Throw Momma from the Train

Immensely dark comedy for its time, about writer Crystal and student DeVito plotting a criss-cross murder à la STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. Because of its smooth parallels to Hitchcock's 1950 class, overlooked motifs and subtle details on story development, THROW MOMMA has since become a fun movie to screen in film study classes. Unfortunately, the film's most colorful character, Momma Lift (Ramsey), is way underused; and while Crystal and DeVito are both fine as the leads, neither deliver a memorable enough performance to justify Ramsey's lack of screen-time. DeVito also directed.