Hey, you got your Puzzle Contest in my movie! And it tastes like crap!

May 17, 2008 11:31 PM

In the mid-eighties, there was some "event" on television. It was a (crappy) movie, but embedded within it was a contest and/or puzzle.

You had to figure out the location of ... a treasure? ... from the clues in the movie; there was also a puzzle, perhaps, embedded in the movie which, when solved, would reveal the 800-number to call when you've figured out the location of the booty. The winner would receive $N00,000. (I remember counting ashtrays in each scene, or fruits, or chairs, maybe, to try and find the right phone number.) So: what was the title of this? Is it on the web? Where was the booty?!

(My parents' friends had a VCR and we all gathered at their house to watch, tape, and analyze. I also remember thinking, "We are getting nowhere with this; someone else has surely won by now; and I'm really bored and want to go home.")

posted by not_on_display to media & arts (5 comments total)

Was it "Treasure: In Search of the Golden Horse"?
posted by slightlybewildered at 12:12 AM on May 18, 2008

Million Dollar Mystery?
posted by Karlos the Jackal at 3:09 AM on May 18, 2008 [1 favorite]

Pretty sure there was a contest similar to this connected to Moon Over Parador
posted by softlord at 7:32 AM on May 18, 2008

I saw this advertised in Games magazine. I think it was called "Ubi."

(posting from phone--sorry no link)
posted by sourwookie at 9:23 AM on May 18, 2008

slightlybewildered's answer comes the closest to what I remember, but the details (a golden horse; that there was a book) don't ring any bells in my mind. But it falls within the right timeframe (1984) and is in the US.

("Million Dollar Mystery" was the term I used to google before I gave up and went on the green. A MOVIE SPONSORED BY GLADBAGS?)

Thanks!
posted by not_on_display at 11:13 AM on May 18, 2008