A Fish Called Wanda: Difference between revisions
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The closing credits tell us that Archie and Wanda flew to South America and got married in [[Rio de Janeiro]], had 17 children, and founded a [[leper colony]]; Otto emigrated to [[South Africa]] and become [[Minister of Justice]] there; and Ken eventually became the first [[Master of Ceremonies]] at the London [[SeaWorld]]. |
The closing credits tell us that Archie and Wanda flew to South America and got married in [[Rio de Janeiro]], had 17 children, and founded a [[leper colony]]; Otto emigrated to [[South Africa]] and become [[Minister of Justice]] there; and Ken eventually became the first [[Master of Ceremonies]] at the London [[SeaWorld]]. |
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==Trivia== |
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*The name Archie Leach is a reference to the actor, [[Cary Grant]], who was born Archibald Alexander Leach, and who, like [[John Cleese]] himself, also hailed from [[Bristol]]. |
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*The name George Thomason is an inversion of the name of the actor who plays the character, [[Tom Georgeson]]. |
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*Cleese based the character of Otto on the notorious [[Watergate]] burglar [[G. Gordon Liddy]]. Hence, Otto's claimed [[CIA]] background, his interest in Nietzschean aphorisms, right-wing politics, and emblematic mustache. |
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==Cast== |
==Cast== |
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Revision as of 02:59, 23 January 2011
| A Fish Called Wanda | |
|---|---|
| File:A Fish Called Wanda DVD.jpg Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Charles Crichton John Cleese (Uncredited) |
| Written by | John Cleese |
| Story by | John Cleese Charles Crichton |
| Produced by | Michael Shamberg |
| Starring | John Cleese Jamie Lee Curtis Kevin Kline Michael Palin |
| Cinematography | Alan Hume |
| Edited by | John Jympson |
| Music by | John Du Prez |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
Release date |
|
Running time | 108 minutes |
| Countries | Template:Film UK Template:Film US |
| Languages | English Italian Russian |
| Box office | $62,493,712[1] |
A Fish Called Wanda is a 1988 crime-comedy film written by John Cleese and Charles Crichton, directed by Crichton and an uncredited Cleese, and starring Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, and Michael Palin. The film is about a jewel heist and its aftermath.
Plot
London-based gangster George Thomason (Tom Georgeson) and his right-hand man, Ken Pile (Michael Palin), a beleaguered animal lover with a debilitating stutter, plan a jewel heist. They bring in two Americans to help: an alluring con artist, Wanda Gershwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis), and their "weapons man", Otto West (Kevin Kline), a boorish, hilariously ill-educated Anglophobe who comically fancies himself both a stoic-minded Nietzschean intellectual and a suave Latin lover (he speaks random Italian gibberish when making love to Wanda, which she finds irresistible). Although Otto and Wanda are in fact lovers, they pretend to be brother and sister so she can work her charms on George and Ken.
The robbery goes well, with the thieves getting away with a large sum in diamonds. The only problem is that they are briefly spotted during their getaway by an old lady walking her dogs, Mrs. Cody (Patricia Hayes). The group then hide the loot in a safe in an old warehouse. Soon after, Wanda and Otto betray George to the police and he is arrested and charged with the theft. Wanda and Otto later return to collect the loot, only to find that George and Ken have moved it to an unknown location. Wanda, who was planning to double-cross Otto as well, decides to seduce George's unhappily married lawyer, Archie Leach (John Cleese), in order to find out where the diamonds are. Otto becomes insanely jealous, and his buffoonish interference (including one occasion where he barges in and threatens Archie by dangling him from a fifth-story window), combined with incidences of bad luck, lead Wanda and Archie's liaisons to go disastrously wrong, arousing the suspicions of Archie's shrewd but irritable and overbearing wife, Wendy (Maria Aitken). Archie eventually calls off their attempted affair.
Meanwhile, George entrusts Ken with the task of killing Mrs. Cody, the Crown's only eyewitness in the case against him. Otto, who viciously ridicules and belittles Ken for his severe speech impediment and also makes mockingly insincere homosexual advances to bully and unsettle him, bets him £1 that he does not have the stomach to assassinate the old lady. During his various attempts to kill her, the animal-loving Ken accidentally kills off her three Yorkshire Terriers one at a time. This causes him grief, as well as grave bodily harm as each attempt goes wrong. However, Mrs. Cody eventually suffers a fatal heart attack when her last Terrier is killed, and Ken is ultimately successful in his mission.
Wanda and Otto want George to remain in jail, but with no living eyewitness to place him near the scene of the crime he may be released. When Wanda is called to the witness stand to give evidence at the trial, she concocts an especially damaging perjurious testimony calculated to ensure George's conviction. Archie, who had expected Wanda to provide an alibi for George and thus clear the way for his acquittal, is stunned by this sudden reversal and badly flubs his cross-examination during which he awkwardly tries to cajole her by calling her "darling". Enraged at Wanda's treachery, George climbs from the dock and starts a brawl that leads to everyone fleeing the courtroom. Wendy has been sitting in the gallery the whole time, closely observing her husband's behavior at the trial, and Archie's disastrous slips of the tongue while questioning Wanda confirm her suspicions of their adulterous affair (though it has never been consummated). After George is taken into custody, she confronts Archie and angrily states that she plans to divorce him. With his career ruined and his marriage about to end, Archie resolves to cut his losses, find the loot, and flee with Wanda to South America. Promised less jail time if he turns over the stolen jewels and names his accomplices, George tells Archie that Ken knows the location of the diamonds. As he is leaving to question Ken, Archie picks up Wanda while she attempts to flee the courthouse. Archie tells her he knows that Ken is aware of the hiding spot, and Wanda counters by noting she has the key to the safety deposit box.
