Summary
Award-winning comedy starring John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin. Respectable British barrister Archie Leach finds his life turned upside down when he falls for beautiful American Wanda Gerschwitz.
Award-winning comedy starring John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin. Respectable British barrister Archie Leach finds his life turned upside down when he falls for beautiful American Wanda Gerschwitz.
This hilarious tale of criminal incompetence and transatlantic eccentricity is easily John Cleese's finest achievement since Fawlty Towers. He excels as the uptight London barrister who becomes the dupe of scheming American thief Jamie Lee Curtis and her doltishly macho lover, Kevin Kline. But Cleese must share the credit for the film's international success with Charles Crichton, who, as the director of The Lavender Hill Mob, was the perfect choice for this sparkling blend of Ealing and Monty Python. Every piece of verbal or physical humour is a model of timing and restraint, whether it's Cleese's Russian-spouting striptease or the Oscar-winning Kline's merciless persecution of stuttering sidekick Michael Palin. This comedy also has an underlying darkness that recalls the work of Preston Sturges and Billy Wilder. And praise doesn't come much higher than that.
role | name |
---|---|
Archie Leach | John Cleese |
Wanda | Jamie Lee Curtis |
Otto | Kevin Kline |
Ken | Michael Palin |
Wendy | Maria Aitken |
George | Tom Georgeson |
Mrs Coady | Patricia Hayes |
Judge | Geoffrey Palmer |
Portia | Cynthia Cleese |
Bartlett | Ken Campbell |
Hutchison | Stephen Fry |
role | name |
---|---|
Director | Charles Crichton |