History Film / AFishCalledWanda

'''Archie:''' ''(to police officers, calmly)'' Fuck off, pigs. ''({{beat}})'' I said fuck off!

* NietzscheWannabe: Otto models himself on a Nietzschean ubermensch and is constantly talking and reading about Nietzsche's philosophy. Despite being a consummate KnowNothingKnowItAll, Nietzsche appears to be the one subject he actually knows something about.

--> '''Ken:''' "REVENGE!"

-->Wanda, do you have any idea what it's like being English? Being so correct all the time, being so stifled by this dread of, of doing the wrong thing, of saying to someone "Are you married?" and hearing "My wife left me this morning", or saying, uh, "Do you have children?" and being told they all burnt to death on Wednesday. You see, Wanda, we'll all terrified of embarrassment. That's why we're so... dead.

--> '''Judge:''' Mr. Leach... ''Darling?''
--> '''Archie:''' Yes dear?

---> '''Wendy:''' Good night, Archie. ''(beat)'' Good ''night'', Archie!\\

-->'''Archie:''' ''(leaves the gun)'' I used to box for Oxford.
-->'''Otto:''' Oh, yeah? ''([[CombatPragmatist grabs the gun]])'' Well, I used to kill for the CIA.

-->'''Wanda:''' I'm sorry about my brother, Ken. I know he's insensitive. He's had a hard life. Dad used to beat him up.
-->'''Ken:''' ''(beat, smirking to himself)'' Good.

* MsFanservice: Wanda.

* NervousWreck: Ken.

-->'''Archie:''' You're a true vulgarian, aren't you?
-->'''Otto:''' ''You're'' the vulgarian, [[IResembleThatRemark you fuck!]]

--> "Will you leave ''immediately'', please?"

-->'''George:''' Tell those pigs to fuck off.
-->'''Archie:''' ''(to police officers, calmly)'' Fuck off, pigs. ''({{beat}})'' I said fuck off!

-->'''Wanda:''' But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape?
-->'''Otto:''' Apes don't read philosophy.
-->'''Wanda:''' Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it.

* ShownTheirWork: As mentioned below, Palin researched stuttering, and tried to portray it as realistically as possible. For example, as nervousness and stress makes a person's stutter worse, Ken accordingly speaks better in the company of Wanda, who genuinely is kind of him, and worse with Otto, who mocks and threatens him frequently.

LondonGangster George Thomason (Tom Georgeson) and his right-hand man Ken (Palin) have enlisted the services of American criminals Wanda (Curtis) and Otto (Kline) as partners in a jewel heist. Once the jewels are safely hidden, Wanda and Otto, who are lovers but are [[RelativelyFlimsyExcuse pretending to be siblings]], betray George to the police so they can steal the loot for themselves, but they find he has moved the jewels without telling them. Knowing only that they are in a safety deposit box (the key to which George gave to Ken, but which Wanda soon retrieves), Wanda gambles on George having revealed its location to his defence barrister, Archie Leach (Cleese), and tries to seduce the information out of him. Things get complicated when Wanda finds herself falling for the unhappily-married Archie, to Otto's jealous rage; meanwhile, Ken is trying to [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident arrange the death]] of the only witness against George, but he keeps killing her Yorkshire terriers instead...

The film features a gang of criminals who double-cross each other and involves the comedic use of a steamroller.

* ArrogantKungFuGuy JerkJock: Otto, who echoes of the more unsavory types who were caught up in the 1970s martial arts boom in the States. He is a proficient practitioner of Japanese martial arts, including karate, kenjutsu, and even ninjutsu, and follows Buddhism and its influence into the martial arts, but he is an arrogant and obnoxious {{Jerkass}} who only uses his craft to terrorize and throw his weight around, is a jingoistic racist asshole which trait is most prominently highlighted by constantly putting down the British right on their soil, and as Wanda tells, his interpretation of Buddhism is more Social Darwinism and antipathy than anything humanistic or altruistic.

* ANounReferredToAsX: ''A Fish Called Wanda''.

* DieLaughing: The film is unique in cinema in that it is actually so funny as to prove a RealLife example. In 1989 a Danish audiologist called Ole Bentzen died of laughter watching it. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_from_laughter The film made him laugh so hard that he ended up having an attack of tachycardia followed by cardiac arrest.]]

