Friday Film Noir
Quick Change (1990) is a crime comedy written and directed by Howard Franklin and Bill Murray. Murray plays Grimm, a quick-witted con artist who robs a Manhattan bank in broad daylight while disguised as a clown. The heist itself goes exactly as planned, but the escape collapses into a prolonged ordeal when Grimm and his partners can’t find a clean way out of New York City. As they move from neighborhood to neighborhood, small mistakes compound into larger problems, and the city itself becomes the obstacle. What begins as a controlled operation turns into a test of patience, improvisation, and endurance. The pressure rises as police attention tightens and time runs out, forcing the group to gamble on one last route out.
The film was shot in New York City. Bill Murray had pursued the project for years after reading the novel by Jay Cronley and pushed to bring it to the screen largely on his own terms. The studio was initially hesitant about Murray also directing, leading to the decision to pair him with writer Howard Franklin as co-directors. Howard Franklin had originally written the screenplay as a straightforward crime comedy before Murray began reshaping dialogue and rhythms. The clown disguise used in the opening robbery was Murray’s idea and caused concern among executives who worried it would confuse audiences. The studio pressured the filmmakers to keep the runtime under ninety minutes. Murray later expressed frustration with the film’s marketing, which he felt failed to communicate the joke that the escape, not the robbery, was the movie.
1990 • PG-13 • 89 minutes
Rotten Tomatoes: 82%
Holy Unknown Grade: A
Worldwide Gross: 15M
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