A Fish Called Wanda

All you want to know about A Fish Called Wanda

A Fish Called Wanda
A Fish Called Wanda movie poster
Directed by	Charles Crichton
Produced by	Michael Shamberg
Written by	John Cleese Charles Crichton
Starring	John Cleese Jamie Lee Curtis Kevin Kline Michael Palin Maria Aitken Tom Georgeson
Music by	John Du Prez
Cinematography	Alan Hume
Distributed by	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)
Release date(s)	July 15, 1988
Running time	108 min
Language	English
IMDb profile

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

1 Plot
2 Reception
3 Followups
4 References
5 External links

Plot

The film is a comedy about a jewel heist and its aftermath. The heist is planned by George Thomason (played by Tom Georgeson) whose right-hand man is Ken Pile (Michael Palin), an animal lover with a bad stutter. They bring in two Americans: an alluring con artist, Wanda Gershwitz (Jamie Lee Curtis) and a "weapons man", Otto West (Kevin Kline). Wanda and Otto are lovers pretending to be siblings so that Wanda can work her charms on George and Ken.

After the robbery, Wanda and Otto betray George to the police but discover that George and Ken have moved the loot to a new location. Wanda decides to seduce George's lawyer, Archie Leach (John Cleese), to find out where it is. Meanwhile, Ken is charged by George to silence a key witness.

There is subsequent confusion and slapstick. For example, with Ken accidentally killing the witness' three Yorkshire Terriers one by one, instead of the witness. The title is derived from the name of Ken's tropical fish which Otto threatens to eat alive during the farcical torture scene.

Reception

The film was an enormous critical and commercial success when it was released and has remained a popular favorite since.^{[citation needed]} Kline received wide acclaim and won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his work.^[1] Cleese and Crichton received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

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. This film is number 27 on Bravo's "100 Funniest Movies". It is also included in the Reader's Digest list of the "100 Funniest Films" (a list rather than a ranking). A Fish Called Wanda was one of only 24 movies to be named on all three of the A.F.I., Bravo and Readers' Digest "top 100 funniest" lists.^{[citation needed]} The movie also garnered an impressive and rare 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

In 1989, a Danish audiologist, Ole Bentzen, died after laughing while watching the film. His heart was estimated to have beat at between 250 and 500 beats per minute, before he succumbed to cardiac arrest.^[2]

Followups

The principal cast reunited in 1997 for Fierce Creatures (dubbed an "equal" rather than a sequel or prequel, by Cleese), playing different roles and meeting less success.

John Cleese and his daughter, Cynthia (who played Portia), have reportedly started to work on a stage musical version of the film.^[3]