A Fish Called Wanda
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| A Fish Called Wanda | |
 theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Charles Crichton |
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| Produced by | Michael Shamberg |
| Written by | John Cleese Charles Crichton |
| Starring | John Cleese Jamie Lee Curtis Kevin Kline Michael Palin Maria Aitken Tom Georgeson |
| Music by | John Du Prez |
| Cinematography | Alan Hume |
| Editing by | John Jympson |
| Distributed by | MGM |
| Release date(s) | July 15, 1988 |
| Running time | 108 minutes |
| Country | United States / United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
A Fish Called Wanda is a 1988 comedy film written by John Cleese and Charles Crichton and directed by Charles Crichton, and starring Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin. The film is a comedy about a jewel heist and its aftermath.
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[edit] Plot
George Thomason (Tom Georgeson) and his right-hand man, Ken Pile (Michael Palin), a beleaguered animal lover with a bad stutter, plan a jewel heist and bring in two Americans to help: an alluring con artist, Wanda Gershwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis) and a "weapons man", Otto West (Kevin Kline). Wanda and Otto are lovers pretending to be siblings so that Wanda can work her charms on George and Ken. Wanda and Otto plan to betray Ken and George after the heist, and vice-versa. Wanda, it later transpires, is also planning to betray Otto.
After the robbery, Wanda and Otto betray George to the police, intending to take all the loot for themselves, but discover that George and Ken have moved the loot to a new location. Wanda decides to seduce George's unhappily married lawyer, Archie Leach (John Cleese)[1] to find out where it is. Meanwhile, Ken is charged by George to silence a key witness, and Otto exerts his energies in fits of jealousy over Wanda and Archie and of impatience with Ken and Britain in general. Otto's interference, and other incidences of bad luck, lead Wanda and Archie's liaisons to go disastrously wrong.
There is subsequent confusion and slapstick. For example, in various attempts to kill the witness, the animal-loving Ken accidentally instead kills her three Yorkshire Terriers one by one. The witness eventually suffers a fatal heart attack when her third Terrier is killed. The title is derived from the name of Ken's favorite tropical fish, which Otto eats alive, to Ken's distress, during the farcical torture scene.
Archie and Wanda gradually fall in love and the movie ends with those two leaving the country with the jewels[2]. Ken finally has his revenge on Otto by running him over with a steamroller (which he somehow survives). Title cards at the end of the movie reveal their futures: "Archie and Wanda were married in Rio, had seventeen children, and founded a leper colony. Ken became Master of Ceremonies at the London Sea World. Otto emigrated to South Africa and became Minister for Justice."
[edit] 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
[edit] 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.[3] Cleese and Crichton received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Crichton was also nominated for Best Director.
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 list of the "100 Funniest Films" (a list rather than a ranking). A Fish Called Wanda was one of only 24 movies to be named on all three of the American Film Institute, Bravo and Readers' Digest "top 100 funniest" lists.[citation needed] The movie also garnered a 96 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
American Film Institute recognition
[edit] Sequels and adaptations
The principal cast reunited in 1997 for Fierce Creatures (dubbed an "equal" rather than a sequel or prequel, by Cleese), 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]
[edit] Notes
- ^ The name of Cleese's character, Archie Leach, is a hommage to Cary Grant, whose real name was Archibald Leach.
- ^ To win Wanda's heart Archie recites a vesrse in Russian, namely "Prayer" by Mikhail Lermontov
- ^ "Awards Database," Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved from http://awardsdatabase.oscars.org/ampas_awards/DisplayMain.jsp?curTime=1173727436268 on 2007-03-12.
- ^ Memories of Jamie Lee Curtis make John Cleese sing again - Telegraph
[edit] External links
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Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: A Fish Called Wanda |
- A Fish Called Wanda at the Internet Movie Database
- A Fish Called Wanda at Allmovie
- A Fish Called Wanda at Rotten Tomatoes
| Preceded by Moon over Parador |
Box office number-one films of 1988 (USA) September 18, 1988 |
Succeeded by Dead Ringers |
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