A very crooked tour

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Movie
German title A very crooked tour
Original title Foul play
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1978
length 116 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Colin Higgins
script Colin Higgins
production Thomas L. Miller ,
Edward K. Milkis
music Charles Fox
camera David M. Walsh
cut Pembroke J. Herring
occupation

The Odd Tour is an American crime comedy from 1978 with Goldie Hawn in the lead role. The film pays homage to earlier Alfred Hitchcock films . It marked the acting debut of Chevy Chase and the Hollywood debut of British comedian Dudley Moore .

action

Gloria Mundy, a recently divorced San Francisco librarian , is encouraged by a friend at a party to try new things. On the way home she picks up hitchhiker Bob Scott on California State Route 1 , whom she likes so much that she invites him to a movie night. At his request, she also takes Scott's cigarettes, supposedly to help him quit. In fact, Scott hid a film role in the package. Scott not only arrives late for the performance, he also dies with the hint of an impending murder and the warning of "the dwarf" in her arms. After she got help, his body disappeared and no one believes that there was a dead person at all.

From then on she feels persecuted; Gloria's landlord, Mr Hennessey, advises her to be careful and her colleague Stella, a feminist, advises her on self-defense. She is attacked by an albino in the library. She can escape to a bar first. There she approaches the Englishman Stanley Tibbets, who however interprets this as an attempt at seduction, and accompanies him to his "love nest" nearby. After clearing up the misunderstanding, Gloria returns to her apartment, where she is attacked by a man with a scarred face. Gloria manages to get free and calls the police, but then has to watch as the scarred face is shot by the albino. She then fainted herself.

When she wakes up again, all traces of the night fight are gone, so that she can neither convince the police officers Tony Carlson and Ferguson nor her landlord that she was really attacked. Gloria escapes after another attempt at kidnapping. The next day, their fear discharges into violent defensive measures against the short representative JJ MacKuen. The police investigation now makes her story seem more believable; she has found out that Bob Scott was an undercover agent on the hit man Rupert Stiltskin (aka "the dwarf") and that the albino Whitey Jackson works for him. The body of Scarface, who also worked for Stiltskin, is also found. Tony, now officially in charge of Gloria's protection, takes her to his houseboat, where the two get closer.

Tony and Ferguson track down the black limousine that Gloria was chasing, and when they discover the vehicle is registered in the Archdiocese of San Francisco , they pay a visit to Archbishop Thorncrest; the archbishop declares that his car was stolen. The police do not know that Stiltskin and Charlie Thorncrest, the twin brother of the archbishop, murdered him - as shown at the beginning of the film - and that Charlie has now slipped into the role of archbishop. The next day, Stiltskin kidnaps Ferguson in order to lure Gloria into an ambush. She finds shelter for a short time in a massage parlor; there she meets Stanley Tibbets again in a precarious situation, but is finally kidnapped by Stiltskin and the albino.

Chance comes to Tony's aid: Stella has done research for Gloria and in her materials the policeman recognizes the archbishop's housekeeper. The supposed housekeeper turns out to be Delia Darrow, the initiator of an anti-church group, who was arrested a few years ago. Tony suspects Gloria and Fergusson are being held in the archiepiscopal estate; he and Mr. Hennessey set out quickly to rescue them. In the basement of the property, Tony finds Ferguson tied up, who informs him that Stiltskin has been hired to assassinate the Pope at an opera performance. Tony, who is attacked by Stiltskin, can kill him in self-defense, but is then captured by Delia Darrow. She explains to Tony that instead of Stiltskins, the albino will carry out the assassination. In the meantime, however, Mr. Hennessey has snuck into the house; he can take out Delia in a karate duel and free Tony and Gloria.

The performance of the operetta Der Mikado has already started in the War Memorial Opera House . Stanley Tibbets is also present because he is - as it now turns out - the conductor of the orchestra. Tony and Gloria finally reach the opera house in a chase through San Francisco and can put the albino backstage. After an exchange of fire, the bodies of the albino and a policeman fall onto the stage; the shock of the opera audience is resolved by the - initially sole - applause from the Pope.

criticism

“While Miss Hawn seems blank for most of the film, her co-star Chevy Chase is correspondingly cool. [...] It is a surprise that A Very Crooked Tour sees itself more as a thriller than a comedy. "

- Janet Maslin in the New York Times

"Crime comedy overloaded with genre quotes, which reinforces the weaknesses of the script through a direction that is sometimes unsure of taste and only achieves a parodic format in a few scenes."

- Lexicon of international film

“With his first feature film, he managed a respectable crime parody with a good cast and some intelligent-sarcastic swipes. Chevy Chase can be seen here alongside Goldie Hawn in his first leading role. "

- prism

production

A very crooked tour has multiple references throughout the film and pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock . The premise of the innocent person caught in a web of intrigue has been used by Hitchcock in films such as Saboteurs , The 39 Steps, and The Invisible Third Party. The finale and the prevented assassination attempt in an opera was already used in Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much . When Gloria is attacked in her apartment, she almost uses scissors to defend herself, as in Hitchcock's On Call Murder . You can also find references to films such as Infamous , Vertigo - From the Realm of the Dead and Psycho . Even the MacGuffin stylistic device, coined by Hitchcock , an object that appears important at the beginning of a story but loses meaning in the course of the plot, was introduced in the form of the cigarette pack.

The name of the leading actress Gloria Mundy is a reference to the Latin quote sic transit gloria mundi , which was part of the papal coronation until 1963 .

Higgins originally wrote the character of Stanley Tibbets for Tim Conway , who later turned down the role, which is why the British comedian and actor Dudley Moore made his Hollywood debut . This role also gave Moore the lead role in the comedy Ten - The Dream Woman by Blake Edwards .

Awards

publication

The film opened in US theaters on July 19, 1978 and was able to bring in almost 45 million US dollars again. In West Germany it opened in theaters on February 1, 1979 and in the GDR on April 24, 1981. The film is available in German-speaking countries on VHS and has been available on DVD since October 2014 , under the title FOUL PLAY - Eine sehr krumme Tour .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Janet Maslin : Foul Play (1978) on nytimes.com, July 19, 1978, accessed January 3, 2012
  2. ↑ A very crooked tour. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed May 4, 2019 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ A very crooked tour on prisma.de , accessed on December 3, 2011
  4. ^ A b Frank Miller: Foul Play (1978) Articles. Turner Classic Movies , accessed May 4, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Foul Play (1978) on boxofficemojo.com (English), accessed January 3, 2012