No Deposit, No Return is a 1976 comedy directed by Norman Tokar. It was written by Arthur Alsberg and Don Nelson. It is the story of two children (Tracy and Jay) who hold themselves for ransom, reluctantly aided by an expert safecracker and his sidekick (Duke and Bert).
Two would-be safe-crackers 'sort of' kidnap the two grandchildren of millionaire J. W. Osborne. In a story somewhat reminiscent of O. Henry's The Ransom of Red Chief, the ransom amount keeps getting smaller as the two children have the best vacation from boarding school ever with their two new friends. Written by Doug Shafer
The producers' innovative approach to raising the finance for the shoot - through the proceeds of sperm donations - attracted an unprecedented amount of national and international publicity for a film of this length - 12 minutes - Channel 5 news, Screen International, Empire Magazine, and was awarded Best Pitch in Cannes by The Times. Fuji, Panavision, LEM and Lipsync were the official sponsors of the project. No Deposit, No Return was shot over three days on 35mm at the Royal Masonic School for Girls, in August 2003.
