Themes: Nothing Goes Right, Assumed Identities, Cons and Scams
Main Cast: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Tom Georgeson
Release Year: 1988
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 98 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
In A Fish Called Wanda, Jamie Lee Curtis plays an ambitious con artist who uses every ounce of her sexual wiles to obtain a fortune in jewels stolen by her gangster lover Tom Georgeson. First, she romances Georgeson's dimwitted but deadly henchman Kevin Kline (who won an Academy Award for his performance). Then, to clear the path for her getaway with Kline, Jamie woos Georgeson's starched-shirt attorney, John Cleese -- and it's Cleese whom she genuinely falls in love with. Michael Palin, Cleese's former Monty Python cohort, plays a stuttering mob flunkey who continually messes up his one big assignment: killing a little old lady (it isn't that he has any qualms about knocking off the old dear; it's just that her pet dogs keep getting in the way). A Fish Called Wanda was scripted by star John Cleese. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Review
One of the best black comedies of the 1980s, A Fish Called Wanda revels in poking fun at stereotypes: neither British nor Americans are ever completely off the hook. Representing the Yanks, Jamie Lee Curtis finally received a role worthy of her ample comic sensibilities, and Kevin Kline's antagonistic wackiness secured him a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. For the Brits, scene-stealer Michael Palin and lead/co-scripter John Cleese display a wit and spontaneity not seen since their Monty Python years. Co-writer/director Charles Crichton had previously proven his skills with the classic 1951 crime farce The Lavender Hill Mob, and Wanda is every bit the classic that film was. Lampooning as many sacred cows as it does, Wanda is bound to put off some viewers; but it's hard to take too much offense at a film where all the characters eventually get theirs. ~ Matthew Doberman, All Movie Guide
Tom Georgeson - George; Maria Aitken - Wendy Leach; Patricia Hayes - Mrs. Coady; Al Ashton - Warder; Kim Barclay - Nanny; Cynthia Caylor - Portia; Jeremy Child - Mr. Johnson; Charu Bala Chokshi - Indian Cleaner; Mark Elwes - Shop Customer; Stephen Fry - Hutchison; Roger Hume - Locksmith; Peter Jonfield - Inspector Marvin; Andrew Maclachlan - Eebedee; Robert McBain - Hotel Clerk; Pamela Miles - Mrs. Johnson; Patrick Newman - Defense Counsel; Geoffrey Palmer - Judge; Michael Percival - Percival; Neville Phillips - Shop Manager; Llewellyn Rees - Sir Jake; John Dixon - Prison Officer; Imogen Bickford-Smith - Stenographer; Roger Brierley - Davidson; Robert Cavendish - Copper; Waydon Croft - Prison Officer; Katherine John - Johnson Child, 10; Sophie Johnstone - Johnson Child; Kate Lansbury - Magistrate; Tia Lee - Junior Barrister, Prosecution Counsel; Roland MacLeod - Vicar; Clare McIntyre - Airline Employee; Anthony Pedley - Irate Driver; Robert Putt - Police Officer; David Simeon - Court Clerk; Tom Piggot-Smith - Johnson Child, 13; Sharon Twomey - Defense Counsel; Ken Campbell - Bartlett
Credit
John Wood - Art Director, John Comfort - Associate Producer, Priscilla John - Casting, Hazel Pethig - Costume Designer, Jonathan Benson - First Assistant Director, Charles Crichton - Director, John Jympson - Editor, John Cleese - Executive Producer, Steve Abbott - Executive Producer, John Du Prez - Composer (Music Score), Paul Engelen - Makeup, Roger Murray-Leach - Production Designer, Alan Hume - Cinematographer, John Cleese - Producer, Lee Rich - Producer, Michael Shamberg - Producer, Steve Abbott - Producer, Stephenie McMillan - Set Designer, George Gibbs - Special Effects, Gerry Humphreys - Sound/Sound Designer, Romo Gorrara - Stunts, John Cleese - Screen Story, Charles Crichton - Screen Story, John Cleese - Screenwriter, Charles Crichton - Screenwriter
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 road roller (which he somehow survives).
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, and Curtis received nominations for Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes and BAFTA awards.
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.
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]
Notes
^ The name of Cleese's character, Archie Leach, is an homage to Cary Grant, whose real name was Archibald Leach.
^ To win Wanda's heart Archie recites a verse in Russian, namely "Prayer" by Mikhail Lermontov
