Madhouse

Madhouse is a 1990 American black comedy film starring Kirstie Alley and John Larroquette. Written and directed by Tom Ropelewski, it was produced by Leslie Dixon and released by Orion Pictures. Plot Stockbroker Mark Bannister and his TV reporter/anchorwoman wife Jessie are a successful yuppie couple with an idyllic California life, aside from a toilet with a faulty handle. It is interrupted when Mark's timid cousin Fred, and his pregnant wife Bernice fly in from New Jersey. The first days are slightly chaotic thanks to Bernice's cat Scruffy. Mark gives them $300 to spend in the city, but his alone time with Jessie is interrupted when her gold-digger sister Claudia arrives after a fight with her rich Middle Eastern husband Kaddir, whom she divorces after he cancels her credit cards. Fred and Bernice's visit, meant to last only five days, is extended when Bernice falls on the way to the car. She is instructed by her doctor, Dr. Penix, to stay put until the baby is born. At a local bar, Mark motivates Fred to quit being Bernice's pet, but Fred takes the message too far and leaves "to find himself." Meanwhile, Mark's next door neighbor and carpenter Dale builds a machine to keep Bernice comfortable in bed all day. Bernice becomes increasingly irritating, insisting on being waited on hand and foot and demanding constant funerals and burials for Scruffy, who dies multiple times but comes back each time. Claudia's son Jonathan also comes to live with them. Jessie tries getting Dale to seduce Claudia, but Mark and Jessie inadvertently burn down Dale's villa. Since it can't be rebuilt for three months, Dale and his two teens, delinquent son C.K. and phone-obsessed daughter Katy, move in, and Mark and Jessie are forced to take them in to avoid an arson lawsuit. Meanwhile, Mark helps Jonathan get a job as a mailroom clerk at his office. As days pass, chaos persists, and Mark and Jessie are essentially forced out of their own home. When Mark fails to show up for work, his friend and colleague Wes finds the couple outside living like hippies. Wes motivates Mark to resist a little longer; he's on the verge of closing a successful deal for his boss, Bob Grindle. At work, Mark gets a box from Bogota containing cocaine—sent to him but requested by Jonathan. Grindle tells Mark to sell a set of stocks due to a scandal, but Mark forgets to before leaving work with the cocaine. Fred returns, having grown a mustache and acquiring a baby elephant.