Chevy Chase made his screen debut in 1978 in the huge box office hit FOUL PLAY.
Chase plays Tony Carlson, a San Francisco detective drawn to beautiful blonde librarian Gloria Mundy, played in all her seventies glory by Goldie Hawn.
Gloria is in the wrong place at the wrong time and gets drawn into an elaborate plot to assassinate the Pope at a command performance of "The Mikado".
When Gloria complains that both a dwarf and an Albino are trying to kill her, she sounds crazy, but there IS quite a gallery of characters either chasing her or drawn into her attempts to escape.
Dudley Moore offers a hilarious turn as a randy single crossing Gloria's path more than once, Burgess Meredith is plenty of fun as Gloria's neighbor and even Billy Barty joins the party as the aforementioned dwarf.
Chase and Hawn are really charming together and while Chevy would grow more comfortable with the camera in later efforts, he was rarely this likeable, playing both the comic foil and a competent if clumsy lawman.
Hawn is at her best, just as adept with a quiet line delivery as she is at physical comedy throughout. Colin Higgins owned the 70's screen as a writer (Harold and Maude, Silver Streak) and followed his directorial debut here with "Nine to Five".
It's a lot of fun from beginning to end, with the last twenty minutes capping off the fun with one long chase/action sequence as Tony and Gloria try to get to the Opera in time to stop the assassination attempt. The Asian tourists in the back seat may no longer be PC, but they are still damn funny ("Kojak! Bang, Bang!).
Chase and Hawn are great together, turning this Foul Play into action filled fun that's still fresh over 35 years later. A seventies classic and an A.
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