'Your money back' gimmick

This was in no way a great movie, and producer George C. Scott had reason to doubt its public acceptance, given its theme of incest, so he embarked on the first occasion to use the 'money back' gimmick that I know of for a film. The ads on TV caught my eye with this claim of "Your money back if this is not the best film in recent memory" but I seem to recall that it failed miserably at the box office, the money-back policy not withstanding. I doubt that the studio kept any records of how many refunds were ever issued (possibly out of embarrassment), so there is probably no way to confirm its effectiveness as a promotional gimmick to this day, but it at least lends a footnote to film history. By the way, I wonder whatever happened to the guy who played the son: John David Carson? He seemede to have more potential than this film ever gave him.

Now the same gimmick is being used for Russell Crowe's CINDERELLA MAN, but it seems like another case of desperation in film marketing, since there is no scandalous social cause in that one. --jimor2atYahoo.com