From the Monty Python stable, an English caper-comedy with a complex plot involving a gang of hopeless misfits who pull off a successful diamond robbery in London.
The gang’s female member is an American gun moll named Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis). Her jewel-thief boyfriend Otto (Kevin Kline) is ex-CIA and a psychopath.
The duo are assisted by stuttering Cockney crook and animal lover Ken (Michael Palin), and the mastermind of the entire robbery is George Thomason (Tom Georgeson).
Wanda decides she wants all the diamonds to herself and tips the cops off about George – only to discover she doesn’t know where George stashed the loot.
She sets out to seduce George’s lawyer, an uptight, inhibited clod called Archie Leach (John Cleese), in whom George may have confided. Cleese is hysterical as he does a seduction scene in Italian – and even gets a nude scene.
A complex double-crossing caper then ensues, during which Archie falls in love, deranged Otto becomes dangerously jealous, George stays safely out of the way, and K-K-K-Ken’s heart is broken when Otto eats his tropical fish – one of which is also called Wanda (hence the title, get it?).
Meanwhile, K-K-K-Ken has hidden the k-k-k-key to the vault where the diamonds are hidden in Wanda’s fish tank.
Somehow, the oddly-matched cast of A Fish Called Wanda – “A Tale of Murder, Lust, Greed, Revenge and Seafood” – complemented each other beautifully.
The movie was directed by Charles Crichton, although Cleese had to name himself as “codirector” to get the film insurance, because the studio was worried by the seventy-eight-year-old Crichton’s age.
TRIVIA “Archie Leach” is the real name of actor Cary Grant. Cleese chose the name for his character as both actors came from the English town of Weston-super-Mare.
Archie Leach John Cleese
Wanda
Jamie Lee Curtis Otto
Kevin Kline
Ken
Michael Palin
Wendy
Maria Aitken
George Thomason
Tom Georgeson
Mrs Coady
Patricia Hayes
Judge
Geoffrey Palmer
Portia
Cynthia Caylor
Director
Charles Crichton
Video
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The duo are assisted by stuttering Cockney crook and animal lover Ken (Michael Palin), and the mastermind of the entire robbery is George Thomason (Tom Georgeson).
Meanwhile, K-K-K-Ken has hidden the k-k-k-key to the vault where the diamonds are hidden in Wanda’s fish tank.
The movie was directed by Charles Crichton, although Cleese had to name himself as “codirector” to get the film insurance, because the studio was worried by the seventy-eight-year-old Crichton’s age.
Otto
