A Catholic archbishop returns home, walks into a room and puts on a record. He opens his cupboard and sees the reflection of a similar looking man staring back at him. He turns around quickly and is killed by a knife thrown into his chest.
While attending a party overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, recent San Francisco divorcée and shy librarian Gloria Mundy sees Lieutenant Tony Carlson, a young police officer, at the bar, who ruins the moment by stumbling and spilling all the drinks. Gloria sits with a friend and is encouraged to open herself to new experiences. Driving home, Gloria picks up an attractive man named Bob "Scotty" Scott when she encounters him next to his broken down car. She impulsively accepts Scotty's invitation to join him at the Nuart Theatre that evening, and before they part ways, he asks her to take his pack of cigarettes to help him curb his smoking. Unknown to her, Scotty has secreted a roll of undeveloped film in the cigarette pack. That evening, a seriously wounded Scotty meets Gloria in the theater and asks her about the film. He bleeds into her popcorn and warns her to "beware of the dwarf" before he dies. When his body mysteriously disappears while Gloria seeks help from the theater manager, she is unable to convince anyone of what has transpired. At home, she tells her elderly neighbor and landlord Mr. Hennessey of the events.
At the end of the next day, Gloria is attacked in her library by albino Whitey Jackson who tries to use ether on her. She runs off and hides in a singles bar where she asks a stranger, Stanley Tibbets, to take her home, but Stanley, an aspiring British womanizer who assumes she wants to have sex, mixes a cocktail laced with Spanish Fly and dances while removing nearly all his clothing to a Bee Gees album. Shocked by his misunderstanding, Gloria flees and returns to her apartment, where she is attacked by a man with a scar who demands the cigarette pack Scotty had given her. When he attempts to strangle her with a scarf, Gloria stabs him in the stomach with a pair of knitting needles and calls the police. When the attacker tries to stop her, he is killed by a knife thrown by Whitey through the kitchen window, and Gloria faints in shock. When she awakens, all traces of what has happened have disappeared, and she cannot convince Tony, his partner Inspector "Fergie" Ferguson, or even her landlord Mr. Hennessy that she was attacked.
Gloria is abducted by Turk Farnum, the chauffeur of a limousine in which she earlier had seen Whitey riding, but she manages to subdue him with mace and brass knuckles given to her by her friend and fellow library employee, Stella. Upon further investigation, Tony discovers that Scotty, an undercover SFPD inspector who had received a tip that a major assassination would take place in the city on a certain night, was investigating contract killer Rupert Stiltskin (alias "the Dwarf"). Now assigned to protect Gloria from her would-be killers, Tony later takes her to his houseboat, where the two fall in love.
When Tony and Fergie discover that the limousine is registered to the archdiocese of San Francisco, they visit the office of Archbishop Thorncrest, unaware that their interviewee is actually the archbishop's twin brother Charlie, who is involved in a plot to assassinate Pope Pius XIII during his upcoming visit to San Francisco, and has murdered his twin in order to impersonate him. The following day, Rupert kidnaps Fergie and uses him to lure Gloria into a trap. She manages to hide in a massage parlor, where she encounters Stanley yet again, but Whitey and Stiltskin then find and abduct her.
At Gloria's request, Stella has researched an organization known as the Tax the Churches League, and discovered that the league is a radical fringe group founded by Delia Darrow and her husband. For the Darrows, organized religion is a corrupt, greedy sham involving powerful billion-dollar corporations. Stella gives the results of her findings to Tony, who returns to the archbishop's residence with Mr. Hennessy. Sneaking into the wine cellar, Tony discovers the imprisoned Fergie, who informs him that the Darrow hired Stiltskin to assassinate the Pope during a performance of The Mikado at the San Francisco Opera House that evening. Tony is attacked by Rupert and kills him in self-defense by toppling shelves of wine upon him, but the fake archbishop's assistant Gerda Caswell, who is really Delia Darrow, holds him and Gloria at gunpoint.
Darrow then details her "contingency plan" to eliminate the pope: if the pope is not dead at the end of act I, if he leaves his seat at any time, or if the police arrive, Whitey Jackson will open fire from one of the auditorium's two organ bays. Mr. Hennessy knocks out Charlie and defeats Delia in a duel of martial arts, after which Tony and Gloria drive to the opera house, having some unusual problems along the way such as crashing into an Italian restaurant and commandeering an airport limousine carrying a pair of Japanese tourists. After making it backstage, Gloria is grabbed by Jackson, who kills one of several security guards who have joined the pursuit. An enraged Gloria attempts to attack Jackson, who simply shoves her to the floor. This gives Tony the room he needs to shoot the albino, thus thwarting the plan to kill the pope. When the albino falls from the rafters, he gets tangled in ropes and activates a lever that lowers a stage-length display of the ship H.M.S. Pinafore, which is unrelated to the current production. As the performance ends, Gloria and Tony are revealed onstage along with the now-dead bodies of Jackson and the guard, but the pope, who seems not to have noticed anything unusual, leads the audience in applause for the cast, the orchestra, and Stanley, who is hiding from Gloria as the conductor.
