Bone

1972
R
1h 35m

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

1.4K

YOUR RATING

When a criminal breaks into the Beverly Hills home of a wealthy couple having marital problems, he unwillingly provides the spouses with an unlikely resolution to their conflicts as well as a solution to his own secret problem.

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Dark Comedy Comedy Drama Thriller

When a criminal breaks into the Beverly Hills home of a wealthy couple having marital problems, he unwillingly provides the spouses with an unlikely resolution to their conflicts as well as ... Read allWhen a criminal breaks into the Beverly Hills home of a wealthy couple having marital problems, he unwillingly provides the spouses with an unlikely resolution to their conflicts as well as a solution to his own secret problem.When a criminal breaks into the Beverly Hills home of a wealthy couple having marital problems, he unwillingly provides the spouses with an unlikely resolution to their conflicts as well as a solution to his own secret problem.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.7/10

1.4K

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 3 wins

Videos1

Trailer 1:01

Trailer

Photos52

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The Stuff

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
The German Shepherd in the film was Larry Cohen's own dog, and the red sweater sported by Yaphet Kotto in latter portions of the movie was also Cohen's--which Kotto then took and never gave back.

Quotes
The Girl: Do you have a mistress?
Bill: No. Too much time, too demanding - a lot of work keeping it a secret, you know. Rides, and motel rooms...
The Girl: How do you like your meat? Don't tell me - medium.
Bill: While all that energy could be better put to use by expanding profits, getting ahead... instead of laid and alone. You're always alone afterwards, you know? Try to put something of yourself into it. But afterwards, lying there, it all seems so... fucking impersonal. What could be new? People have been doing it for millions of years - Romans, Egyptians, Babylonians - what can be new? What makes it ME doing it? It could be anybody doing it with anybody else, so unless you put some little bit of PERVERSION of your own to make it special - but suppose you're not a pervert?
The Girl: Oh, you could learn.

Alternate versions
The original UK cinema release of Bone (and its video release) lost 3 minutes, and was missing the end of the scene where Bill (Andrew Duggan) presents a car advertisement (we don't see Bill looking into the cars and seeing that they are filled with dead bodies) and the end section of Bill's conversation with a woman in a bar. It seems these cuts were made by the distributor.

Connections
Edited from Looking for Love (1964)

User reviews30

Review

Featured review

8/10

One of the greatest films ever made!

I first saw Bone aka Housewife back in high school (over ten years ago) after a friend dubbed for me his VHS copy. It was a scratchy print, yet it didn't stop me from being mesmerized by this film. The movie stars Andrew Duggan and Joyce Van Patten as Bill and Bernadette a down on their luck Beverly Hills couple that one day find a rat in their pool. As usual, they have no luck getting a hold of pest control but guess who shows up instead? None other than Bone, played by Yaphet Kotto, a psychotic, intimidating, yet lovable black man with paint stains on his shirt. Bone kindly gets the rat out of the pool and then takes Bernadette hostage. Bill is sent on a mission to withdraw all the money from his account(s) or Bernadette gets it (in more ways than one). To give away anything more would be criminal. Watching the gorgeous new DVD of this was like falling in love all over again. Yet, I couldn't help but think there's no way in Hell a film like this could get made today. Here's why: a) It makes you sympathize with a potential rapist. b) A scene of a woman, Jeannie Berlin, talking about an incident of child molestation before hopping in to bed with Bill is one of the films most hilarious moments. c) Bone's character truly challenges so-called 'racial tolerance' amongst a liberal couple. There's no way you could get a masterpiece of agitation like this released by the P.C. Gestapo that currently runs Tinseltown. Owned! In my opinion this is Larry Cohen's best. God Told Me To comes in a close second. It shows what a truly visionary, subversive director he was before cranking out mediocre works like Phone Booth. What happened Mr.Cohen? Maybe Brain DePalma knows. Yaphet Kotto gives, as usual, a knockout performance. Mr.Kotto is an amazing, underrated actor whom I'd love to see get a starring role again. Oh wait, did I mention how cool the soundtrack is?