20th Century Fox releases a much deserved 2-disc special edition of one of the funniest comedies of the eighties with “A Fish Called Wanda” to replace the lackluster MGM release of 1999.
Directed by old-school Ealing comedy director Charles Crichton (‘The Lavender Hill Mob’, ‘The Titfield Thunderbold’ – great films in their own right and available on DVD from Anchor Bay) at the spry age of 77 and after a 23 year absence from feature films, Crichton manages to be the perfect choice to infuse a lot of the dark and bumbling humor the Ealing comedies were known for along with complimenting some of the more Monty Pythonesque and Fawlty Towersish elements of the script by John Cleese who also stars.
Cleese has pretty much admitted that he was trying to write an Ealing comedy with some contemporary elements and I think the result is a damn near perfect amalgam. If one watches Ealing comedies such as Crichton’s own ‘The Lavender Hill Mob’ or ‘The Ladykillers’, the tone is immediately recognizable. With a strong script, the perfect director and John Cleese and fellow Python Michael Palin in place, two American actors were needed and one couldn’t ask for a better pairing than Jamie Lee Curtis and Kevin Kline.
Cleese became good friends with Kevin Kline on the ‘Silverado’ shoot and said that his comedy antics on the set of that film led him to believe that Kline could easily take relish in the role of Otto, the quintessential obnoxious American boob who tries to hide his stupidity under the façade of reading Nietzsche and spouting facts that are not actually facts (“Aristotle was Belgian, the central message of Buddhism is every man for himself and that the London underground is a political movement”). Cleese was right of course and Kline’s Oscar-winning performance is one of the many highlights of the film.
Cleese has said that Jamie Lee Curtis’s performance in ‘Trading Places’ was magnetic and that the role of Wanda was specifically written for her. Luckily, she didn’t seem to take that lightly and is the perfect comic balance between Kline, Cleese, and Palin who all revolve in and around the narrative in different combinations and with different comic results. The comedy of a scene between Kline and Curtis is inherently different than the comedy in a scene between Curtis and Cleese and that’s what keeps the film fresh and consistently funny.
The plot is almost besides the point as this is generally a comedy of performances bouncing off of each other in appropriate situations that are not exactly plot-driven yet here we go anyway. The majority of the film hinges on Wanda (Curtis) and her boyfriend Otto (Kline) attempting to score the diamonds hid away by their partner in crime Georges Thomason (Tom Georgeson…get it?). Wanda pretended to like Georges until after the heist and then Wanda and Otto double-crossed him and turned him into the police.
Annoyed by being double-crossed by the man they double-crossed, Wanda sets a plan in motion to seduce Georges’s barrister Archie Leach (which was Cary Grant’s real name and apparently the closest John Cleese will ever get to being Cary Grant as he says in an interview) who they think might know the location of the diamonds. Also along for the ride is the fourth member of the heist team: the stuttering, animal-lover Ken Pine (Michael Palin) who is loyal to Georges and who quite literally holds the key to the diamonds hidden away in the tank of his beloved fish.
Besides having to deal with the advances of Otto (watch the film…), Pine also schemes to take out a little old lady with three small dogs who is a key witness in Georges’s case – these schemes provide some of the biggest laughs in the film as he quite ironically and accidentally kills each of the three dogs in his attempts to kill the old woman (which recalls ‘The Ladykillers’). One can imagine the guilt a Peta member must have about such deeds…
John Cleese with no small amount of generosity gives most of the laughs to his supporting cast as he occupies the role of the mostly straight man surrounded by lunatics. Hence if you love the various British characters Cleese plays in ‘Monty Python’s Flying Circus’ and ‘Fawlty Towers’ – men reliant on sarcasm and rants, you might at first be put off. Which is not to say Cleese isn’t funny, one scene in particular reminds me of ‘Fawlty…’ where we find Archie naked and willing to partake in an adulterous bout of lovemaking with Wanda only to have a family of wide-eyed innocents pop in. Oops.
But it’s certainly the Americans that steal the show here with Kline’s broad comedic histrionics controlling every scene he’s in with slapstick abandon and Curtis’s predacious, greedy Wanda matching him barb for barb. Although the film is not for everyone due to a few dark edges (animal-lovers especially may be put off by the aforementioned doggie deaths along with another hilarious sequence involving Otto trying to pry information out of Pine by dining on some ‘fish and chips’), the mean-spiritedness is really what drives the film – I mean, really, what isn’t funny about a huge safe falling on a leashed dog only for the old woman to obliviously be walking the other direction as the leash steadily extends behind her? Not much I say.
The film is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen with 5.1 Dolby Surround (the first time ever on both accounts – the old MGM release was non-anamorphic and mono) along with the original English mono, French Dolby Surround and Spanish Mono. There are also English, French and Spanish subtitles.
On Disc one, we have a feature-length commentary by actor/writer John Cleese who doesn’t always strive for dry laughs but rather keeps things interesting with stories about Charles Crichton (who died in 1999) and the usual various anecdotes about the film. Also on disc one is a ‘Trivia Track,’ which has pop-up bubbles throughout the film commenting on anything and everything about the film. Both are quite entertaining.
On Disc Two we start off with the “Something Fishy” documentary which runs just over thirty minutes and includes retrospective interviews with the cast and crew. “A Message from John Cleese” is a rather short and self-explanatory tidbit. We have thirty minutes worth of ‘Deleted and Alternate Scenes’ with optional intros by John Cleese. A lot of menial clips as expected but it’s nice to see new footage if you’re a fan.
We have three featurettes next: ‘John Cleese’s First Farewell Performance’ runs at eighteen minutes and ‘Farewell Featurette: John Cleese’ at thirty minutes are all about John Cleese, his comedy style, previous roles, etc. A lot of laughs and info are provided here. ‘Kulture Vulture’ is a sixteen minute tour of some of the film’s locations. We finish off with a photo gallery, the theatrical trailer, and some previews for other releases. There is also a fun easter egg to find (maybe more…)
A very solid package and well worth the double-dip for fans of the film – time to turn that seven-year old MGM release into a coaster and remember … “don’t call me stupid!”
A Fish Called Wanda (Collector’s Edition) is now available at Amazon . As of yet, this version of the DVD is not available in the UK. Visit the DVD database for more information.
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