[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/throwmomma_1613.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Owen asked his friend Larry for a small favor.]]

''Throw Momma From the Train'' is a 1987 BlackComedy directed by [=Danny DeVito=] in which writer Larry Donner, suffering from severe writer's block, meets writing student and simpleton Owen Lift. Larry is wracked with jealous rage over his ex-wife Margaret, who stole his book and with it, became a world-famous author. Owen, after being instructed by Larry [[StrangersOnATrainPlotMurder to see some Hitchcock films]] to help him learn how to write murder mysteries, thinks Larry was sending him a message to exchange murders after he chooses ''Film/StrangersOnATrain'': Owen is to kill Margaret, and Larry is to kill Owen's monstrous mother. Larry becomes entwined with the idiot "couch potato" as he is on the lam from being a major suspect in Margaret's murder, since Owen failed to tell him of his intent and didn't allow Larry to create an alibi.

Anne Ramsey earned an AcademyAward nomination for her role as Momma, and passed away a year later.

----
!!The movie features the following Tropes:

* AdaptationDecay: An in-universe example of Owen's new book. [[spoiler: A children's pop-up book version of the events of the movie.]]
* AffectionateParody
* ArcWords: "Criss cross!"
* AssholeVictim: Larry's ex-wife, Margaret. [[spoiler:Ultimatey subverted in that she didn't die.]]
* BerserkButton: Larry has many of them, including any mention of his wife becoming famous.
* BrickJoke: Mr. Pinsky, a student in Larry's creative writing class, creates a controversy in the class due to his planned coffee table book, titled '100 Girls I'd like to Pork'. The other students argue about it and Larry says that it 'isn't literature.' [[spoiler:Right at the end of the movie, we see Mr. Pinsky's published coffee table book sitting on Larry's desk.]]
* BuffySpeak / DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: Mrs. Hazeltine's bad writing results in a less-than-descriptive short story.
-->'''Mrs. Hazeltine:''' "Dive! Dive!" yelled the Captain through the thing! So the man who makes it dive pressed a button, or a something, and it dove. And, the enemy was foiled again. "Looks like we foiled them again," said Dave. "Yeah," said the Captain. "We foiled those bastards again. Didn't we, Dave." "Yeah," said Dave. The End.
* TheChewToy: Larry and Owen both.
* CoitusUninterruptus: Owen interrupts Larry and Beth's lovemaking on a kid's train.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint: And how. Owen gets the wrong message when Larry tells him to go see a Hitchcock movie.
* {{Determinator}}: Owen and Momma.
* DisappearedDad: Owen lost his father when he was still a kid, and it apparently left a pretty big hole. The revelation comes during a rather touching scene where Owen shows off his "coin collection," consisting of the loose change his father let him keep when they would go on recreational outings.
* TheDitz: Owen drifts into this territory several times.
* EvilOldFolks: Momma to the End.
** Averted. See RealityIsUnrealistic.
*** She's also an EvilMatriarch.
* FemmeFatale: Margaret.
* FryingPanOfDoom: Oh, yes.
* GoshDarnItToHeck: One of Larry's students who overheard Larry screaming, "That '''slut''', I wish she were dead!" tells the police, "I heard him call her a very bad name, and that he wished she were dead."
* GroinAttack: [[CrowningMomentOfFunny "She's not a woman. She's The Terminator."]]
* HeyItsThatGuy:
** Rob Reiner is Larry's agent.
** [[Series/StarTrekVoyager Captain Janeway]] is Larry's slutty ex-wife.
** Branford Marsalis is Lester, Larry's best friend.
** [[Film/TheGoonies Mama Fratelli]] is Owen's tyrannical mother.
* ItWasADarkAndStormyNight: All of Larry's attempts to write during his writer's block start "The night was..."
* {{Jerkass}}: Momma.
* KarmaHoudini: [[spoiler:Larry's ex-wife gets away with stealing his book, and all the accolades with it, and at the end is set to make more money with the story of how she survived falling off the ship. Larry's victory is simply that he learns to stop obsessing over her, which lets him write another great book.]]
** Then again, [[spoiler:her success may not continue; she seems intent on milking the book for all it's worth, ie. benefiting from the film rights, but it's tough to follow an act that wasn't yours in the first place, and now that Larry's published, he would have an easier time proving she stole his work.]]
* LawfulStupid: Larry. He is so sensitive about plagiarism, he changes his story from "The night was humid." to "The night was moist." when he discovers Owen started his writing assignment the same way. Probably justified, in that his hateful ex-wife stole his novel, passed it off as her own and it became a bestseller, which would be enough to give anyone a complex about the subject.
* LifeWillKillYou: [[spoiler:How Momma ultimately dies.]]
* MoodWhiplash: A lot of it. One example has a depressed Owen talking about how evil he is for killing Margaret, then brightly exclaiming "Cows!" when he sees a dairy billboard.
-->'''Larry:''' ''(listening to the news)'' Oh, poor, poor, Margaret... '''''that SLUT! SLUT! SHE IS A SLUT SLUT!'''''... I'm gonna fry!
* MyBelovedSmother: ''And HOW''.
* NoIndoorVoice: Larry yells in this film. A lot.
* PetTheDog: Momma claims to love Owen and calls him her "baby boy" after he cleans out her ears (in another failed attempt to kill her).
* PrecisionFStrike: Mr. Pinsky's book was titled, "100 Girls I'd Like To Fuck". It was changed to "Pork" in ADR to get the film a PG-13 rating and avoid an R rating.
* RealityIsUnrealistic: Momma's behavior may seem extreme and unrealistic, but many older people do get paranoid and harsh in their later years for the same fears Momma has.
* {{Recycled IN SPACE}}: ''Film/StrangersOnATrain'' [-AS A SELF-REFERENTIAL COMEDY!-]
* RhetoricalRequestBlunder: Owen overhears Larry saying he wished his wife were dead. Guess what happens.
* [[ScrewPolitenessImASenior Screw Politeness, I'm A Senior]]: Who else?, Momma.
* ShoutOut: ''Film/StrangersOnATrain''.
** ''ATaleOfTwoCities''. Larry on the train talks to Owen about the perfect beginning of a novel and mentions ''ATaleOfTwoCities'', "It was the best of times it was the worst of times..." Momma late in the film gives Larry a perfect opening for his abortive novel, "The night was sultry". This is a variation of the line, "The night was so very sultry" from ''A Tale Of Two Cities''.
* SmallNameBigEgo: Mrs. Hazeltine, who lashes at one writing student that he's "a no talent little shit". She's completely oblivious to her own pathetically bad writing skills.
* StalkerWithACrush: Owen, and how.
* StrangersOnATrainPlotMurder: The entire plot revolves around Owen being inspired by the film to kill Larry's ex-wife in exchange that Larry kill his mother.
* ThisIsNoTimeToPanic: Spoken by Owen after Momma recognizes Larry as the chief suspect in Margaret's murder.
-->'''Larry:''' This is the PERFECT time to panic!
* TitleDrop: The name of Larry's novel is "Throw Momma From the Train".
* TranquilFury: "Where are you going?" "I'm gonna kill the bitch. You want anything?"
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Larry's dream about killing Margaret near the end of the film.
* WholePlotReference: ''Film/StrangersOnATrain''.
* WhyDoYouHateTheDog: Owen.
----