The Toy (1982)

A writer in desperate need of money ends up accepting a job as a rich kid's toy.

A borderline watchable film where the humor seldom works. The inspiration for the storyline may have come from a passage in Machado de Assis' Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas (also known as Epitaph of a Small Winner) where young Bras plays horseriding with his slave. In that case, this remake brings it closer to Machado's original idea (in the French movie the titular character is white). The message seems to be that money really buys what you need. In this case, the kid needed a lesson and he sure learned it. Same thing may or may not have happened to American politician Eric Cantor and his backers (except in his case he was more like the toy).

Rating: 31