Ernest Goes To Jail

''Ernest Goes to Jail'' is a 1990 American comedy film directed by John Cherry and starring Jim Varney. It is the fourth film to feature the character Ernest P. Worrell. It was shot in Nashville and Tennessee State Prison.

Plot

Ernest P. Worrell is employed as a night janitor at the Howard Country Bank & Trust where his friends and neighbors, Chuck and Bobby, work as security guards. While trying to use a floor polisher, Ernest makes an enormous mess that results in him being electrocuted with strange results. His body becomes magnetized and while trying to escape the various objects attracted to him, he goes into the vault but a pair of safety deposit boxes knock him out just as the effect wears off.

The next morning, co-worker Charlotte Sparrow, whom Ernest is smitten with, askes him out to “just dinner” to discuss Ernest’s desire to move up and become a clerk. However this goal is hampered by his knuckleheaded antics and the ire earned from bank president, Oscar Pendlesmythe. Meanwhile at the Dracup Penitentiary, convict Rubin Bartlett kills a fellow prisoner and seeks help from Felix Nash, a convicted bank robber and death row inmate. Unable to offer anything in return, Rubin goes on trial. At the same time, Ernest receives a summons to perform jury duty on the same trial. In the courtroom, Rubin notices Ernest has an uncanny resemblance to Nash. In league with Bartlett and Nash, the defense makes a successful motion for the jury to see the scene of the crime so the switch can be made.

Nash and his silent yet hulking henchman, Lyle, make the switch. Nash coerces the jury to acquit Rubin while Ernest, unknowingly at first, takes Nash's place. Upon realizing his predicament, Ernest makes a series of unsuccessful attempts to escape the prison while also trying to keep up the ruse that he is Nash out of fear of reprisal. At the same time, Nash is planning to rob the bank but gets distracted trying to keep a suspicious Bobby and his smooth, un-Ernest like demeanor from exposing him.

In prison, Ernest is taken to be executed via the electric chair. Having given up on escaping and trying to convince the warden of his identity, Ernest makes a final speech and is electrocuted. The massive voltage puts him in a kind of trance and he becomes magnetized again only this time he can zap bolts of electricity from his fingers. He uses this power to comically subdue the guards and blast a hole in the main gate. Rubin attempts to stop him but Lyle, speaking up for the first time, steps in and knocks him out. He tells Ernest to flee so he can stop Nash and save his friends. He also rejects Ernest’s request to come with him, saying his place is in the prison but that he will miss him. Ernest escapes and after a changing out of his prison uniform, races to the bank with his dog, Rimshot.

Nash has set up an explosive and handcuffed Chuck to the vault. Charlotte arrives, after an earlier encounter with Nash at Ernest’s home that went bad, and is taken hostage as well. Just as Ernest arrives so do the prison officials. Bobby appears and almost gains the upper hand over Nash but fails. An electrified security cage that Chuck and Bobby installed also fails as Ernest and Nash fight. Nash throws Ernest against the cage and is electrocuted again. This time his body is electromagnetically polarized allowing him to levitate erratically. Ernest uses the floor polisher against Nash, dragging him up along the ceiling, resulting in him being dropped out cold.
With seconds left on the explosive timer, Ernest heroically grabs it and flies up and out of the bank to a safe distance but it explodes in the night sky. Everyone is devastated that Ernest may have been killed but Nash recovers and holds the group at gunpoint. Before he can use Charlotte as a hostage, Ernest’s charred body lands on Nash. He poignantly claims: “I came. I saw. I got blowed up.” before fainting.

Cast

* Jim Varney as Ernest P. Worrell / Felix Nash / Auntie Nelda
* Gailard Sartain as Chuck
* Bill Byrge as Bobby
* Barbara Tyson as Charlotte Sparrow (credited as "Barbara Bush")
* Barry Scott as Rubin Bartlett
* Randall "Tex" Cobb as Lyle
* Dan Leegant as Oscar Pendlesmythe
* Charles Napier as Warden Carmichael
* Jackie Welch as Judge
* Jim Conrad as Eddie
* Emily Corbishdale as Betty McGee
* Andy Stahl as Jerry (as Andrew Stahl)
* Bob Babbitt as Washing Con
* Myke R. Mueller as Vinnie (as Myke Mueller)
* Chambers Stevens as Jury Man (uncredited)
* Buck Ford as Rubin's Attorney (uncredited)

Production

Principal photography took place in Nashville from September 25 until November 15, 1989. A former manufacturing plant in Nashville was converted into a 100,000-square-foot studio by the production designer. This is where the sets were built for, Howard County Bank & Trust, two three-story jail cell tiers, an electrocution room, and Ernest's house. Filming took place at the Tennessee State Prison for three days.

Reception

Critical response

Box office

The film debuted in third place during its opening weekend, earning $6,143,372. Its total gross was $25,029,569.

Home media

Originally released on Laserdisc and VHS in January 1991. They also released the film for the first time on Blu-ray on March 29, 2011 in a single disc Double Feature set along with ''Ernest Goes to Camp''. The 2011 releases mark the first time the film has been available in widescreen.

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ernest Goes To Jail
1990 films
American children's comedy films
American prison comedy films
1990s English-language films
Ernest P. Worrell films
Films about capital punishment
Films about lookalikes
Films directed by John R. Cherry III
Films shot in Tennessee
Touchstone Pictures films
1990s American films