Dan Aykroyd is still standing by Nothing But Trouble more than 35 years after the bizarre comedy was released, even though the film’s box office failure effectively ended his career as a feature film director as soon as it had begun.
Aykroyd recently took to social media to look back on his 1991 directorial debut, which starred himself alongside Chevy Chase, John Candy, and Demi Moore. While Nothing But Trouble was a critical and commercial disappointment when it was released, Aykroyd says the experience of making the movie was one of the best of his career. He also believes the film was doomed by its box office competition.
“This is the true me, Judge Alvin from Nothing But Trouble,” Aykroyd wrote, referring to the grotesque Judge Alvin Valkenheiser, the character he played in the movie.
Aykroyd says Nothing But Trouble cost Warner Bros. $38 million to make and brought in $4 million, figures that differ from some commonly reported estimates of the film’s budget and box office total ($8.5 million worldwide on a budget of $45 million). He says the movie came in under budget, but argues that its theatrical release date put it in an impossible position.
“We came in under budget but the studio opened us against Jodie Foster in Silence of the Lambs and Julia Roberts in Sleeping with the Enemy. We didn’t have a chance.”
The films opened in February 1991, with Jonathan Demme’s The Silence of the Lambs starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins and Sleeping with the Enemy starring Julia Roberts both competing for moviegoers’ attention. Aykroyd had previously made essentially the same argument when discussing the movie’s failure, saying that audiences had other priorities that month. In an interview with The Woody Show, he specifically pointed to The Silence of the Lambs and Sleeping with the Enemy as the two movies that overshadowed Nothing But Trouble.
I actually saw Nothing But Trouble in the theatre when it was released. I did not see either of the other two movies Aykroyd mentions during their theatrical runs, so apparently I was part of the very specific audience he was hoping to find.
While Aykroyd acknowledges that Nothing But Trouble was a box office failure, he’s not interested in apologizing for the movie.
“I’m proud of the picture as a perfectly serviceable comedy,” he wrote.
That’s pretty much the same defense Aykroyd offered in his earlier comments about the film. He described Nothing But Trouble as a “fun, very serviceable comedy” and said he still loves the movie, even while acknowledging that it was not a hit.
The film certainly has a distinctive personality. Nothing But Trouble follows wealthy publisher Chris Thorne (Chevy Chase), who takes lawyer Diane Lightson (Demi Moore) on a trip and winds up being arrested after a traffic violation. They are brought before the bizarre Judge Alvin Valkenheiser, played by Aykroyd, and his equally strange family in the rundown community of Valkenvania.
John Candy and Aykroyd both played multiple roles while surrounded by elaborate sets, makeup effects, bizarre characters, and increasingly strange comic situations.
Aykroyd wrote and directed the movie.
Despite the movie’s reputation as a notorious box office bomb, Aykroyd looks back fondly on the people he had around him during production. He specifically praised the crew he describes as “Spielberg’s crew,” including cinematographer Dean Cundey, special effects artist Michael Lantieri, and production designer William Sandell.
Cundey’s cinematography credits include Halloween, The Thing, Back to the Future, and Jurassic Park, while Lantieri worked on numerous major effects productions. Sandell served as the production designer on Nothing But Trouble. Aykroyd says working with that team made the production a great experience, regardless of what happened once the movie reached theatres.
Aykroyd continued to act and write, but Nothing But Trouble remains his only directing credit. That’s a strange legacy for a movie that was made with such an impressive cast and crew. Nothing But Trouble had Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy, and Demi Moore, along with some major behind-the-scenes talent, which sounds like the makings of a success. Instead, it became one of those movies that audiences didn’t quite know what to do with. And yet, it has developed a cult following over the years.
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