A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

 

A Fish Called Wanda

I remember vividly watching “A Fish Called Wanda” the first time. I was in eighth grade, and my class was going to England to spend a week with British host families. In those days, the cheap way to go to the UK was an overnight ferry from Esbjerg to Harwich. We were a group who watched “A Fish Called Wanda” in the ship’s cinema. Midway through the movie there was a blackout. The ship lost power and lay still in the water for an hour before we could continue the movie. That sort of thing makes an impression on a 14-year-old.

“A Fish Called Wanda” is not so much a caper movie as about what happens after the heist. The gang has four members, the leader George (Tom Georgeson), his girlfriend Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis), her lover and team gunman Otto (Kevin Kline) and right-hand man Ken (Michael Palin). Minutes after the heist, it becomes clear that nobody trusts anybody. George moves the loot (some very valuable diamonds), he entrusts their location to Ken, while  Wanda and Otto call the police to report George who is immediately arrested. Wanda is playing everybody, being lover of George, secret lover of Otto, friend with Ken and, when she learns he is the barrister of George, tries to become friendly with Archie Leach (John Cleese). Archie is, in his turn, living a fairly boring, if comfortable, life under the boot of his rich wife, Wendy (Maria Aitken). When he is approached by the vivacious Wanda, a whole new world opens up to the repressed, middle-aged barrister.

This is a comedy and it plays hard for comedy, though less so in the beginning. It is a fairly slow starter where the pieces need to be set up. It does not take long though to work out that Otto is an imbecile with an inflated ego. As an American with a very high opinion of himself he hates the British, though not as much as when people call him stupid or tries to cheat on him. He is the source of much, if not most, of the comedy here. There is a running joke with him being incredibly jealous of anybody getting close to Wanda and with Wanda using her female charms on practically everybody, this happens a lot. Wanda meets with Archie several times and whenever she does, Otto will appear, looking in through a window or suddenly be in the room. Those are my favourite scenes of the movie. When Wanda and Archie, in an embrace, are deriding Otto for his stupidity, Otto’s head suddenly appear next to the bed, saying: “Do not call me stupid!”. I almost fell off the sofa laughing.

Kevin Kline is funny here because he has been built op throughout the movie so his fumbling around and idiotic appearances becomes a trigger for comedy. Just seeing him, we know it will be crazy. It is a bit less so with the sensitive, animal-loving Ken with a stutter. He is tasked with getting rid of an elderly woman who were able to identify George during their getaway. His attempts at her life invariably fail as he ends up killing one of her dogs instead each time. Much to his own chagrin. As a 14-year-old this was incredibly funny. Less so now. It is when Ken has his encounters with Otto it becomes hilarious. Otto pretends to be gay and makes passes on Ken, and, towards the end tortures Ken to reveal the location of the loot by sticking up chips in his nostrils and eating his beloved fish.

“A Fish Called Wanda” is very much a John Cleese project. With Michael Palin on board there is a hint of the old Monty Python vibe, but this in not the anarchy of MP, not is it the zany world of Fawlty Towers. There is a grounding here in reality that at first seem to take the fun out of the movie, but eventually becomes the sounding board at which the crazy elements are thrown. Archie would not be half as fun without Wendy. Otto is hilarious because he operates in an otherwise sane world. Cleese’ Archie is a central character, but through much of the movie he is the stooge rather than a protagonist and it is often difficult to recognize the unhinged Basil Fawlty in the repressed lawyer. As a Cleese fan, this is a bit disappointing.

As for Jamie Lee Curtis, I always had a bit of a problem with her in this movie. She is a great actress, and I have watched lots of movies where I loved her and her stunts, but I simply cannot make her that femme fatale she is supposed to be here. Something does not ring entirely true.

A few anecdotes: Archie Leach is the actual name of Cary Grant, and he came from a location (or very close to) used in the movie. Coincidence? During a showing of the movie in Denmark, an elderly gentleman in the audience died from laughter. He laughed so hard he got himself a heart attack. The deadly joke of MP?

At the Academy awards “A Fish Called Wanda” was nominated for Best Director (Charles Crichton) and Best Original Screenplay (John Cleese) and, very deservedly, won Best Supporting Actor (Kevin Kline). Kline being the absolute reason this is a big recommendation from me.