Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Screwball?

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A Fish Called Wanda (1988)

Dir. Charles Crichton Written by: John Cleese & Charles Crichton

Starring: John Cleese, Jamie Lee Curtis, Kevin Kline, Michael Palin, Tom Georgeson9

Otto: Don't call me stupid.
Wendy: Why on earth not?
Otto: Oh, you English are *so* superior, aren't you? Well, would you like to know what you'd be without us, the good ol' U.S. of A. to protect you? I'll tell you. The smallest fucking province in the Russian Empire, that's what! So don't call me stupid, lady. Just thank me.
Wendy: Well, *thank* you for popping in and protecting us.
Otto: If it wasn't for us, you'd all be speaking *German!* Singing "Deutschland, Deutschland über alles..."

Searching for, what I call neo-Screwball comedies, is more difficult than I thought. I found a few pitiful lists--they contained mostly films that I've either thought of or ones that might have a few screwballish tendencies but never the real deal. This film, A Fish... was on one of those lists and so I dutifully ordered it from the local library. It came and I popped it into the DVD player, actually I carefully placed it in the player so as not to scratch it like any good Film buff would and sat back and relaxed.

The basic premise:

Set in London, four people come together to pull of an jewelery robbery. Within the group of four there are dyad's that have formed alliances previously to the group coming together. Wanda (Curtis) and Otto (Kline) are couple who pretend to be brother and sister-to make things easier-George (Georges) and Ken (Palin) are the other alliance. They all plan, plot, and execute the crime and make off with the loot. The next phase of the plan requires them to all separate and for one to take the jewels and hide them. After this they are supposed to meet divvy up the jewels; only they and don't and then they can't.

On the basis of a good comedy film it was one. I tittered in spots and enjoyed the performances of the leads but it missed the mark for me on several points if it is to be considered a Screwball Comedy. Mostly it was missing the complete zaniness of true SC. That oh-so-elusive element that makes SC'S still funny and refreshing so many years later.

I am all for vugarity, but I am not sure how I feel about the use of vugarity within a SC. One theory that I operate under is that the reason some genres of classic films exist, and in my opinion Rock!, are because they had to work around and underneath the MPPDA, aka the Hays Code, censorship does wonders for creativity. Two of my absolute favorite genres, Screwball Comedies and Film Noir benifitted wonderfully from the production code.

So while, I feel like the movie is wonderfully inventive and a lovely comedy it is not going to be labeled Neo-Screwball by me. But I reserve the right to change my mind;)