Line #102 Film/JohnnyDangerously


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4	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dc5f94189679e3899853e1c21a6a03fb.jpg]]
5	[[caption-width-right:350:Organized crime has never been this disorganized!]]
6
7	->''"Remember kid, crime doesn't pay. ...Well, it paid a little."''
8	-->-- '''Mr. Kelly, a.k.a. "Johnny Dangerously"'''
9
10	''Johnny Dangerously'' is a comedic film produced by Creator/TwentiethCenturyFox in 1984, and is primarily an AffectionateParody of gangster movies set in [[TheRoaringTwenties Prohibition-Era]] [[BigApplesauce New York City]]. Creator/MichaelKeaton stars as the title character, a youth who joins an organized crime gang to raise money to pay for medical procedures for his ailing mother. Creator/MariluHenner appears as Lil Sheridan, Johnny's love interest, while Creator/JoePiscopo plays villain Danny Vermin. Also in the cast are Creator/MaureenStapleton, Creator/PeterBoyle, Creator/GriffinDunne, Creator/DannyDevito, and Creator/DomDeluise.
11
12	The movie begins its light-hearted path with an AnimatedCreditsOpening featuring images of Manhattan locales set to Music/WeirdAlYankovic's song "This Is the Life". We are introduced to the owner of "Kelly's Pet Shop", Mr. Kelly, who – after apprehending a would-be thief and being treated to a tough-guy attitude – begins to [[HowWeGotHere tell the story of his own past]]... as the criminal known as "Johnny Dangerously."
13
14	Holds the honor of being one of the first movies to be rated PG-13.
15
16	----
17	!! This film provides examples of:
18	* AffablyEvil: Dundee and most of the people who work under him are very personable and likable guys, with the sole exception being [[TokenEvilTeammate Danny Vermin]] and his stooge.
19	* AffectionateParody: Of 1930's gangster flicks.
20	* AmbiguouslyGay: Burr remarks that Johnny is more "sensitive" than the average gangster and that the two of them should be alone together some time.
21	* AmoralAttorney: Burr, the D.A. who is under Johnny's payroll.
22	* AndNinetyNineCents: Johnny gets involved with the mob so that he can afford a medical procedure for his mother costing $49.95. The figure was likely chosen for how ridiculous it would sound to an audience in the eighties, but that kind of money [[AccidentallyCorrectWriting genuinely would be a major imposition on a lower class family at the turn of the 20th Century]] - the Kellys were likely making less than $300 a year, so fifty bucks is probably more money than they had at any one time in their lives.
23	* BabyCarriage: One of the would-be assassins of Johnny is hiding in a baby carriage.
24	* BadGirlSong: "(I Wanna Live) Dangerously", the song Lil performs in her nightclub act.
25	* BagOfHolding: Ma Kelly's purse seems to have anything she needs.
26	* BenevolentBoss: Dundee, as head of the gang that Johnny joins.
27	* TheBet: Tommy, not wanting to arrest his older brother, challenges Johnny to a fight, where the loser has to quit their respective jobs of being a district attorney and a gangster, respectively.
28	* BigApplesauce: Johnny has to remind Lil that they're in New York after she mentions coming to Chicago to make her way in the world.
29	* BigBrotherInstinct: When Tommy learns the truth about Johnny's activities as a crime leader, he challenges him to a fist fight despite knowing that his brother can beat him handily. Johnny, however, ultimately can't bring himself to hit his brother and ends up losing.
30	* BlindingCameraFlash: Johnny gets photographed repeatedly and then promptly walks into the wall he can't see anymore.
31	* BombWhistle: There is a scene actually involving a bomb dropped from a plane on the casino of his enemy, Roman Moronie. Followed by an explosion.
32	* BookSafe: Ammo for Johnny's jail-breaking machine gun.
33	* BreakingTheFourthWall:
34	** Johnny speaks directly to the children in the audience about the importance of not smoking.
35	** The wavering "flashback" effect when Johnny starts talking about his past life, which both characters on screen notice.
36	** Creator/JoePiscopo pulls this in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WEPlSPwWu8 the trailer]], where he knocks out the projectionist who recognises him, then [[MethodActing addresses himself to the audience as Danny Vermin]].
37	* BullSeeingRed: the D.A.'s death: in a commercial.
38	* CainAndAbel: the "brother versus brother" story line.
39	* CanisLatinicus: "Post-meridian, ante-meridian, Uncle Meridian, and all the little Meridians."