** John Cleese originally meant for Jamie Lee Curtis to have the nude scene, but she pointed out that Naked People are Funny, but Naked MsFanservice less so. So he did it instead.

''A Fish Called Wanda'' is a 1988 British comedy film starring Creator/KevinKline, Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Creator/JohnCleese, and Creator/MichaelPalin. The film is the final (and best known) film of legendary British comedy director Charles Crichton, and its screenplay was written by both him and Cleese. Cleese also served as co-director, since studio executives were worried about the advanced age of Crichton, who would retire after this film, his first since 1965.

->'''Otto''': You know your problem? You don't like winners.\\
'''Archie''': ''Winners?''\\
'''Otto''': Yeah. Winners.\\
'''Archie''': Winners like... ''North Vietnam?''

''A Fish Called Wanda'' is a 1988 British comedy film starring Creator/KevinKline, Creator/JamieLeeCurtis, Creator/JohnCleese and Creator/MichaelPalin. The film is the final (and best known) film of legendary British comedy director Charles Crichton, and its screenplay was written by both him and Cleese. Cleese also served as co-director, since studio executives were worried about the advance age of Crichton, who would retire after this film, his first since 1965.

* AffablyEvil: Wanda is so charming that it is easy to miss just how ruthless she ''really'' is, at least prior to genuinely falling for Archie. Ken also counts; a timid animal lover whom has no qualms about trying to bump off a little old lady, and laughs once he's finally done it.

** Otto [[spoiler: coming back from the wrong end of a steam roller]].

* ArrogantKungFuGuy JerkJock: Otto, who echoes of the more unsavory types who were caught up in the 1970s martial arts boom in the States. He is a proficient practitioner of Japanese martial arts, from karate, kenjutsu, and even ninjutsu, and follows Buddhism and its influence into the martial arts, but he is an arrogant and obnoxious {{Jerkass}} who only uses his craft to terrorize and throw his weight around, is a jingoistic racist asshole which trait is most prominently highlighted by constantly putting down the British right on their soil, and as Wanda tells, his interpretation of Buddhism is more Social Darwinism and antipathy than anything humanistic or altruistic.

* BlackComedyPetDeath: The animal-loving gangster Ken is ordered to [[HeKnowsTooMuch kill the only witness]] to a robbery, an [[EvilOldFolks horrible old lady]] with three small dogs. To his mounting horror, each of his three assassination attempts backfires and kills a dog instead -- though the third dog's death gives the woman a fatal heart attack.

** Archie and Otto exchange dueling examples

** Creator/StephenFry has a 30 second part towards the climax as a man at the airport Otto mugs for his ticket.

* ChronicBackstabbingDisorder: Wanda intends to betray everyone to get the jewels - but actually ''falls'' for Archie.

* ContrastMontage: Otto and Wanda engaging in over-the-top sex; meanwhile the Leaches are getting ready to sleep, in separate beds, in the most boring and unsexy way imaginable.
* CoolAndUnusualPunishment:

* CrazyJealousGuy: Otto over Wanda
* CulturalPosturing: Otto is supremely contemptuous of the British. Archie uses this as a distraction technique at the climax.

* FawltyTowersPlot: The movie (written by and starring [[Creator/JohnCleese Basil Fawlty,]] appropriately enough) is built upon hilariously convoluted lies.

** When Archie's wife Wendy is about to discover his infidelity with Wanda, Otto saves the day by emerging from behind a door and inventing a cockamamie story about being a CIA agent looking for Russians spies.
** Archie tryies to recover Wanda's locket by robbing his own house...

* FaceHeelTurn: Archie goes from respectable lawyer and husband to adulterous aider and abettor of criminals. [[spoiler:He finally absconds with the loot of the robbery in full complicity with Wanda]].

* FriendToAllLivingThings: Zigzagged with Ken. He deeply loves all animals (like his fish), weeps whenever a dog dies and cries and attends all of their respective funerals. All of these deaths occur whilst he's trying to kill their owner whom he has no problems with assassinating. [[spoiler: He cheers when he succeeds in offing her.]].

