Sunburn is a 1979 British-American comedy-mystery film based on the novel The Bind by Stanley Ellis, directed by Richard C. Sarafian and starring Charles Grodin, Farrah Fawcett, and Art Carney. Also in the cast are Joan Collins, William Daniels, John Hillerman, Eleanor Parker, Alejandro Rey, and Keenan Wynn.
When Walter Thoren, a wealthy old man living in Acapulco, gets killed in a suspicious car accident, his insurance company hires private detective Jake Dekker (Grodin) to investigate possible fraud. Dekker is helped in his investigation by model Ellie Morgan (Fawcett), whom he hires to pose as his wife, and his old friend Marcus (Carney), who does research for them. Jake soon starts to suspect foul play.
Sunburn contains examples of:
- Blackmail: When Marcus discovers that Thoren had been withdrawing $20,000 a month for the last few years, he speculates that he was being blackmailed over his relationship with his best friend Ortega, a lawyer with whom he liked taking steam baths. He was being blackmailed, but not over that.
- Car Fu: Ellie and Marcus are pulled over by two cops. Marcus realizes they're actually in disguise and says, "Drive, Ellie, drive! They're not police!" Ellie drives away, knocking one of the fake cops over with the car.
- Car Meets House: The movie opens with Thoren's blackmailers in a restaurant, wondering when he's going to show up and pay them. Suddenly Thoren's car smashes into the restaurant and bursts into flame.
- Cry into Chest: Ellie cries into Jake's shoulder after a man tries to kill her while she's scuba diving.
- Dies Wide Open: Dobbs is found in a bathtub, covered in blood, staring at the ceiling.
- Freeze-Frame Ending: The credits roll over a freeze-frame of Jake and Ellie driving in a convertible.
- Fruit Cart: Ellie drives the progagonists' car through a lemon stand during a car chase.
- Goodbye, Cruel World!: Jake is delighted to find Thoren's suicide note, as it proves his death wasn't an accident, meaning the insurance company is off the hook and Jake receives a large payment.
- Hairpin Lockpick: Jake breaks into a closet this way.
- It's All My Fault: Thoren's daughter Joanna (Joan Goodfellow) blames herself for her father's death because the night before he died, he asked her to help him get the yacht in, but she was busy.
- Starting a New Life: Thoren was once the Nazi saboteur Heinrich Stressman. After the war, he escaped his American captors, fled to Mexico, and changed his name.
- There Is Only One Bed: At first Jake agrees to sleep in another room and let Ellie have the bed. When a man breaks into the house and starts rummaging through Ellie's drawers, she's so frightened that she makes Jake move into a very uncomfortable chair in the bedroom. He moves into her bed after they have sex.
- Undercover as Lovers: Jake and Ellie rent a home together and pose as a married couple at parties. Before long they start to develop feelings for each other for real.
- Vapor Wear: Farrah Fawcett unsurprisingly doesn't wear a bra.
- You Killed My Father: Dobbs, one of the blackmailers, is the son of a guard Stressman killed during his escape.
- Zip Me Up: Ellie asks Jake to tie the back of a skimpy top for her before a party.
