Synopsis

• Carole:  Walter and Anna are living in a New York City apartment owned by Max, Anna’s ex-husband, who suddenly decides to return to New York and subsequently kicks them out. Needing a new home, they settle on buying a country estate outside the city, available at a suspiciously low price. It soon becomes apparent why, as doors fall off their hinges, staircases come tumbling down, and a bathtub falls through the floor. The couple’s relationship suffers similarly.

Actors & Crew

• Kristin: Tom Hanks; We went over his bio back in Splash, but here’s a quick refresher.

Born July 9, 1956, in Concord, California, Hanks is one of the most recognizable and beloved actors in the world. He actually got his start in Cleveland, Ohio, working as a $45-a-week intern at the Great Lakes Shakespeare Festival, where he performed, built sets, and earned his Equity card.

He’s known for both comedy and drama, and over the years has become a true American cultural icon. He’s won two consecutive Academy Awards for Philadelphia in 1993 and Forrest Gump in 1994, along with multiple Emmys and a Tony Award.

His filmography is stacked—everything from Big and A League of Their Own to Saving Private Ryan, Cast Away, and The Green Mile. He’s also famous for romantic comedies like Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail.

Hanks has frequently collaborated with directors like Steven Spielberg, Ron Howard, Nora Ephron, and Robert Zemeckis, and he voiced Woody in the Toy Story franchise.

Outside of acting, he co-founded the production company Playtone, which produced series like Band of Brothers and The Pacific. He’s also hosted Saturday Night Live ten times and made his Broadway debut in Lucky Guy in 2013.

He’s married to actress Rita Wilson, has four children, and still has ties to Cleveland, where he got his start.

And in The Money Pit, he was 29 years old when he played Walter Fielding, Jr.

• Carole: Shelley Long; Shelley Long, born Shelley Lee Long on August 23, 1949, is an actress, singer, and comedian best known for playing Diane Chambers on Cheers.

She received five Emmy nominations for the role, winning in 1983 for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, and also picked up two Golden Globe Awards. She later reprised Diane on Frasier, earning another Emmy nomination.

On the big screen, she appeared in films like Night Shift, Irreconcilable Differences, Outrageous Fortune, Troop Beverly Hills, and of course The Money Pit. More recently, she had a recurring role as DeDe Pritchett on Modern Family from 2009 to 2018.

She was 35 years old at the time of filming and plays Anna Crowley in this film.

• Kristin: Alexander Godunov (November 28, 1949 – May 1995) was a Russian-American ballet dancer and actor. A member of the Bolshoi Ballet, he became the troupe’s Premier danseur before defecting to the United States in 1979.

After moving to the U.S., he continued dancing while also building a Hollywood career, appearing in films like Witness, Die Hard, and as the comically narcissistic symphony conductor Max Beissart in The Money Pit.

If you want more on his film career, we covered him in our episode on Die Hard. Sadly, he passed away in 1995 from hepatitis related to chronic alcoholism.

He was 45 years old at the time of filming and plays Max in this film. 

• Philip Bosco (September 26, 1930 – December 3, 2018) was an acclaimed American actor known for both stage and screen. He won a Tony Award for his performance in Lend Me a Tenor and a Daytime Emmy for the ABC Afterschool Special Read Between the Lines.

Bosco appeared in numerous films, including Trading Places, Working Girl, Children of a Lesser God, Wonder Boys, and The Money Pit. He was also a familiar face on Law & Order, playing judges, lawyers, and villains over the years.

Inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1998, Bosco had a long and distinguished career in both theater and film. He and his wife Nancy had seven children and 15 grandchildren, and lived in Haworth, New Jersey.

He was 55 years old at the time of filming and plays Curly in this movie.

• Maureen Stapleton (June 21, 1925-March 13, 2006) born Lois Maureen Stapleton in 1925, was an acclaimed stage and screen actress and one of the few performers to achieve the Triple Crown of Acting—winning an Academy Award, an Emmy, and two Tony Awards.

She had a long and respected career in both film and television, appearing in projects like Bye Bye Birdie and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 1981. She also hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live in 1979.

Fun fact: in Bye Bye Birdie, she played Dick Van Dyke’s mother—even though she was less than a year older than him.

Known for her strong character roles, she brought a lot of personality to every performance—including her role as Estelle in The Money Pit.

She was 60 years old at the time of filming.

Budget & Shooting Locations

• The film is a remake of the 1948 Cary Grant comedy Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House.
  
• Released: March 26, 1986
• Budget of $18.4mil
• Box office: $55mil
  
• Principal photography began on April 29, 1985, and initially ended on August 5, 1985.
• Key Filming Locations:
  • The Mansion (Exterior): 19 Feeks Lane, Lattingtown (Locust Valley), New York. Known as the Northway House, this 1898 Federal-style home served as the “money pit”.
    • In 2002, the home was purchased for $2.1 million. In November 2019, the Seattle PI reported that the Long Island house had “finally” sold for around $3.5 million, at a significant loss in relation to renovation costs.
  • The Mansion (Interiors): Filmed at Kaufman Astoria Studios, Astoria, Queens.
  • New York City Apartments:
    • The Langham: 131-139 Central Park West.
    • The Apthorp: 2211 Broadway.
  • Other Locations:
    • Café des Artistes: 1 West 67th Street, Manhattan.
    • Coles Sports Center (NYU): 181 Mercer Street (rooftop scenes; building now demolished).
    • Vizcaya Museum & Gardens: 3251 S Miami Avenue, Miami, Florida (final scene). 

Rewatch verdict and Cringe Meter

Roger Ebert gave The Money Pit only one out of four stars, calling the film “one monotonous sight gag after another.”

Ebert’s colleague Gene Siskel likewise gave it one out of four stars, describing the film as “miserable” and an “abject failure.” He criticized Tom Hanks for being “his usual smug self” and Shelley Long for being more cute than she was funny.

Newsweek said: “The nimble Hanks again proves his delicious way with a double take; Long is nothing if not likable, and Godunov is a supremely silly narcissist. If the filmmakers had trusted these performers more, and stuck closer to reality, things might have turned out better. Instead of a real-estate fiasco anybody could roar at in recognition. The Money Pit has been inflated into a noisy destruction derby.”

The Miami Herald said: “Its situation and its sight gags are marvelous, recalling the best of Spielberg’s 1941. But like that movie, The Money Pit is disconnected; pieces seem missing, and subplots seem to have been abandoned in a rush”

Time Out London said: “You can see it coming, but it still has the delicious anticipation of the slow burn. And it all gets much worse. Director Richard Benjamin has the rare gift of knowing just where the funnybone lies, a certain taste for Keaton-esque slapstick, and a very fine comic performer in Hanks.”

The A.V. Club said: “It’s not high art or sophisticated humor, but there are just enough clever turns in its physical comedy and insight into relationships to give it a bit of cult status.”