40	* TheChanteuse: Lil has a career as a singer.
41	* ChekhovsGun:
42	** "Oh, Johnny, I love shelf paper."
43	** Also, Dundee's cigarette case with the bullet dent (see PocketProtector below).
44	* ClarkKenting: Everybody knows that Johnny Kelly is Johnny Dangerously except his mother and brother.
45	* CementShoes: Talked about briefly, by Vermin.
46	-->'''Danny Vermin:''' You know, if Jocko was in charge, we'd be making cement loafers for him by now.
47	* ClickHello: In the prison escape (unusual in that the warden knew he was there, he just didn't know about the gun).
48	-->'''Warden:''' Do you have any last words, Johnny? ''[Johnny points tommy gun with audible click, Warden puts hands up]'' Well said!
49	* ClusterFBomb: Mary-Margaret Catherine Dineen, the cleaning lady, can cuss a mean blue streak of these whenever someone walks on the freshly mopped floor.
50	-->'''Mary-Margaret:''' Dirty Jew! Shanty nigger! White-trash bastard! GO AHEAD, WALK ALL OVER THE BUGGER!!
51	* ConspicuousConsumption: The theme song "This Is The Life" holds numerous examples, such as bathing in bottled water, having steak for dinner seven times a day, and buying monogrammed tissue paper in bulk.
52	* CoversAlwaysLie: The Pope is featured on the theatrical release poster, despite only appearing in one scene in the movie.
53	* CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon: Roman Moronie threatening Mr. Dundee.
54	* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: Spoofed at the end. Johnny asserts that this trope isn't true by telling the audience "Crime doesn't pay." But once he sees his limo, his elegantly-dressed dames, and other ill-gotten gains of gangsterdom, he admits that, actually, yes, it does feel good to be a gangster, and adds "Well, it pays a little."
55	* DeadlyPrank: Young Danny Vermin , while selling newspapers on a street corner, produces a pair of large scissors from his paper bag to cut the leash from between a seeing-eye dog and a blind man, who is hit by a car off camera, then returns to work.
56	* DeliberatelyMonochrome: the beginning of the flashback is B/W documentary footage with narration. When the movie's new action begins the film remains in B/W, then transitions into color to indicate the film will be remaining in the past for some time.
57	* DontTellMama: Parodied, since to everyone but Johnny's mother it's painfully clear that he's a mob boss.
58	* ExactEavesdropping: Vermin talks about his discovery that Johnny Dangerously and the DA [[spoiler:are brothers]] while walking past the janitor's closet where said DA is consummating his marriage.
59	* ExtraExtraReadAllAboutIt
60	* {{Fanservice}}: When Tommy visits Johnny's apartment.
61	-->'''Tommy:''' I'm sorry Johnny, I just don't have the tits for it ... I mean... heart.
62	* FireworksOfLove: After Johnny and Lil Sheridan go for a long walk and kiss after falling for each other, fireworks go off. In fact, the rest of the mob notices the fireworks and realize that Johnny has just scored.
63	* FlashbackEffects: The entire movie takes place during a flashback, illustrating the story Mr. Kelly is telling the would-be thief he caught trying to steal a puppy from his pet store.
64	-->'''Thief:''' What's goin' on?!\
65	'''Mr. Kelly:''' Aw, don't worry about that, it'll clear up. It always does this when I talk about the past.
66	* FluffyFashionFeathers: Lil's fancy nightgown has white feathers over the shoulders.
67	* FunWithSubtitles: As the movie opens, subtitles FadeIn onto the screen to state the year; then a car drives over them, as they are actually plaster props standing in the street.
68	* GameShow: "Play Ball".
69	* GossipEvolution: Word goes around -- but doesn't necessarily stay the same.
70	-->'''Prisoner:''' Johnny and The Mothers are playing "Stompin' at the Savoy" in Vermont tonight.\
71	'''Johnny:''' ''[gasp]'' ...Vermin's gonna kill my brother at the Savoy Theater tonight!\
72	'''Prisoner:''' I didn't say that.\
73	'''Johnny:''' No, but I know this grapevine.
74	* GrammarNazi
75	-->'''Lil:''' Did you know your last name is an adverb?
76	* HandCannon: Danny Vermin's .88 Magnum. "It shoots through ''schools''."
77	* HealthcareMotivation: This is what originally drives Johnny Kelly to becoming a gangster.
