Foul Play (1978)

I love this movie so much

i must have seen a different film!!

Expected more

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Here's an example of "Foul Play"'s approach to humor. Goldie Hawn, having had some secret information stuffed into her purse without her knowing about it, and cf. "Enemy of the State", is being pursued by the bad guys who want the information themselves. There is a kidnapping and several attempts at murder. At first, the cops, Chevy Chase, refuse to believe her because her explanation comes out as gibberish, but finally convinced she's telling the truth they investigate the room in which Hawn claims to have been held. Now -- hold on, because here comes the gag. The other cop, Dennehy, tells Chase that he investigated the room but it's empty. It's rented out on a yearly basis to a man named Stiltsken. The camera rolls slowly into a close up of Chevy Chase's thoughtful face. "Stiltsken," he says. "It seems to me I've heard that name before." End of gag. Dissolve while laughter erupts in the audience. Some of the name play is far more elegant; it transcends elegance. Goldie Hawn's character is named Gloria Mundy.It's a kind of comic suspense story about a forthcoming murder. That's the way it's written and played, and it doesn't quite come off. It's more silly than funny. Here is Chevy Chase, a lowly police inspector, ushering Goldie Hawn across the gangway to his million-dollar houseboat in Sausalito. "Careful, it's kind of slippery here at night." He slips and falls in the water. Is that funny? I mean, to you, as an adult? It would be funny if it were Oliver Hardy helping Stan Laurel across the plank. One villain is a tall, well-dressed albino. One is a dwarf. Is that actually funny, in and of itself, or is grotesque a better word? There is a high speed car flying down the San Francisco hills -- still exciting, by God.Chevy Chase isn't very amusing in his performance either. I'm sure he's a nice guy who loves his dog and plays badminton with his kids, but I didn't find him very funny on Saturday Night Live, and he's never carried his character the way, say, Bill Murray has. Murray couldn't handle this particular character either. Nobody could do much with it, hobbled as it is by such a weak script.Someone else described Goldie Hawn as the Meg Ryan of the 1970s -- cute. Well, yes. They're both cute in different ways. Meg Ryan is a cheerleader, while Goldie Hawn is a mouse, with her long fluffy flaxen hair, her big eyes and tiny bosom, her coy demeanor and piping voice. She's almost childish, the kind of girl you don't make love to, you play doctor with. She's awfully cute but again the part limits her to screaming, dashing through doors, and bopping people with a parasol.Funniest scene: The ancient Pope Pius XIII with a big grin, clapping his hands and tapping his silver slippers while watching a performance of The Mikado at the San Francisco Opera.

FOLLOWING THE INDIVIDUAL career successes of both co-stars, Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase, the paring of the two in this crime drama send up seemed to be a boffo idea and In$tant Box Office $ucce$$.AS WE RECALL, it did have a certain degree of acceptance; but did not set any record at the turnstiles. Do they have them at movie houses anymore? Critical review also was less than enthusiastic. But then, when we talk of Film Critics, we think of what was said about Stan Laurel & Oliver Hardy. That being: "Nobody liked them but the Piublic." OUR MAIN BEEF with this movie is that much of its promotional ads on the TV networks showed Chevy Chase doing some of those falls that made him so well known as a Charter Member of NBC'S Saturday NIGHT.WHICH BRINGS UP the curious coincidental occurrence that both Chevy and Goldie made their names via the network comedy show. In the case of Miss Hawn it was ROWAN & MARTIN'S LAUGH IN, nearly a decade before the debut of Saturday NIGHT.SO, AS SILLY as it sounds, we took our kids to see it with us and were just a trifle surprised to see how many violent situations were so forcefully portrayed. But then, as we didn't understand then, it was both a spoof of and an homage to the films of Alfred Hitchcock.ONE OTHER ASPECT of this movie that we want to make, before signing off, is its use of the Pope, the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church at the center of its plot. This would make Writer/Director Colin Higgins an "ahead of his time" pioneer; for this predated both Francis Ford Coppola's THE GODFATHER: Part III and Ron Howard's THE DA VINCI CODE by some years.

In continuing to review the early film works of "SNL"ers, we're once again in 1978 with the release of the hit Foul Play. Chevy Chase was the first to leave "Saturday Night Live" after a few shows into the second season. He was able to do that because he was only signed to a one season writer's contract-he didn't become a cast member until rehearsals for the first show. This movie became the first time he starred in a major studio picture, having previously appeared in segments of independent revue films like The Groove Tube and Tunnel Vision. As the police detective sent to protect Goldie Hawn from some killers, Chase is both charismatically funny and romantic with Ms. Hawn a perfect match for him here. Also, in his American film debut, Dudley Moore is hilarious as a would-be swinger oblivious to Ms. Hawn's distress when she desperately tells him to take her to his place and he doesn't ask any questions! And wait till you find out what he actually does for a living! I, for one, am glad Tlm Conway turned down the role as it's hard to imagine him doing what Moore does here. There's also a hilarious turn by Billy Barty as someone Ms. Hawn mistakes for someone else and a good turn by Burgess Meredith as a neighbor of Goldie. If there's one quibble, it's that the car chase scene near the end is pretty ridiculous but even there, there were some good moments like that of Japanese tourists being in one of the cars Goldie and Chevy drive in. All in all, Foul Play was one funny and suspenseful entertaining movie.

I like this film that stars both Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn, just not as much as "Seems Like Old Times". That one was just really funny throughout the whole movie, while this one has points that are kind of slow and it is a rather long movie. Part of the reason is that Chevy is just not quite as funny in this one as one might suspect him to be. Sure he has a few humorous parts, but for the most part the majority of the laughs belong to Goldie Hawn, Burgess Meredith, Billy Barty and Dudley Moore. All of these characters have really funny scenes while one that is really funny featuring Chevy is just not found. Granted he gets out a good line or two like after Goldie attacks poor Billy Barty's character, but that is about the extent of his humor in this one. Still, Goldie is the star and she has a lot of funny lines as a poor woman tired of being alone who takes a chance on a mysterious stranger and ends up in a crazy scheme involving an albino man and a dying man's words of beware the drawf. Of course, she also has to contend with disappearing bodies and police officers that do not believe her, but at least one takes a shine to her. She also has to deal with strange short salesmen and a overly amorous man who thinks he is about to hit it big. It is funny for the most part and there is a bit of mystery to it as well, but I would say it is most assuredly a comedy more than it is a thriller. However, that being said there are a lot of thriller aspects to this one as well.