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Pryor plays Jack Browne, a struggling newspaper writer who trying to make ends meet. After he is informed that his house is going to be auctioned off, he goes out to find a real job and applies for the position of cleaning lady at Bates Industries, which is run by a rich curmudgeon named U.S. Bates (Jackie Gleason). After a disastrous and humiliating first day where he was forced to dress in a maid's uniform, Mr. Bates fires him. But Bates' right hand man, Mr. Morehouse (Ned Beatty), keeps him on the payroll by assigning him to janitor duty at one of Bates' multiple stores. As fate would have it, Bates' young son is coming to town, and that's where the fun begins.

Eric (Scott Schwartz), is the very definition of a spoiled brat. Whatever he wants, he gets, and promptly. When Eric finds Jack messing around in the toy department of his father's store, he decides he wants to buy him for his own amusement. To say the least, Jack finds this even more humiliating that the days previous events, but he needs $10,000 to save his house. Rather mawkish, The Toy develops into a story about valuing friendship and establishing strong family bonds, which adds a little more depth to this movie than it would if it were just a innocuous comedy.

Aside from Gleason and Pryor, the supporting cast is a bunch of people I've never heard of, but Wilfred Hyde-White as Barkley and Karen Leslie-Lyttle as the sex-starved Fraulein are great. And this film now has a bit of the gawk factor, as the young Schwartz has since gone on to a career as an adult film star and the subject of his very own tawdry "E! True Hollywood Story." In any case, Richard Donner does an admirable job of balancing a comedy that could have easily become a true mess.

Video: How Does The Disc Look?

Columbia was never the greatest when it came to reissuing its older catalog titles in widescreen on laserdisc, so I'm not 100% sure if The Toy was one of those, so this may be the first-ever widescreen version of the film released on home video. The Toy is presented in its theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on side one, with a full frame version on side two. I did a quick comparison between the two versions of the film in chapter 20, and the "full-frame" edition is definitely pan and scan.

As for the transfer of the film, it's decent considering the elements Columbia likely had to work with. There are no signs of pixelization or other digital artifacts, and edge enhancement is not noticeable. The picture is a little soft, but then most other Donner pictures of the era also had a similar style. The print is devoid of any major print damage, and there isn't too much grain. Blacks are fine, as are colors, which are reasonably saturated. There is nothing stellar about this transfer, but it is fine if you temper your expectations.

Audio: How Does the Disc Sound?

The Toy is presented in its original 2.0 mono mix. Fidelity is poor to middling, with a constant hiss throughout that distracts. The dialog is decently presented but sometimes is unintelligible. The volume level is lower than usual, but that does not account for the films muffled sound. As you may have guessed, there are no low-end, and the highs are thin. I was disappointed, but the soundtrack can only be as good as its original source elements.

A French mono dub is also provided, as well as English Closed Captions and subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean and Thai. What, no Swahili?

There are no other languages provided on this disc, an d even English Close Captions have been skipped.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

Three Bonus Trailers are included in full frame and surround sound, but not even one for The Toy itself. Can you hear the silence?

DVD- ROM Exclusives: What do you get when you pop the disc in your PC?

No ROM extras have been included.

Parting Thoughts