BoardChiri Bad Acting and worse Bad Screenplay

Solidrariol Am I Missing Something?

Portia Hilton Blistering performances.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

dglink With several nods to Alfred Hitchcock, Colin Higgins's romantic-comedy-thriller, "Foul Play" is a clever entertainment from the late 1970's. The film was both written and directed by Higgins, who also helmed the amiable musical "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" and the comedy, "9 to 5," in his tragically brief career. After an opening party scene, stars Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase work well together as Higgins's screwball-comedy plot unfolds and takes unexpectedly bizarre turns.Along the California coast highway, Goldie picks up a stranger, who appears to be having car trouble, and she drives him to San Francisco; unbeknownst to her, he slips a roll of film into a cigarette pack and, because he is trying to cut back on smoking, asks her to hold the pack until they meet again that evening for a movie. Arriving late in the theater, the mystery man drips blood into Goldie's popcorn, whispers "beware of the dwarf," and dies in his seat. Goldie's act of kindness and subsequent naivete immerse her in a string of events that involve an albino, a scarface, and the aforementioned dwarf, who are plotting with the city's archbishop, his housekeeper, the chauffeur... But who is keeping score, and what they are plotting is only the "McGuffin," because the fun is in the journey.Chevy Chase as the police detective investigating Hawn's outlandish claims is amusing, and Goldie herself is an especially endearing heroine. The duo are supported by Burgess Meredith as Hawn's friend and landlord, who is quite good, as are Brian Dennehy, Rachel Roberts and Marilyn Sokol. However, Dudley Moore in his American film debut manages to steal his few scenes, which admittedly have little to do with the plot. As Stanley, a Hugh Hefner wannabe with a Vegas-style bachelor pad, Moore does a wonderful John Travolta disco strip tease to "Stayin' Alive." Higgins has evidently seen more than his share of Hitchcock movies and incorporated several of the master's touches such as slow suspenseful build-ups, disappearing corpses, and a climactic scene during "The Mikado." Higgins's romantic-comedy-thriller succeeds fairly well on all three counts, although the attempts at slapstick fail to click, and the requisite chase is predictable and unfunny. Nevertheless, "Foul Play" is generally fun and an entertaining two-hour diversion with two comedic stars, who are pleasant company indeed.

aldri-39576 It's a little hard going all the way back to 1978 as I had to tonight watching foul play again for about the dozenth time. I've always enjoyed this movie, and felt like it really symbolized that era well. Chevy Chase and Goldi Hawn were both in their prime then, and their little affair had a lot of good chemistry. As a comedy suspense thriller, this movie suits the genre really well. The pacing seemed a little slow to me this time around, and the dialogue weaker than I expected. But there are so many memorable scenes here. This was back when feminism, political correctness and the swinger lifestyle were all sort of new and topical. And so some of the best scenes revolved around those themes. Also, we have a lot of colorful characters to offset goldie's ditsy blandness. In fact, one of the characters was actually devoid of any color at all in a literal sense i.e. he was an albino. This guy's albino eyes really gave him an unusually sinister quality. And then there was Dudley Moore who almost stole the comedy spotlight from Chevy Chase. No small feat there. But the circus like cast of villains was important to the plot, as early on Goldie comes across as a lunatic for mentioning plots to kill her involving unseen dwarfs, albinos, etc. All very funny. Anyway, in retrospect, Goldie is not given much of a script though, while the dwarf and Dudley Moore provide the best comic relief aside from Chevy who plays his usual droll self.A spoiler would be needed to talk about what happens near the end. There is not much meat to the murder suspense subplot, but thankfully, there are other surprises here and there that will make you smile. Rounding out this blast from the past is Barry Manilows famous song about going for it.If you've ever seen the classic horror thriller "wait until dark" starring Audrey Hepburn, Foul Play is at times reminiscent of it early on, only not so terrifying. It's a good thing, as Foul Play is really more about comedy than suspense, and the Batmanesque cast of villains encourages you to not take it all too seriously. And with Dudley Moore famous swinger pad scene early on, you're definitely laughing more than you are clutching your chair. I've played a clip of that on YouTube many, many times and never tire of Dudleys performance.So, two thumbs up. Vintage Chevy and Goldie, while Brian Dennehy also puts in a nice appearance.

