A Fish Called Wanda

A Fish Called Wanda (1988) opens with a diamond robbery in London. A team of four pull it off, then everyone betrays everyone, and only the man who goes to prison knows where the diamonds are. Wanda sets out to seduce his barrister and find out. Charles Crichton was 78 when he directed it. He had been one of the directors of the Ealing comedies, a figure from the classic period of British comedy. MGM executives worried about his age and John Cleese was installed as co director despite never having directed a film. Cleese wrote the screenplay with Crichton and plays the lead. He named his character Archie Leach, which was Cary Grant's real name. The strangest fact about the film happened to a member of the audience. Ole Bentzen, a Danish audiologist, died laughing during a screening; the official cause was heart fibrillation, with prolonged laughter raising his heart rate thought to have contributed. Kevin Kline won Best Supporting Actor. It cost 7.5 million dollars and grossed 188.6 million worldwide, taking twelve million pounds in Britain and becoming the highest grossing British film to that point. It runs 109 minutes. Good for: British comedy, heist films, and Cleese and Kline. Less good for: violence against dogs is used as a running joke and those scenes are unwatchable for some. There are sequences mocking a stutter that play badly now.