| Director | Jill Sprecher |
|---|---|
| Genre | comedy film, crime film |
| Runtime | 93 min |
| Country | United States |
| Box office | $790,421 |
Wisconsin insurance salesman Mickey Prohaska is in desperate financial straits. His wife JoAnn has thrown him out of the house, and he is willing to do or say practically anything to sell anybody a policy. Mickey accompanies another insurance agent he has just met, Bob Egan, to the farm of an elderly man named Gorvy Hauer. The house is a mess and Gorvy is absent-minded, perhaps a tad senile. He does not have much money and the little he has, he seems to keep in a jar. Mickey tries to sell the old man some insurance anyway.
Gorvy also has an old violin. A man named Dahl, an appraiser from Chicago who has a shop filled with musical instruments, examines the violin and says it is somewhat rare and actually worth $25,000. Complications arise when Mickey's plan to steal the instrument is discovered by a small-time ex-con named Randy Kinney, who not only will not leave Mickey alone, but turns violent and bludgeons one of Gorvy's neighbors to death.
Continued inspection and research on the violin values it at forty times the original estimate. Mickey now is in possession of a million-dollar instrument, but Randy wants his share and threatens to kill Mickey if he does not get it. Mickey thinks he can still come out of this all right, until he discovers that he is in way over his head.
Mickey fires Bob Egan and goes to see Gorvy, who says he called an appraiser for his violin and was told that it was just a cheap imitation. He believes his original violin was stolen, because his dog left teeth marks on it, which this fake one doesn't have. A cop arrives to take the violin to the police station.
Randy takes Mickey for a drive in his car, and then asks why everyone is looking for the violin. When informed of the million dollar price tag on it, he demands they go to check out Leonard Dahl's violin store in Chicago. When they get there, they locate the phone number of another violin expert, Stoller.
Mickey has $1.25 million wired to Gorvy's account since the violin was insured. He also gets Randy to burn a photo he took when he killed Richie. But in a flashback, it is revealed that Gorvy, Randy, Dahl, Richie and Bob played a trick on Mickey and scammed his insurance company. Mickey confronts Dahl who confirms it's all a scam, but Mickey can't do anything about it.
Mickey starts another career selling timeshares.