mike48128 Best watched with other Goldie Hawn performances, such as "Cactus Flower", "Seems Like Old Times", "Protocol", and "Death Becomes You". Goldie has starred in many enjoyable films over the years. You can't argue that, especially when young, she had "it" all. A photogenic face and a cute, petite, figure. Chevy Chase by comparison, is not always that funny, but his earlier movies were fun and his later "vacation" movies were as well. Sometimes a great cast makes a minor movie like this worth your time: Charles Grodin, Dudley Moore, Burgess Meredith, Billy Barty, and others. It's a spoof of the Hitchcock thriller "The Wrong Man". The plot devise, assassinating the pope, is a bit ludicrous, but not as bad as when used in that "Naked Gun" film. It's a funny movie, as long as you don't have great expectations for it. It's like the early Barbra Streisand comedies, It's homage to "Film Noir" and 1940's "screwball" comedies.

jzappa The first time I saw Foul Play, I didn't care for it a whole lot and this time, I was able to enjoy it a lot. I laughed a lot more, and I appreciated not only the dialogue but that Colin Higgins' film is an homage at heart. Although what I didn't like about it before still stands, and it concerns what else might be at its heart. But at any rate, Foul Play is a deference to Sir Alfred Hitchcock, more than a few of whose films are alluded to throughout the film. The basis of an innocent person becoming tangled in a snarl of conspiracy is at the hub of Hitchcock films such as The 39 Steps, Saboteur, North by Northwest and, most conspicuously in this case, The Man Who Knew Too Much, which encouraged Foul Play's opera house climax. When Gloria is assaulted in her home, she rummages inside her knitting basket and nearly settles on a pair of scissors to protect herself, a citation of Dial M for Murder. As well, the plot embraces a MacGuffin, in the shape of the celluloid roll hidden in the cigarette pack.But about the plot. The conspiracy that's pursued and ultimately of course unraveled by the movie's extraordinarily charming pair of stars is the diabolical work of the Tax the Churches League, a militant radical group maintaining that organized religion is a crooked, gluttonous con connecting billion-dollar corporations. Well, indeed, religious organizations like the Catholic Church, which the League plans to strike in Foul Play, are not obligated to contribute to their community in equal measure to the tax breaks they're forever awarded, nor can we ever seem to fully hold them accountable for any wrongdoings. And yet, somehow, the ruthless villains here are a progressive confederacy seeking to do so, and are portrayed in doing that as using assassination and also as being freaks. One henchman is albino, a condition rather indecently used to further estrange him from us as a villain. Another of their thugs is a killer with a scar.I wonder how much more gripping Foul Play's plot could've been not only imitating Hitchcock's in form but also in narrative workings. Why not the Archdiocese of San Francisco itself be at the heart of a political conspiracy, as, historically, the Catholic Church constantly has been? Our lead sleuths stumble upon information that the revenue needs of San Francisco are met by the Archdiocese at only a fraction of the rate all these different secular non-profits are taxed. A couple of expository characters are organizers of disease and poverty associations that now have to put their meager proceeds toward taxes because they couldn't meet all their requirements, and the detective and the girl look for the Archdiocese's tax-exempt standards. They're nowhere to be found. There could've still been plenty of great vignettes about Dudley Moore's would-be ladies' man, Burgess Meredith's old landlord who knows karate and dwarfs victimized by mistaken identity. But we'd care, just as we did that Michael Redgrave and Margaret Lockwood would save Dame May Witty from the occupiers in The Lady Vanishes and that the factory worker could stop the Nazi collaborators from bombing the Navy ship in Saboteur.Regardless, Foul Play is undeniably a good light-hearted time at the movies. Chevy Chase is always an amusing presence because his persona is particular, a nice, pleasant guy with not a whole lot on his mind except extremely simple things. He's a meat-and-potatoes guy, but with an airy disposition. He's always smiling, and not really very aware of things outside of him like the table in front of him or that he's in mortal danger. This whole persona is reinforced by every delivery of every line. And as his counterpart of the film's vintage-style duo, Goldie Hawn uses her cutesy blonde naivete and tee-hee smiles to extreme effect as the classic damsel in distress. The less you think about Foul Play, the better.