The Toy is a 1982 American comedy film directed by Richard Donner. The film stars Richard Pryor as a janitor at a department store owned by a businessman played by Jackie Gleason. The owner's son, played by Scott Schwartz, is told that he may have anything in the toy department. He chooses the janitor, who the owner pays to spend a week with the boy. The film also stars Ned Beatty, Teresa Ganzel, and Virginia Capers. It is an adaptation of the 1976 French comedy film Le Jouet. It was a box office success, despite being pilloried by film critics.

Plot

Jack Brown is an unemployed writer in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, in danger of having his house repossessed. After numerous unsuccessful attempts to get a job working for the local paper, the Bugle, he becomes so desperate that he ends up taking a job as a janitor for the wealthy and ruthless businessman U.S. Bates, who owns the paper, a department store and many other businesses. Brown is humiliated as he clumsily attempts to serve food at a luncheon. He is fired by Bates but still shows up to work that evening at the department store. "Master" Eric Bates, the spoiled son of the boss, sees Jack while looking through Bates' department store. Amused at seeing Jack goof around in the store's toy section, Eric informs his father's long-suffering right-hand man, Sydney Morehouse, that what he wants is Jack himself.