations at GAW, who was planning to advance Carolyn to be her new Executive Administrative Assistant. Impressed by the much friendlier Sue Ellen, and smitten by her outstanding resume, Rose offers the Executive Administrative Assistant position to her; Sue Ellen is hired on the spot, solidifying Carolyn's contempt.
Sue Ellen is overwhelmed at first by her posh new office environment, the confusing technology she must work with daily, and the large workload requested of her by Rose. Adding to her frustration is Gus Brandon, Rose's boyfriend and a fellow GAW employee, who immediately begins hitting on Sue Ellen behind Rose's back. Sue Ellen successfully delegates much of her work to Cathy, an eager-to-help technical writer, and fights off Gus's sleazy advances. She also begins a romantic relationship with Bryan, her former Clown Dog coworker, who turns out to be Carolyn's brother. Although Carolyn repeatedly tries to get Sue Ellen fired, her attempts fail and only further ingratiate Sue Ellen to Rose. Sue Ellen, however, struggles more and more to keep the truth about her double life hidden from Bryan and GAW.
Sue Ellen's first paycheck has a huge percentage taken out for income taxes. With her siblings running out of food at home, Sue Ellen resorts to "borrowing" money from her office's petty cash box to buy groceries. Her less-than-scrupulous siblings quickly follow suit and, in turn, steal the petty cash from Sue Ellen's purse for their own shopping ventures. Sue Ellen is angry at this discovery, but Kenny points out that what they did is no different than what Sue Ellen did in "borrowing" from the petty cash box to begin with.
Sue Ellen becomes frightened upon realizing that none of her siblings' purchases are returnable, and she will be held accountable for the missing petty cash. Compounding her distress is bad news from Rose: the company is going under because GAW's dowdy fashions aren't selling amid their buyers, and soon all of them will be out of a job. Around the same time, Sue Ellen and Bryan have a fight and stop speaking to each other.
In a moment of epiphany, Sue Ellen goes out on a limb for GAW by designing brand-new, high-end fashions on her own for GAW. She convinces Rose and the other senior staff members that her hip clothes could pull GAW back out of bankruptcy. Rose is impressed and wants to hold a gala event-type show to reveal GAW's new fashion line to their buyers. Realizing there isn't enough petty cash to rent a hall, Sue Ellen convinces Rose to hold the fashion show at the Crandell house.
Sue Ellen inspires her siblings to clean up their act and get their home ready to host the GAW event; they use the remaining petty cash to spruce up the house and garden. Sue Ellen gets her high school friends to work as runway models for the show; Zach, Melissa and Walter act as waiters and servers; Kenny becomes cook and caterer for the event. The evening goes off swimmingly, with the audience loving the new GAW clothing line. Right at the show's finale, however, Bryan shows up unexpectedly, quickly followed by a furious Mrs. Crandell, back early from Australia.
Overwhelmed by her lies, Sue Ellen announces the truth to everyone: she's only 17, still in high school, and falsified her entire resume. She runs off and apologizes personally to Rose, but Rose reassures her that the buyers loved the new fashions and don't care about Sue Ellen's personal life. With GAW's future secured, Rose gladly offers the "real" Sue Ellen another position at GAW, but Sue Ellen declines in favor of pursuing college first. Rose and Sue Ellen exchange a friendly hug before bidding adieu and going their separate ways.
With the party ended and the guests departing, Mrs. Crandell begins to lose her temper, but is quickly calmed down by a now more-mature Sue Ellen. Mrs. Crandell walks around the house, impressed by the cleanliness and expensive new furnishings.
Sue Ellen and Bryan go off alone; she apologizes to him and he forgives her. Just as they embrace and kiss, Mrs. Crandell asks about the whereabouts of Mrs. Sturak. The credits then begin to roll as the film cuts to a scene at the local cemetery, where Mrs. Sturak's tombstone simply reads: "Nice Old Lady Inside. Died, Of Natural Causes."
[edit] Cast
- Christina Applegate as Sue Ellen Crandell
- Joanna Cassidy as Rose Lindsey
- John Getz as Gus Brandon
- Josh Charles as Bryan
- Keith Coogan as Kenny Crandell
- Concetta Tomei as Mrs. Crandell
- David Duchovny as Bruce
- Kimmy Robertson as Cathy
- Jayne Brook as Carolyn
- Eda Reiss Merin as Mrs. Sturak
- Robert Hy Gorman as Walter Crandell
- Danielle Harris as Melissa Crandell
- Christopher Pettiet as Zach Crandell
- Dan Castellaneta (voice) as Animated Babysitter
- Antoina Irina Petre as the kid in the store
[edit] Trivia
- The original title was "The Real World". This was changed to avoid confusion with the then new MTV reality series of the same name.
- Production was nearly halted towards the end of shooting due to Christopher Pettiet's drug addiction, which was just starting to get out of control. The producers wound up cutting a few of his scenes to keep the film on schedule.
- When the movie was released on video, there was a contest where participants would answer a number of questions about the movie related to movie trivia as well as ratings of various actors' performances. The winner, whose answers matched up the best with an official set, would win Mrs. Sturak's car (the one stolen by the drag queens).
- The two groundskeepers for the cemetery stand over Mrs. Sturak's grave and comment how nice it was for her to leave them the money. The tombstone reads "Nice Old Lady inside who died of natural causes".The two groundskeepers were played by two of the films producers.
- TV versions edit the shot of the three drag queens stealing the car and also cut the line of dialogue from Sue Ellen that goes, "Oh yeah, what are we gonna say? Liza Minnelli stole our Buick?"
[edit] Reception
Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead was largely panned by critics. The film earned a "Rotten" rating at www.rottentomatoes.com (60% or better earns films a "Fresh" rating). Voters at the Internet Movie Database expressed similar feelings, giving a 5.2 (out of 10) rating. Critic Michael Medved wryly commented that the film "was in sync with the so-called liberated woman whose children's welfare are anything but her concern, as evidenced by the mother going to Australia for a few months with a much younger man, and the children's father is nowhere to be seen". Animaniacs also made light of the film by having Thaddeus Plotz, the fictional CEO of Warner Brothers comment that the studio has been "run into the ground since they filmed Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead".
[edit] External links
