Actors - A Fish Called Wanda

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	Actors - A Fish Called Wanda

A Fish Called Wanda is a movie released in 1988 by MGM. It was written by John Cleese and directed by Charles Crichton. It stars Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline and Michael Palin.

Plot

The film is a comedy about a jewel theft, planned by George Thomason (played by Tom Georgeson), and its aftermath. George's right-hand man is Ken Pile (Palin), an animal lover with a bad stutter. They bring in two Americans, sexy con artist Wanda Gershwitz (Curtis) and dim-witted hitman Otto West (Kline), who are lovers pretending to be siblings so Wanda can work her charms on George and Ken.

After the robbery, Wanda and Otto betray George to the police. They belatedly learn that George has moved the loot to a new hiding spot in a public locker and won't reveal its location. Wanda decides the best way to get the information is by seducing George's lawyer, Archibald Leach (Cleese), a man stuck in a loveless marriage to a rich shrew of a woman. Otto, in the meantime, decides the best way is to get Ken to talk, first by pretending to be in love with him, and later by tying him up and threatening to eat his tropical Angel fish (one of which is named Wanda).

Ken is charged by George to silence a key witness, an old lady (Patricia Hayes) who owns three tiny Yorkshire terriers. In his attempts to assassinate her, Ken instead accidentally picks off the Yorkies one by one, to his great dismay. Following the death of her last little dog, the woman dies of a heart attack.

After much betrayal and backstabbing and passing of the locker key from hand to hand, everybody races to the airport in an attempt to get away with the money. Ken gets his revenge on Otto, thus clearing up his speech impediment, while Wanda and Archibald have fallen in love and fly off into the sunset. George is left in jail.

Trivia

Archibald Leach is the birth name of actor Cary Grant.

At one point Otto offers to rub out Kevin Delaney, presumably another gangster. Kevin Kline's middle name is Delaney.

Production

The movie was a major critical and commercial success when it was released and has remained a popular favourite since. Kline won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work. The principal cast reunited in 1997 for Fierce Creatures
, playing different roles and meeting less success.

In 2000, 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.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for A Fish Called Wanda ]

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