Foul Play

In San Francisco, Gloria, a librarian, picks up a hitchhiker who dies in her lap and finds herself inside an assassination plot with the visiting pope as the target. Nobody believes her, because the evidence disappears every time. Colin Higgins mixes thriller and comedy in equal measure and takes the template straight from Hitchcock: the innocent person, the vanishing body, the disbelieving police. The gap in register between Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase is the engine. Dudley Moore has little screen time and carries the most remembered sequence in the film. The chase to the opera house and the taxi scene are good examples of the form. Barry Manilow's song stayed on the charts for a long time. Who it is for: viewers who like seventies comedy thrillers and Hitchcock parody. Who it is not for: anyone wanting real suspense, since every threat is cut with a joke.