The Wood County Committee on Aging will feature the film “Scavenger Hunt” (1979) for the 1 p.m. Friday “How about a Movie?” matinee at the Wood County Senior Center located at 140 S. Grove St.
At his San Diego, California mansion, Milton Parker (Vincent Price), an elderly and wealthy game developer, is in poor health and plays one of his inventions in bed, competing against his young nurse (Carol Wayne). After losing, he suddenly dies.
At the reading of his will that Sunday, Charles Bernstein (Robert Morley), Parker’s attorney, announces to a room of invited family members and acquaintances that the millionaire recorded an audio message for them. In keeping with his motto, “play to win,” the inheritor of Parker’s $200 million estate will be decided in a scavenger hunt. Each team will receive an identical list of clues identifying 100 items to obtain, and every item has a different point value. The group or person who earns the most points by 5 p.m. that day will inherit the Parker fortune.
The five competing teams consist of the following groups: Mildred Carruthers (Cloris Leechman), Parker’s greedy, widowed, dowager sister; Stuart Selsome (Richard Benjamin), her calculating attorney; and Georgie (Richard Masur), her grownup, but childlike son; Parker’s nephews, Jeff (Dirk Benedict) and Kenny Stevens (Willie Aames); Parker’s son-in-law Henry Motley (Tony Randall) and his four disobedient young children Jennifer, Michelle, Jason and Scott; the millionaire’s personal staff of Henri (James Coco), the French chef; Jenkins (Roddy McDowell), the valet; Jackson (Cleavon Little), the chauffeur; and Babbette (Stephanie Faracy), the dim-witted French maid; and Marvin Dummitz (Richard Mulligan), a blundering taxicab driver, who did not know Parker, but inadvertently helped him gain control of the company after being responsible for a car accident years earlier in which Parker’s business partner died.
Believing she is the sole rightful heir, Mildred is furious about the game. When she refuses to let her stepdaughter Lisa (Maureen Teefy) to compete, Jeff and Kenny invite the young woman to join their team. Before distributing the lists, Bernstein reminds the competitors that items can be acquired by any means, except purchase, and they are to be stored in the assigned pens located on the estate. As soon as the groups receive the list, they speed away in different directions.
This program is free and open to the public. Call the WCCOA Programs Department to make your reservation at 419-353-5661 or 800-367-4935 or email progr [email protected].
