Starring: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Maria Aitken, Tom Georgeson, John Du Prez.
Release Date: July 7, 1988
Running Time: 108 min
Genres: Comedy, Crime
Commentary A Fish Called Wanda is a hilarious comedy concerning a wacky gang of jewel thieves in London and a stuffy but charming British barrister. The script is a scream, as is the acting. John Cleese is a riot as the barrister Archibald Leach. Kevin Kline is also quite funny as Otto West, a rather dim-witted pseudo-intellectual and sadistic animal hater, as is Jamie Lee Curtis as Wanda Gerschwitz, his conniving lover.
Plot Summary
The movie begins with a 20 million dollar jewel heist in London performed by two British men and an American couple. Shortly after the heist, George Thomason (Tom Georgeson), the leader of the gang, moves the jewels to another secret location. Otto and Wanda, the American couple, betray George to the police, but when they try to recover the jewels, they discover that he had moved them. In order to try to learn their new location, Wanda seduces George's barrister Archibald Leach. While doing so, her lover Otto becomes more and more jealous, often showing up in some very embarrasing situations! Eventually Wanda ends up falling for Archie. By the end of the movie, everyone tries to recover the diamonds, which George had hidden at Heathrow Airport. Eventually Wanda and Archie get them and fly off together, much to Otto's dismay.
Humor A Fish Called Wanda is full of hilarious scenes. Here are a few:
While Wanda and Archie are making love, Otto is sneaking outside listening to them. They begin discussing him behind his back. Just before Archie is about to comment about how stupid he is, Otto bursts in and says, "Don't call me stupid!"
Following this fiasco, Otto makes Archie apologize by hanging him upside-down from a fifth-story window. Archie apologizes very calmly and profusely.
George tells his associate Ken Pile (Michael Palin), a stuttering animal lover, to kill an old woman who's a key witness in the jewel robbery. Inadvertenly, he ends up killing each of her three dogs one by one, mourning over their loss in each case.
Perhaps the funniest scene in the movie involves Otto torturing Ken by eating his pet fish one by one, forcing him to reveal the location of the diamonds.
Movie Clips
Here's the original movie trailer.
Here's a very funny introduction by John Cleese.
Here's a funny scene in which Wanda corrects Otto on some key points.
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Title: A Fish Called Wanda 