Foul Play is an homage to director Alfred Hitchcock,[5] several of whose films are referenced during the film. The premise of an innocent person becoming entangled in a web of intrigue is common in Hitchcock films, such as The 39 Steps, Saboteur, North by Northwest and, most notably, The Man Who Knew Too Much, which inspired the opera house sequence in Foul Play. When Gloria is attacked in her home by a man attempting to strangle her with a scarf and she defends herself with a household object, both are references to Dial M for Murder. Other Hitchcock films which receive a nod from screenwriter/director Colin Higgins include Notorious, Vertigo, and Psycho. In addition, the plot includes a MacGuffin—an object that initially is the central focus of the film but declines in importance until it is forgotten and unexplained by the end—in the form of the roll of film concealed in the pack of cigarettes which ends up being thrown in a fire in a fireplace. Hitchcock popularized the term MacGuffin and used the technique in many of his films.
"Audiences love to be scared and at the same time they love to laugh", said Higgins. "It is tongue in cheek realism. The audience is in on the joke but the actors must carry on as if they were unaware."[6]
The script originally was written under the name Killing Lydia with Goldie Hawn in mind for the lead. Higgins had met Hawn through their mutual friend Hal Ashby. However, the project did not take off. After Silver Streak came out, Higgins rewrote the script. He and the producers took the project to Paramount who hoped to star Farrah Fawcett. However, Fawcett was in the middle of a legal battle with the producers of Charlie's Angels so it was decided to go with Hawn.[6]
The name Gloria Mundy is a reference to "Sic transit gloria mundi", Latin for "Thus passes the glory of the world": the phrase was part of the rite of papal coronation until 1963.
Higgins had written the role of Stanley Tibbets for Tim Conway, but when the actor turned it down he offered it to Dudley Moore instead. It was Moore's American film debut and led to his being cast in 10 by Blake Edwards the following year.[5]
Higgins says when he sold the script he wanted to direct it so badly he did not care who was going to play the lead roles. He met with Fawcett to play the female lead before going with Goldie Hawn. His first choice for the male lead was Harrison Ford (who had been Higgins' carpenter) who turned it down. Steve Martin was offered the role but did not end up playing it. Higgins says he offered the part to another actor who wanted to play the cop and Stanley Tibbets. Eventually Chevy Chase was cast.[7]
A novelization, by James Cass Rogers, based upon the screenplay by Colin Higgins, was published by Jove Books in conjunction with the release of the film in 1978.[11]
Critical reception
Janet Maslin of The New York Times called the film "a slick, attractive, enjoyable movie with all the earmarks of a hit. But as House Calls did a few months ago, it starts out promising genuine wit and originality only to fall back on more familiar tactics after a half-hour or so. If either film had a less winning opening, perhaps it wouldn't leave a vague aftertaste of disappointment. Colin Higgins...has aimed for the same kind of thriller-comedy-romance hybrid he attempted in writing Silver Streak, and this time he's much more successful ...Still, Mr. Higgins isn't a facile enough juggler to keep the film's diverse elements from colliding at times."[12]
Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called it "an excellent film", adding "Writer Colin Higgins makes a good directorial bow. Goldie Hawn is superb in a strong return to pictures, and Chevy Chase, also above title, works well as a screen partner."[13]
Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and called it "an attractive minor comedy, the kind of film best described as 'cute.'"[14] On a 1986 Tonight Show appearance, Roger Ebert called the film "a very good picture."[15]
Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times remarked that "Foul Play does offer a kind of duplex pleasure—as a celebration of the movies the way they used to make them, sleek, funny, exciting but unworrying, and in its own terms as a vividly adventurous romantic comedy."[16]
Gary Arnold of The Washington Post wrote "Foul Play never begins to make sense as a mystery story, and it's not incidentally amusing or stylish. At best, the film can be accepted as a harmless assortment of fake-outs and distractions, alternating in tone from innocuous to vicious, from disarming to offensive."[17]
Time Out London stated "Unsatisfactory as a whole, the film is hilarious and tense in bits" and noted "while writer/director Higgins uses almost every stock thriller device...he approaches this semi-parody with more zest and originality than is common."[18]
Channel 4 called the film "a finely tuned and fast-paced offering which is chock-full of black comic twists and perfect casting."[19]
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 74% approval rating based on 27 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The consensus summarizes: "Entertaining and charming like its charismatic leads, Foul Play is a rollicking homage to the master of suspense for those who prefer mysteries with gags on top."[20]Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 45 out of 100, based on seven critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[21]
Goldie Jeanne Hawn is an American actress. She rose to fame on the NBC sketch comedy program Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1968–1970), before going on to receive the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance in Cactus Flower (1969).
Sausalito is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located 1.5 miles southeast of Marin City, 8 miles (13 km) south-southeast of San Rafael, and about 4 miles (6 km) north of San Francisco from the Golden Gate Bridge.
