(also branded as Jinxed on promotional media) is a 1982 American comedy film starring Bette Midler, Rip Torn and Ken Wahl.

[3][4] Bonita Friml is a Las Vegas lounge singer whose husband Harold Benson is a cigar-smoking recreational gambler with a long winning streak.

Willie then lands another blackjack-dealing job in Reno, Nevada and Harold follows him there, forcing Bonita to abandon her lucrative singing gig to accompany him.

Harold's winning streak continues, but just when he has wagered all of his money on one final hand, a woman sitting next to him becomes annoyed by the cigar that he has been smoking for good luck.

Willie drives off towing Bonita's trailer behind him and, while stopped in a remote location, places Harold's corpse behind the wheel of the truck.

When police discover the crashed vehicle, they conclude that Harold must have died in an accident, meaning that Bonita can now receive the insurance money.

A United Artists production executive suggested Bette Midler for the lead, and she requested that Don Siegel direct.

[citation needed] Siegel had been a mentor of director Sam Peckinpah, who was having difficulty finding directing jobs.

Siegel offered Peckinpah a chance to return to filmmaking with 12 days of second-unit directing work on Jinxed!.

When asked by United Artists executive Steven Bach why he did not quit the project, Siegel replied: "Because then I wouldn't get my fee.

He wrote: "This is a messed-up movie that throws away what few opportunities it has to entertain us, and gets totally lost in a plot that starts as comedy and moves through farce on its way to paralysis."

Ebert added that it was implausible to believe that Midler's character was an unsuccessful performer, but that her musical numbers still supplied most of the film's few highlights.