While the courtroom drama is unfolding, Otto arrives back at the flat and tries to get Ken to reveal the location of the diamonds. He tortures Ken by binding him to a chair and asking him several questions, first about Nietzsche and then about the location of the diamonds and the key to the safety deposit box. When Ken fails to answer, Otto plugs each of his nostrils with a chip and eventually sticks a pear in his mouth, completely obstructing his breathing (when Otto somewhat belatedly realizes this after several seconds, he quickly removes the chips from Ken's nostrils and Ken noisily inhales). Otto also torments Ken by eating the tropical fish in his aquarium one by one, leaving the fish called Wanda until the end. Deeply distraught, Ken accidentally mentions the location of the diamonds at a hotel near Heathrow Airport. Archie runs into the building just as Otto is leaving. As they pass each other, Otto manages to commandeer and steal Archie's car, taking Wanda with him. Ken struggles with his stutter to tell Archie where they are going; the two then give chase to the airport on Ken's motorcycle.
The protagonists all end up in Heathrow. Otto and Wanda recover the diamonds from the safety deposit box, but Wanda quickly double-crosses Otto—knocking him unconscious with a blackjack and locking him in a closet. Otto comes to and escapes by shooting the lock off the closet door, and he manages to steal another passenger's boarding pass (Stephen Fry makes a brief cameo as the victim in this scene) when he is briefly captured by Archie, who picks up Otto's dropped gun and pulls it on him. Otto defies Archie and challenges him to a bare-knuckled fight. Archie accepts the challenge and sets the gun down on the floor, whereupon Otto immediately reclaims it and ridicules Archie for his ineffectualness. Otto then orders Archie to go outside the terminal and onto the tarmac. He humiliates Archie by making him climb into a barrel of waste oil, and the two of them trade insults with Archie stalling for time. Otto is about to shoot Archie when Archie alerts him that Ken has taken control of a steam roller and seeking to run him over with it from behind. At first, Otto laughs and mocks Ken's attempt to kill him, but soon finds that he cannot escape the situation as his feet have become totally immobilized in a patch of wet cement and his gun is now likewise out of bullets. An enraged Ken vows revenge for Otto's devouring of his fish, and Otto tries vainly to bargain with him. As Ken flattens Otto into the cement with the steam roller, Archie hops out of the barrel and races across the tarmac to board the plane with Wanda. Ken feels elated and gratified by his act of vengeance and notices that it seems to have cured him of his stutter. When the plane takes off, Otto curses Archie and Wanda as he clings to the outside of their plane window—he is completely covered in wet cement.
The closing credits tell us that Archie and Wanda flew to South America and got married in Rio de Janeiro, had 17 children, and founded a leper colony; Otto emigrated to South Africa and become Minister of Justice there; and Ken eventually became the first Master of Ceremonies at the London SeaWorld.
Trivia
- The name Archie Leach is a reference to the actor, Cary Grant, who was born Archibald Alexander Leach, and who, like John Cleese himself, also hailed from Bristol.
- The name George Thomason is an inversion of the name of the actor who plays the character, Tom Georgeson.
- Cleese based the character of Otto on the notorious Watergate burglar G. Gordon Liddy. Hence, Otto's claimed CIA background, his interest in Nietzschean aphorisms, right-wing politics, and emblematic mustache.
Cast
- John Cleese as Archie Leach
- Jamie Lee Curtis as Wanda Gershwitz
- Kevin Kline as Otto West
- Michael Palin as Ken Pile
- Maria Aitken as Wendy Leach
- Tom Georgeson as George Thomason
- Patricia Hayes as Mrs Cody
- Geoffrey Palmer as Judge
- Stephen Fry as Man at airport
Reception
The film was an enormous critical and commercial success. Kline received wide acclaim and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work.[2] Cleese and Crichton received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Crichton was also nominated for Best Director, and Curtis received nominations for Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes and BAFTA awards. Michael Palin won a BAFTA for Best Supporting Role.
In 2000, the readers of Total Film magazine voted A Fish Called Wanda the 37th greatest comedy film of all time. In 2004 the same magazine named it the 41st greatest British film of all time. In 2000, the American Film Institute ranked the film 21st on its list of the 100 funniest movies ever made. This film is number 27 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". It is also included in the Reader's Digest "100 Funniest Films" list.[3] The movie currently holds a 96% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
American Film Institute recognition
Sequels and adaptations
The principal cast reunited in 1997 for Fierce Creatures (dubbed an "equal" rather than a sequel or prequel, by Kline), playing different roles and meeting less success.
John Cleese and his daughter, Cynthia (who played his screen daughter, Portia), have reportedly started to work on a stage musical version of the film.[4]
References
- ^ http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=fishcalledwanda.htm
- ^ "Awards Database," Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Jamie Lee Curtis received nominations for Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes and BAFTA awards. Retrieved from http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1173727436268 on 2007-03-12.
- ^ Stefan Kanfer. "The Top 100+ Funniest Movies of All Time". Reader's Digest. Retrieved 12-16-2010.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ Eden, Richard (June 14, 2008). "Memories of Jamie Lee Curtis make John Cleese sing again". The Daily Telegraph. London. Retrieved April 23, 2010.
External links