Private Benjamin is a 1980 American comedy film directed by Howard Zieff, written by Nancy Meyers, Charles Shyer, and Harvey Miller, and starring Goldie Hawn, Eileen Brennan, and Armand Assante.
Shampoo is a 1975 American comedy film directed by Hal Ashby, and starring Warren Beatty, Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn, Lee Grant, Jack Warden, Tony Bill, and Carrie Fisher in her film debut. Co-written by Beatty and Robert Towne, the film follows a promiscuous Los Angeles hairdresser on Election Day 1968, as he juggles his relationships with several women. The film is a satire focusing on the theme of sexual politics and late-1960s sexual and social mores.
The Nuart Theatre is an art-house movie-theater in Los Angeles, California, United States. It is the flagship location of the Landmark Theatres chain in the United States.
The First Wives Club is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Hugh Wilson, based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Olivia Goldsmith. The film stars Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton as three divorcées who seek retribution on their ex-husbands for having left them for younger women. The supporting cast comprises Stockard Channing as Cynthia; Dan Hedaya, Victor Garber, and Stephen Collins as the three leads' ex-husbands; and Sarah Jessica Parker, Elizabeth Berkley, and Marcia Gay Harden as their respective lovers. Supporting roles are played by Maggie Smith, Bronson Pinchot, Rob Reiner, Eileen Heckart, Philip Bosco, and Timothy Olyphant in his feature film debut; cameo appearances include Gloria Steinem, Ed Koch, Kathie Lee Gifford, and Ivana Trump.
Seems Like Old Times is a 1980 American comedy film starring Chevy Chase, Goldie Hawn, and Charles Grodin, directed by Jay Sandrich and written by Neil Simon. It was the only theatrical film directed by Sandrich, who was best known for his television sitcom directing work. It follows Nick Gardenia, a writer who is forced to rob a bank and becomes a fugitive, leaving him to seek help from his ex-wife Glenda Parks, a public defender. Her current husband, Ira Parks, is the Los Angeles County district attorney, who harbors a jealous disdain towards Nick.
There's a Girl in My Soup is a 1970 British romantic comedy film directed by Roy Boulting and starring Peter Sellers and Goldie Hawn. It was written by Terence Frisby based on the 1966 stage play of the same name by Terence Frisby.
Frances Evelyn Bay was a Canadian-American character actress and comedienne. In a career that spanned 35 years, she acted in a variety of roles both in film and television. Bay was inducted in Canada's Walk of Fame in 2008.
Colin Higgins was an Australian-American screenwriter, actor, director, and producer. He was best known for writing the screenplay for the 1971 film Harold and Maude, and for directing the films Foul Play (1978) and 9 to 5 (1980).
The Girl from Petrovka is a 1974 American comedy-drama film starring Goldie Hawn and Hal Holbrook, based on the novel by George Feifer. It is about an American journalist, Joe (Holbrook) who goes to the Soviet Union and meets Oktyabrina (Hawn), an undocumented ballet dancer, which attracts the attention of the authorities.
Protocol is a 1984 American comedy film starring Goldie Hawn and Chris Sarandon, written by Buck Henry, and directed by Herbert Ross. Hawn plays a Washington, D.C., cocktail waitress who prevents the assassination of a visiting Arab emir and winds up a national heroine.
Wildcats is a 1986 American sports comedy film directed by Michael Ritchie and starring Goldie Hawn, James Keach and Swoosie Kurtz. It is the film debut of Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson.
Bird on a Wire is a 1990 American action comedy film directed by John Badham and starring Mel Gibson and Goldie Hawn. Gibson portrays a man in the witness protection program who is unexpectedly reunited with his former girlfriend, played by Hawn, and both find themselves on the run. Critical reception was mixed, but the film was a box office hit.
William Frankfather was an American actor.
The Out-of-Towners is a 1999 American comedy film starring Steve Martin and Goldie Hawn. It is a remake of the 1970 film of the same name written by Neil Simon and starring Jack Lemmon and Sandy Dennis.
Deborah Iona Raffin was an American actress, model and audiobook publisher.
Queenie Smith was an American stage, television, and film actress.
Best Friends is a 1982 American romantic comedy film starring Burt Reynolds and Goldie Hawn. It is based on the true story of the relationship between its writers Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin. The film was directed by Norman Jewison.
Foul Play is an American drama series that aired from January 26 until August 23, 1981 on ABC. The series was based on the 1978 film of the same name, and retained many of the same characterizations, as well as the San Francisco setting of the film. The lead roles played by Goldie Hawn and Chevy Chase in the film were taken over by Deborah Raffin and Barry Bostwick, respectively, in the series. The series was produced by Thomas L. Miller, Robert L. Boyett and Hal Sitowitz, under Paramount Television.
References
↑ "AFI|Catalog". Catalog.afi.com. Retrieved 15 November 2021.
↑ Brooks, Tim and Marsh Earle, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network TV shows 1946 – present. New York: Ballantine Books 1988 (Fourth Edition). ISBN0-345-35610-1, p. 275
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