A similar set-up of a film made after this one shows that even an apparent rip-off can be funny, although I can tell honestly that the 1987 Bette Midler/Shelley Long comedy was not ripping this off. It's a shame because I had high hopes for the first pairing of Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner, and they end up with a humorless thriller that wastes their talents. If I had wanted a spy thriller, I would have gotten a James Bond film, not Willy Wonka meets Emily Latella.
Wilder is in the wrong place at the wrong time, ending up accused of killing Kathleen Quinlan and on the run with Radner, going from New York to Boston to the grand canyon while being chased by Richard Widmark and his thugs for a convoluted old computer tape. It is a mess of a plot with familiar character players popping up in minute long cameos. It took a while for this to get off the ground, and I breathed a sigh of relief when Gilda showed up. Unfortunately, there aren't really any major laughs, and far too many plot twists, none of which are thick enough to fill up the holes. Gene and Gilda deserved a lot better than this, especially in a film directed by Sidney Poitier.
Wilder is in the wrong place at the wrong time, ending up accused of killing Kathleen Quinlan and on the run with Radner, going from New York to Boston to the grand canyon while being chased by Richard Widmark and his thugs for a convoluted old computer tape. It is a mess of a plot with familiar character players popping up in minute long cameos. It took a while for this to get off the ground, and I breathed a sigh of relief when Gilda showed up. Unfortunately, there aren't really any major laughs, and far too many plot twists, none of which are thick enough to fill up the holes. Gene and Gilda deserved a lot better than this, especially in a film directed by Sidney Poitier.