| | | 2 Disc Set!
Features: DVD, Widescreen, Aspect Ratio 1.85:1, Dolby Digital (5.1), Mono Audio, Dolby Surround Sound, French, Spanish
Tour-de-force performances from an unparalleled comic cast highlight this much-loved hit that Roger Ebert calls "the funniest movie I have seen in a long time!" Monty Python'ers John Cleese and Michael Palin (Search For The Holy Grail, The Meaning Of Life) join Oscar winner Kevin Kline (In & Out) and Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies) in an entertainment so impeccably timed and executed that Time Magazine hailed it as: "Genius...[a film that] redefines agreat comic tradition!"Four conniving jewel thieves...three yorkshire terriers...two heaving bosoms and one proper British barrister. It all adds up to "a non-stop barrage of...outrageous plot twists and over-the top performances" (L.A. Weekly) when a girl called Wanda (Curtis) tries to deceive her Nietzche-quoting boyfriend (Kline), an animal-loving hitman (Palin) and an embarrassment-prone counselor (Cleese) out of a fortune in jewels in this hilariously funny farce!
"Genius! Wanda redefines a great comic tradition." Richard Schickel, Time Magazine
"A convulsively funny affair." Sheila Benson, Los Angeles Times
"Comical fish is the catch of the day!" USA Today
Editor's Note
In A FISH CALLED WANDA, veteran director Charles Crichton and scriptwriter-star John Cleese create a dazzling quilt from various strands of English and American comedy. The plot, in which four disparate characters attempt a daring heist, comes from Ealing caper comedies, such as Crichton's own THE LAVENDER HILL MOB. Cleese and Michael Palin, as the hit man with a stutter and a love of animals, come from the anarchic tradition of Monty Python. The movie pays savage tribute to another Ealing comedy, THE LADYKILLERS, as Palin attempts to kill a witness to the gang's getaway. The glamorous con woman (Jamie Lee Curtis) is from Preston Sturges's great comedy THE LADY EVE, while Kevin Kline provides his own unique feverish comic intensity. But, in the midst of this breathless comedy, something else happens. The barrister, Archie Leach (Cleese), who is defending one of the gang, is jolted out of his tight-laced British existence by Curtis's life force. And Curtis--like Barbara Stanwyck in THE LADY EVE--falls into her own trap: falling in love with the man she's conning. The 78-year-old Crichton never before had such rich material. He times everything in this brilliant comedy with the precision of a Swiss watch.
Plot Summary
An odd quartet of thieves pulls off "the big jewel job," but only the brains of the operation knows where the gems are hidden. Unfortunately he's in prison and needs his stuffy defense counsel--and so do the other gang members--to go get the stash for them.
| Features | Audio Commentary Featuring John Cleese | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: English, French, Spanish Dolby Digital Mono | | Deleted & Alternate Scenes With Introductions By John Cleese | | Documentary: Something Fishy | | Dubbed: French, Spanish | | Easter Eggs | | Featurettes: Farewell John Cleese, John Cleese's First Farewell Performance & Kulture Vulture | | Interactive Menus | | Interview: A Message From John Cleese | | MGM Previews | | Scene Selection | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Widescreen & Full Screen Versions Of The Film |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Sony Pictures |
| Release Date: 1/1/2037 |
| Running Time: 108 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1988 | | Catalog ID: 13960 | | UPC: 00027616139603 | | Number of Discs: 2 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French (unspecified) | | Available Subtitles: English, French | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Letterbox/Pan and Scan (TV Format) 1.85:1/1.33:1 [4:3] |
| Cast & Crew
| Awards |
Oscar (1989) | | | Charles Crichton, Nominee, Best Director | |
British Academy Awards (1989) |  | John Cleese, Winner, Best Actor | |
Oscar (1989) | | | John Cleese, John Crichton, Nominee, Best Writing, Original Screenplay | | Kevin Kline, Winner, Best Actor in a Supporting Role | |
British Academy Awards (1989) | | Michael Palin, Winner, Best Actor in a Supporting Role | | | Michael Shamberg, Charles Crichton, Nominee, Best Film |
| Memorable Quotes| "I used to box for Oxford."----Archie (John Cleese)|"I used to kill for the CIA."----Otto (Kevin Kline) | | "To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people. I've known sheep that could outwit you. I've worn dresses with higher I.Qs."----Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) to Otto | | "Wanda, do you have any idea what it's like being English? Being so correct all the time, being so stifled by this dread of, of doing the wrong thing, of saying to someone 'Are you married?' and hearing 'My wife left me this morning,' or saying, uh, 'Do you have children?' and being told they all burned to death on Wednesday? You see, Wanda, we're all terrified of embarrassment. That's why we're so dead. Most of my friends are dead, you know, we have these piles of corpses to dinner. But you're alive, God bless you, and I want to be, I'm so fed up with all this. I want to make love with you, Wanda. I'm a good lover----at least I used to be, back in the early fourteenth century. Can we go to bed?----Archie to Wanda | | "Not you, Ken; you've got a beautiful speaking voice----when it works."----Otto to Ken (Micahel Palin) |
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| | Professional Reviews | Los Angeles Times
"...A convulsively funny affair....It's a smart farce about ingrained cultural differences..." 07/15/1988 p.C1USA Today
"...Wildly out of control as well as wildly funny, this sleeper smash is also Oscar-nominated for script and direction..." 02/23/1989 p.3D ReelViews 10 of 10
When it comes to comedians, everyone has their favorite. Mine is John Cleese. In fact, he has held that place in my esteem since the first time I watched an episode of Fawlty Towers on PBS, some twenty years ago. Up to that point, I knew Cleese as just another member of the Monty Python gang, but after spending 30 minutes with uptight hotel owner Basil Fawlty, I would never again think of the actor as a mere cog in a comic ensemble...Nothing is sacred to Cleese, who flouts every possible definition of political correctness by satirizing homosexuals, the British, the Americans, and stutterers. And, just to prove that he's got nothing to hide, Cleese does one of the most side-splitting stripteases ever to appear on screen. - James Berardinelli
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
"A Fish Called Wanda" is the funniest movie I have seen in a long time; it goes on the list with "The Producers," "This is Spinal Tap" and the early Inspector Clouseau movies...The film has one hilarious sequence after another. For classic farce, nothing tops the scene in Cleese's study, where Cleese's wife almost interrupts Curtis in mid-seduction. Curtis and Kline slip behind the draperies while the mortified Cleese tries to explain a bottle of Champagne and a silver locket. The timing in this scene is as good as anything since the Marx Brothers. - Roger Ebert
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