PRUDENCE BE DAMNED

When architect Hugh Devore returns from a trip to Japan, he finds no sign of wife Madeline or loafsome son Rob in their Greenwich Village spread. Then comes the phone call: ""Hi Dad. . . We have Ma, we want two hundred and fifty thousand dollars for her."" Yes, folks, dippy Rob and his egomaniacal girlfriend Mouse are holding Madeline prisoner in an empty New Jersey mansion--and it's just a matter of waiting it out to see how long before (a) Hugh locates the Jersey hideout, and (b) Rob changes his mind and risks his life for Ma--which becomes especially necessary when Mouse's Italian gangster boyfriend shows up with a sharp knife and a greedy heart. Implausible at the start, tired in the middle, corny at the end, but never anything enough to be offensively off-limits.