Oscar - Television Tropes & Idioms

CONNIE: Your daughter's not your daughter, and the cash that used to be your jewels is now your underwear!

SNAPS: Now you've got it!

CONNIE: I got it! *beat* I don't even know what I'm talkin' about!

A screwball farce written by Claude Magnier as a play about an industrialist trying to get back the money one of his employees stole and the resulting complications. It was made into a French film (starring the great Louis de Funes) in 1967 that he co-wrote. Then in 1991 he updated the play to be about a mobster trying to go straight, adding an extra complication to the plot. This was then made into an American film that year, starring Sylvester Stallone and Tim Curry, among several character actors.

A traditional farce, it features more swapping of little black bags (which may contain jewels or underwear, as the plot requires) than any other film in memory. Contains the mook with a ridiculous armory in his jacket (blackjack, pistol, club, knife, switchblade, brass knuckles...): "It's like disarming Germany!"

Not to be confused with the nickname for the Academy Award (which it didn't win any anyway).

The Film Provides Examples Of:

Arranged Marriage: Lisa is in one of these when the film starts, only to have it fall through when the husband falls for their maid.
Even Evil Has Standards: Spoofed when Snaps states of all the lowlifes he met in his life, the bankers are the really scary people.
Extended Disarming: "It's like disarming Germany..."
Farce: The film is closer to 1930s farces than modern comedies.
Go Out with a Smile: Snaps's father after Angelo promises to go straight. But he gives Angelo another slap just so he won't forget.
He Who Must Not Be Seen: Oscar, up until the end, when he tries to stop Lisa's marriage and is turned out on his ear.
I Gave My Word: Snaps is insistent on fulfilling his father's dying wish in the face of the day's mounting insanity, only giving up after the bankers try and fail to rip him off.
I Know You Know I Know
Last Request: Snaps promises his dying father that he'll give up his life of crime at the beginning of the film, thus setting things in motion.
Last-Second Word Swap:
SNAPS: Damn! Son of a- (sees Father Clemente) gun, gosh almighty! Cheese and crackers!
Love at First Sight: The Arranged Marriage Angelo makes for Lisa falls through because the guy fell in love with the family's maid.
Luke, You Are My Father / Luke, I Am Your Father: Theresa said she was Angelo's daughter to make Anthony think she came from a well-to-do family. She later confesses this lie to Angelo himself. Neither she nor Angelo knew that Theresa really is Snaps' daughter from when he and her mother Roxanne worked for the same mob boss.
Mistaken for Pregnant: Lisa tricks Snaps into thinking she's pregnant so he'll let her marry whom she thinks is her ex, Oscar.
Mistaken Identity: Snaps thinks Anthony wants to marry Lisa at first, while Lisa thinks Oscar came back to marry her when he tells her.
My Beloved Smother: Thornton identifies with Lisa wanting to get out of the house, since his mother "can be so possessive".
Off the Table: When the bankers showed they didn't trust Angelo, he ended up not doing business with them.
One Dialogue, Two Conversations: Snaps browbeats Anthony into marrying Lisa by convincing him that his tailors, the Finuccis are really hired killers. When they later brag about their success (a photo of a murdered gangster wearing one of their suits) and offer to make him a suit, Anthony thinks they're the ones who killed him and are threatening to do the same to him.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: The presumably-Irish maid drops her accent as soon as she's out of the Provolone household, but turns it back on when she returns for her bag.
Overly-Long Gag: The Extended Disarming example above.
Overprotective Dad: Snaps, who already has a marriage set up for Lisa whether she likes it or not, and resorts to deception, blackmail, threats, and bribery to get her a husband when he thinks that she's pregnant.
Playing Against Type: The decidedly non-villainous Dr. Poole
- Not to mention comedic lead Snaps.
Pretty in Mink: Sofia wears a couple, and the maid wears a fur coat after she leaves to get married.
Running Gag: Hoo boy.
Sherlock Scan: Dr. Poole does a version of this with Anthony by guessing where he's from based off how he speaks.
- Before he says a word.
Satchel Switcheroo
Screwball Comedy
Shout Out: "Damn, a double negative!"
A Simple Plan: Several, which makes this a simple plan pileup.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Connie's loads of weapons that he has in his clothes. Among many other things, his arsenal includes revolvers, knives, poison, a meathook, a flail, and a ticking bundle of dynamite.
Whole Costume Reference: Lisa's Fairytale Wedding Dress is a copy of the dress from It Happened One Night.