78	* IKEAWeaponry: On the way to the electric chair, as part of the PrisonBreak, below
79	* ImprobableWeaponUser: Young Johnny disarms one of Moronie's men with a thrown newspaper and inflicts a GroinAttack on another thug with another.
80	* INeedAFreakingDrink: The desk sergeant working dispatch, after reporting on the various changes of the description of Johnny's getaway car after his PrisonBreak, concluding with the car covered in "duckies and bunnies".
81	--> "Calling all cars, calling all cars! Come to Dooley's bar and grill; I'm buying!"
82	** Given that the movie takes place during Prohibition, the cops must ''really'' need a drink to admit to it over the dispatch radio.
83	* IneffectualDeathThreats: Moronie to Dundee during an almost-execution.
84	* InstantMessengerPigeon: Polly
85	* InternalReveal: "Johnny Dangerously is [[spoiler:Tommy Kelly's brother.]]" Of course, we all know that (as does all of Johnny's old neighborhood), but the rest of the Dundee gang don't.
86	* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: Johnny notes that his gang has to diversify, or else the Japanese gangs will run them out of business. Yes, this movie was made in TheEighties.
87	* JustLikeRobinHood: Dundee's (later Dangerously's) gang.
88	--> "Sure, we did illegal things, but we never bothered the general public. And every Christmas, Jocko returned a little cash back to the community."
89	* LineOfSightName: After Dundee credits how Johnny "lives dangerously," Johnny took "Dangerously" as a last name to hide his true identity.
90	--> "I should've never picked that name. A name like that, you gotta live up to."
91	* LovedByAll: Johnny is pretty much loved by everyone, even the Pope. The warden greeted Johnny warmly, even though Johnny is on death row. There's a shirt vendor in the neighborhood who sells "I love Johnny" shirts. The only person who doesn't like him is Vermin, possibly due to jealously.
92	* LuxuryPrisonSuite: Johnny's prison-striped three-piece suit.
93	* MacGuffin: "Whoever has my cigarette case bumped-off the Commissioner."
94	* MadLibsCatchPhrase: Vermin's CatchPhrase is "You shouldn't [do something bad to] me. My [family member] [did that to] me once." (long pause with index finger extended for emphasis) "Once." Some examples include:
95	-->'''Danny Vermin:''' You shouldn't grab me, Johnny. My mother grabbed me once. ''Once''.\
96	'''Danny Vermin:''' You shouldn't hang me on a hook. My father hung me on a hook once. ''Once''.\
97	'''Danny Vermin:''' ''[while in clear pain]'' You shouldn't kick me in the balls. My sister kicked me in the balls once...
98	-->'''Danny Vermin:''' ''[while being dragged away]'' You shouldn't shoot me Johnny. My grandmother shot me once...
99	* {{Malaproper}}: Roman Moronie. He'd have given the movie a hard R rating for language if the miserable corksoaker could pronounce a word of it correctly, that fargin' icehole.
100	* MeaningfulName
101	** Danny Vermin truly is a pest.
102	** Then there's extraordinary gangster "Johnny Dangerously," although he did pick it himself.
103	%%* MediumAwareness
104	* MetallicarSyndrome: Played with when Johnny and Lil are making their escape in a black... er, white... er, [[ItMakesSenseInContext duckies-and-bunnies]] car that was previously covered in layers of shelf paper specifically so they could invoke the trope.
105	* MrExposition: The Pope, and the neighborhood, explain how Johnny's family doesn't know he's a gangster.
106	* NearDeathExperience: Nearly having his "dork" blown off by a bomb rigged in his toilet is what convinces Dundee that it's time to retire from being a gangster.
107	* NecessarilyEvil: Johnny gets into organized crime in order to pay for various medical expenses for his ailing mother.
108	* NeighbourhoodFriendlyGangsters
109	* NonFatalExplosions: Happens to both Moronie and Dundee at the hands of the other.
110	* ObliviousYoungerSibling: Both Johnny's brother and mother. It's mistakenly thought to be a PlotHole that Vermin failed to realize Johnny's real identity from when they were kids (since he recognized him right away), but the actual reveal is that Vermin figures out that the D.A. is Johnny's younger brother (he never learned back then that "Kelly" was Johnny's real surname).
111	* ThePardon: Johnny gets one from the Governor after saving him and the D.A., Tommy Kelly, from Vermin's attempted assassination.
112	* PieEyed: The animated segment does this, as it's done in a 30's art style.
