Ruthless People - Influence

Influence

The film's theme song was co-written by Mick Jagger, Daryl Hall and Eurythmics co-member Dave Stewart and performed by Jagger. Assuming the song would be a hit, "Weird Al" Yankovic requested (and received) permission from Jagger to record a parody version, "Toothless People", for his upcoming Polka Party! album. When Jagger's song failed to crack the Top 40, Yankovic considered not recording his version; because Jagger had "authorized" the parody, however, he decided failing to produce it would be an insult to the artist and recorded it. Another song that was featured in the soundtrack which became moderately successful was Modern Woman by Billy Joel.

The movie version features different lyrics from the single version.

This movie contains one of Roger Ebert's favorite lines in movies in 1986. When Midler's character discovers that the kidnappers keep having to drop the ransom amount to the bargain basement amount of $10,000, Midler says while crying, "I've been kidnapped by Kmart!"

The film was later loosely remade in India twice: as the Telugu film Money (1993), as the Hindi film Mujhe Meri Biwi Se Bachaao (Save Me From My Wife) in 2001. It was also remade in Hong Kong as Mo deng pu ni ti in 1996.

All of these versions are based (however loosely) on the O. Henry story, "The Ransom of Red Chief". Actually, this is an edit, and this movie is NOT based on the O.Henry story as the screen writer mentioned.