On this day in 1989, former bank robber Daniel Lucas (portrayed by Nick Nolte) was released from prison when the comedy film Three Fugitives opened in theaters. On his first day as a free man, while depositing his prison paycheck in a local bank, Lucas finds himself in the middle of a bank heist and is taken hostage by an incompetent robber, Ned Perry (Martin Short). When Detective Duggan (James Earl Jones) assumes the two are in it together, the two end up fleeing, and are soon joined by the third “fugitive,” Lucas’ cute, but troubled daughter (Sarah Rowland Doroff), who hasn’t spoken since her mother died. It would be criminal not to mention that The Three Fugitives is a remake of the French film Les Fugitifs. Both the original and the remake were directed by Francis Veber.
