Barrister Archie (John Cleese) falls in love and tosses off more than his wig for sexy thief Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis) - who can charm the pants off anyone! To make things worse Wanda is already using her charms on fellow partner-in-crime Otto (Kevin Kline in an Oscar-winning performance) a dim-witted intellectual psychopath who thinks the London Underground is a political movement! Meanwhile Otto is making eyes at henchman Ken (Michael Palin) an animal loving multiple dog-kille
In an attempt to catch lightning in a bottle, John Cleese wrote Fierce Creatures with the purpose of reuniting the comedic cast of A Fish Called Wanda. Media mogul (Kevin Kline) owns a London zoo. He demands that the park raise more profit, so the new zoo director (Cleese) orders that only dangerous animals be displayed in order to maximize ticket sales. In a dual role, Kline also plays the mogul's son, who plans to run the zoo with the help of displaced employees (including Michael Palin) and zoo programmer Willa Weston (Jamie Lee Curtis). The situation lends itself to comedic confusion and split-second timing, and for a few good laughs the film is a pretty safe bet. It's not as hilarious as A Fish Called Wanda (that's a pretty tall order), but Cleese knows comedy, and his efforts are worth a look. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com
Leslie Phillips and Michael Maloney star in this BBC adaptation of John Hadfield's 1959 comic novel Love On A Branch Line. The series concerns a civil servant Jasper Pye (Maloney) who is sent by the government to dismantle a forgotten research unit housed in an old country mansion Arcady Hall. The owner Lord Flamborough (Phillips) an eccentric double amputee lives in an old train on his own otherwise closed 'branch line' while the government pay for the upkeep of his ancestral home. Flamborough's equally eccentric family his wife and three daughters all live in Arcady Hall. When Pye arrives he is intent on producing an efficient report regarding the unit however within days he falls under the spell of the stately home and its inhabitants...
A Fish Called Wanda was the blockbuster which proved that John Cleese could be a movie star in his own right. Directed by the Veteran Charles Crichton, who made the 1951 Ealing Comedies classic The Lavender Hill Mob, Wanda combined Ealing-comedy capers and Basil Fawlty-esque farce with contemporary big-screen swearing and black comedy. The plot develops in classic film noir style as Cleese's lawyer, Archie Leech, gets sucked into the double-crossing aftermath of a London diamond heist. For sound box-office reasons, British comedies often sport an American star and here Cleese delivers not only Jamie Lee Curtis as a smooth operating femme fatale, but Kevin Kline as her idiotic, and insanely jealous lover (for which he won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar). Pushing the limits of bad taste is Michael Palin's animal-loving Ken, who in the film's best running gag attempts to murder an old lady, only to slay her beloved pet dogs. Other highlights include Palin as a man with two chips up his nose and Cleese showing the world a different sort of "Full Monty". One of the funniest British films ever made, A Fish Called Wanda was followed by Fierce Creatures (1997), which reunited the lead cast and claimed to be an "equal" not a "sequel", but sadly wasn't. --Gary S Dalkin
Based on the John Hadfield best-seller, this quintessentially British comedy follows the trials and tribulations of respectable, if somewhat boring civil servant Jasper Pye. Desperate for a radical change and some excitement in his life, the chance arises when he is sent to dismantle an old government research unit in the country. He soon finds himself seduced by life in the idyllic village and is beguiled by the charms of local eccentric Lord Flamborough and his three beautiful daughters.
A woman becomes very curious about one of her psychiatrist husband's inmates, a man who was found guilty in the murder and disfigurement of his former wife.
An all-star comic cast featuring Kevin Kline, who won* an Oscar for his role, joins Monty Pythoners John Cleese and Michael Palin (Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian) and sexy Jamie Lee Curtis (True Lies ) in a film so stuffed to the gills with laughs, you'll fall for it hook, line and sinker! Four conniving jewel thieves, three Yorkshire terriers, two heaving bosoms and one proper British barrister. It all adds up to a nonstop barrage of...outrageous plot twists and over-the-top performances when a girl called Wanda (Curtis) tries to cheat her Nietzche-quoting boyfriend (Kline), an animal-loving hit man (Palin) and an embarrassment-prone counsellor (Cleese) out of a fortune in jewels in this hilariously funny farce!
With memorable and unsettling opening credits and exceptional performances and direction Armchair Thriller became a massive hit for Thames Television in the late 1970s and early 1980s. With its trademark ghoulish razor-sharp cliff hangers and iconic theme tune (by Roxy Music's Andy Mackay) this haunting anthology series was an immediate success its eerie disturbing and downright scary tales regularly attracting over 15 million viewers. Each of its ten stories is a gripping exercise in compelling television showing ordinary people plunged into extraordinary situations. For many this series remains a high-watermark of dramatic television and its many frightening and spooky moments are remembered by viewers nearly thirty years after its original transmission. Quiet As A Nun: A nun dies of starvation after locking herself in a convent tower. Jemima Shore a former pupil at the convent school and now a television interviewer is asked to investigate. Jemima is surprised to discover that the death of the nun is connected with her own television programme.
Three more rollicking good tales starring Michael Palin in various guises. Written by Michael Palin and Terry Jones. 'The Testing Of Eric Olthwaite' 'Whinfrey's Last Case' and 'The Curse of The Claw'. The Testing of Eric Olthwaite: A Ripping Northern Yarn set in the dark days of the depression before Last of the Summer Wine started bringing jobs to the area. Eric's tough mining parents find their son so boring that they run away from home. Eric torn between love for his parents and lack of brain cells becomes involved with a hardened criminal. The rest is history. Whinfrey's Last Case: Dashing Gerald Whinfrey saves his country twice a week but in 1913 a German plot to start the First World War without telling anybody coincides with his holiday. Where do Whinfrey's priorities lie? Has he got any? A knockout tale of international intrigue. If only Dickens could write like this - Mrs Reg Dickens Eltham. The Curse of the Claw: Gothic terror comes to Maidenhead. A timely reminder of what happens when men dabble in the dark world of oriental superstition. Michael Palin aided by inexpensive plastic surgery plays old and young Kevin as well as Kevin's childhood hero Uncle Jack - an enormously cheerful physical disaster area who has every disease known to man usually at the same time.
Few individuals significantly alter the course of history. Fewer still modify the map of the World. Hardly anyone can be credited with creating a nation. Mohammad Ali Jinnah did all three.... 'A sweeping historical epic Christopher Lee is tremendously moving in his ability to illuminate the inner life of a man of unflinching dignity.' Los Angeles Times
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