No Deposit, No Return (1976)

In this silly, pie-in-the-face comedy, a brother and sister try to avoid spending Easter break with their stuffy grandfather, so they hide out with two bank robbers and fake their own kidnapping. You don't have to rent it; trust me, it sounds better than it is.While he gets first billing, David Niven as the grandfather has hardly any screen time. The children aren't the most likable characters ever written, and the wannabe criminals, Darren McGavin and Don Knotts, aren't really that funny. For laughs, screenwriters Arthur Alsberg and Don Nelson rely on slapstick gags and elaborate but boring setups involving the little boy's pet skunk. It's fine to rent with very little children, but the grown-ups will probably be surfing the internet on their phones the whole time.

I didn't enjoy a movie this much for quite some time. Brains off, laughter on, push play and enjoy. Many brag about it being unrealistic. Damn, people, this is Disney comedy for kids. It is not supposed to be realistic, it is supposed to be fun and it's very successful in it. For almost two hours I was elementary school boy once again, just relaxing after school and watching good old-fashioned TV. I have no objections to this movie, except maybe car chase scene being too long. I recommend it to everyone with all my heart.7/10

Maybe if Walt Disney Studios had decided to make a real adaption of O'Henry's Ransom Of Red Chief the results might have come out better. Certainly the story had been used before most successfully by 20th Century Fox in their O'Henry anthology film O'Henry's Full House where Fred Allen and Oscar Levant played the luckless kidnappers of Lee Aaker. But this adaption, credited or not, in No Deposit, No Return is one of the Magic Kingdom's less successful family films.I have no doubt that originally this was intended for Don Knotts to be once again teamed up with Tim Conway. If that had happened maybe the results would have been better. On the other hand you could believe Darren McGavin was a top professional safe-cracker a lot faster than Conway.Brother and sister Brad Savage and Kim Richards are on Easter break from their boarding school in the United Kingdom and instead of being with their absentee mother Barbara Feldon, they are going to be spending time with their stuffy grandfather David Niven in Los Angeles. That's a terrific disappointment because Niven's just not a kid's person.So after ditching chauffeur Bob Hastings sent to pick them up and falling in with crooks McGavin and Knotts, the kids hatch a scheme to stage their own kidnapping in the hopes of raising plane fare to Hong Kong where mom is and for their two accomplices to get out of a mounting gambling debt owed to Vic Tayback.Kids under the age of 12 might approve of this film. Every adult in the film is positively clueless, including cops Herschel Bernardi and Charles Martin Smith. Having kids be the smartest ones in a film is always guaranteed to please a juvenile audience. But you've got to wonder how Bernardi and Smith ever got on the force and how McGavin, Knotts, and Tayback ever succeeded in a life of crime. As for David Niven this was one of two films he made for the Magic Kingdom, the other being Candleshoe. That one being set in England took advantage of Niven's background. In No Deposit, No Return, Niven's considerable charm is stretched to the breaking point.Recommended strictly for grade school kids. I'm sure William Sidney Porter is glad he wasn't given any screen credit for this.

I have been watching this for longer than any other movie, over 25 years now, ever since I was a little kid. I have probably seen it hundreds of times, and yet to this day it still remains one of my favorites. It's very fun and clean comedy, more movies should be like this. Some of it is a bit crazy, like the long car chase, but it's also truly hilarious and great comedy that to me doesn't grow old. I also really like the story which is rather unique. It's great in the way that two would be criminals actually become very good people. I find it quite touching how they get to having a good time with the kids, and what they do near the end to help them. And it's got a very happy and satisfying ending. It's great fun, great comedy, and after all these years it's still one of my favorites.