113	* PocketProtector: Dundee's cigarette case once saved him from an assassination attempt, and it has the bullet dent to prove it. It ends up saving [[spoiler: Tommy]]'s life in the end.
114	* PollyWantsAMicrophone: Polly.
115	* PrettyInMink: Lil wears a white fox wrap at the end, as part of spoofing the moral.
116	* PrecisionFStrike: When Danny Vermin aims at the parrot and doesn't hit him, Polly snarks back at him with: "You missed, fuck-face!"
117	* ResignationsNotAccepted: Johnny attempts to turn himself in to the Crime Commissioner in an effort to go legit, but ends up getting framed by Vermin for killing the Commissioner and sent to prison.
118	* TheRoaringTwenties: When the movie is set.
119	* RobotMe: Moronie's murdering gift sent to Dundee's office, with postage due.
120	* RunningGag:
121	** The bits with the newspaper vendor, played by Ray Walston, getting beaned by a stack of newspapers, which cures his blindness, then makes him deaf, then gives him amnesia.
122	** Whenever somebody does something bad to Danny Vermin, he will say something such as "You shouldn't have done that... My [relative] did that to me once, ''once!''"
123	* ScareEmStraight: E.S.S. video
124	* SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp: Danny Vermin (minus the schoolyard). Although his .88 Magnum shoots through them.
125	* ShoutOut: [[Theatre/TheSoundOfMusic "These are a few of my favorite things."]]
126	* SittingSexyOnAPiano: Lil Sheridan, while singing in a nightclub.
127	* SomethingElseAlsoRises: "Sounds like Johnny's gettin' laid."
128	* SpinningPaper:
129	** The activities of the police and D.A.'s office are indicated with front-page newspaper headlines.
130	** The paper simply slides up to view when revealing the outcome of Moronie's trial.
131	* SpoofAesop:
132	** "Crime doesn't pay." Cue his fancy suit, chauffeured car, and elegantly dressed wife. "Well, it paid a little."
133	** When Johnny has to talk Tommy into staying in law school, because Tommy wants to get married right away... to be able to have sex with his girlfriend. Johnny tells him [[HypocriticalHumor that sex with beautiful dames]] is a "living hell," and he's forced to show his young brother an Army-style (pseudo-)VD film to scare him straight.
134	* TapOnTheHead: "Hey, how 'bout me gettin' knocked out?"
135	* TemptingFate: Moronie gets to thinking about expanding his night club because he's getting to where he's got to turn people away at the door. "Knock down that wall, knock down that wall, and knock down THAT fargin' wall!" (Cue Johnny and Dundee's crew dropping a bomb on said nightclub to oblige Moronie.)
136	* ThematicThemeTune: Music/WeirdAlYankovic's "This is the Life" over the opening credits explains how it feels to be filthy rich. The song "Dangerously" sung by Lil later in the movie could be this, but it is less about Johnny Dangerously than it is about Lil's lust for him.
137	* ThrowingTheFight: Johnny, at his mother's imagined insistence, takes a dive during the fight with Tommy, and promises to go legit.
138	* TrainProblem: During Roman Moronie's trial.
139	--> '''Moronie:''' [[LampshadeHanging That's a fargin' trick question!]]
140	* TurnOutLikeHisFather: Ma Kelly doesn't want either of her kids turning out like their father, "Killer" Kelly.
141	* VehicularSabotage: Tommy's car is sabotaged after he refuses to "play ball" with the crooked DA.
142	* VictoriasSecretCompartment: When Lil arrives with Johnny's bail money.
143	* WalkAndTalk: Parodied and lampshaded when Johnny and Lil go on a walk... and talk. After a very long time, they stop, look around and realize they must have left the city hours ago and are now out in the middle of a field in the middle of nowhere.
144	--> '''Johnny:''' "Where the hell ''are'' we?"
145	* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Vermin's sidekick, Dutch, is never seen again after [[spoiler:Vermin is wounded trying to kill Tommy, and is not shown being arrested with him. It's not made explicitly clear whether Dutch ran away or whether Johnny's bullet went through Vermin and killed Dutch, who was standing close behind him during the scene.]]
146	* YoungerThanTheyLook: In the part of the story where Johnny was just a paperboy who hadn't gotten entangled with the mob yet, his mother looks old, grey and feeble, and mentions that she hasn't reached her thirtieth birthday yet.
147	* YouAreInCommandNow: Dundee promotes Dangerously to leader of the gang after a bomb rigged in his toilet explodes.

Context Film / JohnnyDangerously