Jeanskynebu the audience applauded

Claysaba Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

thinker1691 Every now and then some naive or scheming corporate executive comes along with such a stupid or outrageous idea to boost sales of a particular product, he believes no one can actually overcome his incredible challenge. Such is the basis for this film called " Cold Turkey." In the spirit of trying to imitate notable figures like Dr. Albert Schweizer or Alfred Nobel, Merwin Wren (Bob Newhart) a Valiant Tobacco executive convinces Hiram C. Grayson (Edward Everett Horton) of a brilliant, though patently ludicrous idea to increase sales, while at the same time appearing philanthropic and noble. His challenge to America is to offer a $25,000 million dollar prize to any city in America which can quit smoking for thirty days. Taking the challenge is a baptist minister (Dick Van Dyke) a Rev. Clayton Brooks, in Little Rock Iowa. Once the town is enrolled in the pledge, the fun begins. What transpires in the following weeks is sheer lunacy for the towns people, the Tobbaco company and the news media. Although the test is one of physical discipline, emotional struggle and civic patriotic commitment, it transforms into one of social upheaval when all involved realize the prize and it's future personal potential. This is a superb achievement in films and noted as Edward Everette Horton's final film. Tom Poston, Vincent Gardenia, Barnard Hughes and Jean Stapleton are simple magnificent. Excellent family fare and easily recommended. ****

Darknessviking i saw this one when i was little..and i loved it.. i don't know if i would think its any good if i saw it again NOW..but then i laughed many times ..i wonder if I did see it again,if I would discover new jokes that i didn't notice when i was little..anyways..very good film ..and its funny that even 35 years ago they said that smoking was bad...and even til this day people don't listen .dick van dyke was goodin this onei think

Sgt. Schultz I can understand why Norman Lear went into TV -- in "Cold Turkey", he takes an amusing light premise, then stretches the life out of it to try to turn it into a feature-length film. Unfortunately, despite some droll social commentary here and there, he fails. The film just takes too long to tell the story, which would have been better down in a one-hour TV show.To make it worse, Dick Van Dyke is completely miscast as a priest -- you just can't take him seriously. Other familiar faces show up here and there, but basically this is one film that really has nothing to recommend about it.UPDATE: I just read DVD's autobiography, and he mentioned often thinking of joining the clergy. Since he didn't, maybe he knew he would be miscast too!

bukster007-1 I can't understand why a film with such big names, both in front of and behind the camera, is not available on DVD. Is there a conspiracy? Does "Big Tobacco" not want anyone to see this? I understand this is a "niche" film, but c'mon, surely there is a small distributor willing to pick up the rights and get this into the hands of the people? Dick Van Dykes name alone should be enough to warrant a release, along with Bob Newhart and Norman Lear. I guess that unless there are some big, firey explosions or gratuitous nudity (not that there's anything wrong with that)then something isn't worthy of a DVD release. This is a well-acted and scripted satire of the culture of smoking and gives great insight into how smoking was treated 35 years ago.