A Fish Called Wanda

Four criminals led by George Thomason (Thom Georgeson) rob a diamond collection in London, but the two Americans in the team, Otto (Kevin Kline) and Wanda (Jamie Lee Curtis), plan to double-cross George and his loyal helper, stuttering animal lover Ken (Michael Palin). They have pretended to be brother and sister, but are really lovers and as soon as the robbery is done they call the cops on George. Then they run into a snag. George has already moved the loot to another location and only he and Ken knows where it is.

Now they have to convince George that they didn't give him up and try to find out where the diamonds are before he goes to trial. At the same time Wanda tries to seduce his lawyer, Archie Leach (John Cleese), in case George tells him were they are to cut his sentence. Archie's captivated by the beautiful and adventurous woman, but is adamant that they can't discuss the case. Trigger-happy Otto soon gets both jealous and impatient which quickly leads to him doing stupid things which complicate the situation even more.

It's a tale of murder, lust, greed, revenge, and seafood...


A Fish Called Wanda is a great little comedy which mixes old-fashioned situational comedies with some elements of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers thrown in by writer John Cleese. It's light hearted and genuinely charming and brings on a great deal of laughs.

The story is set in London and starts out as relatively straight forward, but as it goes on and the characters starts double-crossing each other left and right it becomes hilarious. The character interactions are especially great as they all scramble to beat the others to the diamonds. It mostly involves Otto and Wanda trying to twist information out of Archie, in two very different ways, but one of the funniest things in my opinion is the the great subplot with Michael Palin's character Ken which runs in parallel. He has to try to find a clever way to "dispose" the old lady who's a witness against George, but keeps failing and every time he does his plans becomes so much more elaborate. It feels a bit outside the rest of the story, almost like a divided up Monty Python-ish sketch put into the movie, but it's just so much fun that it doesn't matter.

The rest of the film has lots of great moments too and it has such a heartwarming feeling all the way through that you can't help but like it. It's a great traditional comedy with a great script by Cleese. Director Charles Crichton, who directed some of the "Ealing" comedies that the movie takes inspiration from, also helped out a bit on the story and he did a great job directing this. Sadly it turned out to be his last movie.


The cast is the best part of the movie. Everyone does a fantastic job and creates some really interesting and really funny characters.

Jamie Lee Curtis is beautiful, sweet and innocent as Wanda, but behind the facade she's both conniving and dangerous and ends up seducing and/or double-crossing pretty much every other person in the film. The main one she goes after is of course John Cleese's Archie Leach. Cleese needs no introduction as he's probably the most well known British comedian in the world after his Monty Python and Fawlty Towers days. Here he yet again gives a great performance as the lawyer who leads a really boring life with a wife who just complains and a spoiled daughter. Then he meets Wanda and everything changes and he becomes a much different man. For him and Wanda to get away however he has to deal with her gun toting, philosophy spouting and not to forget very stupid (but don't call him that!) lover Otto. He's brilliantly played by Kevin Kline who's all over the place and just steals the show every scene he's in. The "torture scene" he has with the other former Python, Michael Palin, is one of the greatest in the entire film. Palin also does a great job in that and a fantastic one in the mentioned subplot.

All-round this is a very good comedy. Cleese and the others have created a really funny little film that everyone can enjoy. It's lighthearted fun and great characters makes it one of the absolute classics of British comedy.

9 / 10