--> '''Judge''': Mr. Leach... ''Darling?''
--> '''Archie''': Yes dear?

* GilliganCut: "Alright, alright, I apologise."

* HollywoodSilencer:
** Otto's pistol has the classic "pyoot!" noise.
** Ken later fires a silenced Ruger Mini-14 (to shoot the wedge holding the rope suspending the giant stone block, which misses the old lady and smashes the final Yorkie), which makes an identical noise.
* {{Homage}}: To Crichton's own Ealing Studios caper comedies.

-->'''Otto''': Don't call me stupid!\\
'''Wanda''': Oh, right! To call you stupid would be an insult to stupid people!

** Archie's family [[EstablishingCharacterMoment is presented]] as callous, superficial and emotionally distant.

* MutilationInterrogation: The fish tank scene.

** John Cleese originally meant for Jamie Lee Curtis to have the nude scene, but she pointed out that Naked People are Funny, but Naked MsFanservice less so. So he did it instead

* NoOneCouldSurviveThat: Ken running Otto over by a steamroller. [[spoiler: Fortunately for Otto, it's ''deep'' cement and there's enough room for him to manage to not get flattened - but he's most likely in a great deal of pain.]]

* NoYou:
-->'''Archie:''' You're a true vulgarian, aren't you?
-->'''Otto:''' ''You're'' the vulgarian, [[IResembleThatRemark you fuck!]]
* OhCrap: Otto is greatly amused to see that Ken is bearing down on him in a steamroller ... until he discovers that he's become stuck in the cement right in the steamroller's path.

* SleepingSingle: Archie and his wife sleeping in separate beds is contrasted to the passionate love making of Wanda and Otto.

* SympatheticAdulterer: Archie. When he first returns triumphant from a case, his wife is presented as joy-sucking, cold, nagging and uncaring, so we are supposed to root for him. See Alternate Character Interpretation on the YMMV for details that make the whole situation more nuanced.

* TakeThat: The epilogue has one against apartheid South Africa, saying Otto immigrated there to become the Minister of Justice. This is all the more ironic as Kevin Kline played the South African dissident Donald Woods a year earlier in ''Film/CryFreedom''. Then again, that might have inspired the joke.

* VillainProtagonist: Three quarters of the main characters (Wanda, Otto and Ken) are thieves looking to keep their loot (and at least in the case of the first two planning to betray their leader over it.) , and Archie [[FaceHeelTurn breaks bad]] during the film.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Archie & Wanda (and Ken) get their happily ever afters, while Otto goes to work for the South African government... but they just left George sitting in jail. They didn't explicitly reveal what happened to him, but Archie told George that Wanda's statements in court meant that he was now certain to be jailed for a long time, and that only implicating Wanda, Ken and Otto in the robbery could reduce the sentence. Since Archie never brought them to account, we can assume that George got the original, very long sentence. On the other hand, since it was quite apparent that his barrister was having a "relationship" with the key witness, it's possible that a mistrial could've been declared. And with basically no evidence left against George (Wanda having left for South America, and the key witness [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident bumped off]]) he certainly would have got off.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: Parodied: [[spoiler: Archie & Wanda move to Rio, have 17 kids, and fund a leper colony; Ken becomes Master of Ceremonies at London Sea World; Otto emigrates to South Africa ([[UsefulNotes/TheApartheidEra in the late 80s]]) and becomes Minister of Justice.]]

-->'''Wanda''': But you think you're an intellectual, don't you, ape?
-->'''Otto''': Apes don't read philosophy.
-->'''Wanda''': Yes they do, Otto. They just don't understand it.
* WilliamTelling: In the bank heist in the beginning, as the four thieves are about to get away with their bank heist, Otto pulls an apple out of his sack and places it on a bystander's head. He readies his crossbow, scaring the bystander, but he's stopped by Wanda before he can pull the trigger.

* RantInducingSlight: Otto gets completely ticked off by the polite way in which Archie calls him crazy.
-->'''Archie:''' Are you totally deranged?
-->'''Otto:''' ''(utterly disgusted)'' You pompous, stuck-up, snot-nosed, English, giant-twerp, scumbag, fuck-face, dickhead asshole!